Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 10/00) - It can be a delicate subject, underwear. But we all wear it.

In the North, where the cold can be vicious, long underwear, or long johns, are essential to maintaining heat in the lower halves of our bodies. Or, so I thought.

But it turns out that long underwear can be a complicated issue.

In Fort Smith, Beverly Mabbitt doesn't wear long underwear. She wears skipants.

"But my husband and two boys do," she says.

Asked if she thinks long underwear is a "guy thing," Mabbitt says yes.

Her husband John calls out that his dogs wear underwear too.

Bernie Minute, also of Fort Smith, proves that long underwear may not necessarily be a guy thing. He doesn't touch 'em.

"I work as a mechanic so I wear coveralls," he says. Then he adds another element to the underwear issue.

"I'm one of those fortunate people who tends to overheat."

Anyone else in the house wear them?

"No, neither my wife nor my dog."

Hay River's Donald Cardinal adds another stroke against the idea that long underwear is for men only.

"When I'm out working -- I'm a commercial fisherman -- I have a Ski-Doo suit. So just my jeans with my Ski-Doo suit is plenty," he says.

A call to the Co-op store in Wha Ti, where they don't sell this particular undergarment, begs the question: Where exactly can you buy long underwear in the North?

Co-op employee Patricia Rabesca, a woman who wears long underwear depending on the weather, directs me to Alex's Confectionary.

Eva Nitsiza can't stop laughing. And yes, at Alex's they sell long johns.

Does Nitsiza wear long johns?

"Yeah," she says.

"Women's ones, yeah."

Ah, there's the rub. There are men's long johns and women's long johns. But are there dog's long johns?

"No, no, no," answers a laughing Nitsiza.

In Tuktoyaktuk, the Northern sells long underwear, and quite a selection.

"We sell two brands. Northern and Stanfields," says Darrell Christie, who does not wear either brand.

"I live right beside the store here. I don't need to."

The Northern even carries the full-body underwear, besides the separates. With a selection like that, they must have dog underwear.

Christie's phone rang. I never got the chance to ask.