Generally immaculate without an oil stain to be seen these are generally men of a certain age, and have been retired from their career in an executive non overall position overseeing the worldwide supply of widgets, vital in many industries. Almost certainly privately educated where they first witnessed overall wearing by the ground staff at their school who kept the lawns ( never called grass unless in the print on the sign saying ‘keep off’ ) immaculately with never the sign of a single weed. Mowing it with an Atco top of the range but ancient machine that chugged away with blue overalled operator, possibly chewing on a barely lit pipe, whilst he suffered double maths.

Now with their own cricket wicket standard of lawn, the man who wears comes out suitable attired to try and keep his lawn up to the retired standard. Stripes are essential and weeds are unheard of, but if one does appear it is dispatched by the very strongest weed killer. The patch looks like it’s been gone over with a steam iron, like his immaculate white shirt. He even wears the old school tie sometimes to ‘give it an outing’. The thought of ‘No Mow May’ is completely anathema to him. As far as politics is concerned he believes the ‘lunatic have taken over the asylum’ , a less than politically correct phrase that he voices if the subject arises. He might be right these days but he’s used the phrase for years so it is without any weight.

Here’s a man who regularly shops in nothing less than M and S or Waitrose, the latter being the one of choice as he believes that MandS has dropped its standards of late.

I first witnessed this phenomenon many years ago and one would have thought they might have withered away, but they exist locally. A rare breed in some ways.

There are times when I get an ‘Overall’ thought. Any visit to a DIY superstore where they sell this sort of thing can be slightly tempting until I shake myself by remembering that I have an endless supply of charity shop standard clothes to do the gardening in. To garden in a suit better than any in my wardrobe seems a little silly. I have thought that working boots seem just as good as those fancy walking boots at a third of the price and come with a steel toe caps, handy if you drop a big lump hammer on your foot. Something that ‘Man who wears overalls’ is never likely to do, but he wears them anyway.