Stockings, Snuggies, and Rags ...Oh My!

First, I'd like to apologize for the "dry spell" in writing. I was "baby sitting" Peter for a a few days, and when I returned my computer went on the blink and wouldn't let me on to my own blog. It's still not working so I 'm having to e-mail my writings to Carrie and have her publish them on the blog. Thanks Carrie!

If you can't guess what the subject of this new writing is going to be, I'll give you a few more minutes to try and figure it out-----------------Time's up. It's all about dressing and grooming during my grade school years. You have to remember that there were three girls in our family with a mother who had to keep things simple and inexpensive and who was a little paranoid about our catching a cold, or worse yet, pneumonia. Let's start with our clothes. Pants were not acceptable for girls to wear to school, so it was dresses for us...mostly home made dresses. Cotton was pretty inexpensive back then, patterns were about $.15 (I remember that they were about $.25 when I first started sewing for my girls) and Mother was able to sit and sew. Most of the the time we only had two or three "school" dresses a piece, and one for Sunday (Grandma Bernards used to buy us these). And since we only did laundry once a week, each dress had to be worn more than once. But even that few amount meant that Mother would have to iron at least nine dresses each week. (I remember ironing 21 dresses a week for my first three girls when they were little). Then there were the slips and under shirts that went under them and those awful LONG STOCKINGS and SNUGGIES. Long stockings where just what you might think. They were long...up to our thighs, made of some thick shiny fabric, probably rayon, and ugly brown in color. You couldn't miss seeing them if you tried. And the worst part of all was wearing those ugly suspenders under your dress to hold them up. These consisted of elastic straps that went over the shoulder, connected to an elastic band that went around the waist, from which hung four more elastic straps with fasteners on the end. These connected to the stocking, one in front and one in back, to hold them up. I have one horrible memory connected to these stockings that I will tell at a later time. Suffice it now to say that they were not only awful, but that we were the only ones in the whole school that I ever saw wear them. And the snuggies? They were the under the thick cotton underpants that came down to mid thigh where they would meet up with the long stockings. Thank goodness they weren't visible to the naked eye, but we knew they were there. And thank goodness they and the stockings were only required on cold days and all winter.

Since my parents believed that the proper development of feet was dependent on good shoes during childhood, we always had "good" which defined meant "ugly" and "expensive" They were always purchased at Paris Department Store in downtown Salt Lake, I think because that was the only store in which we had credit. Even though I hated the shoes we always bought, it was fun trying them on and looking through the fluoroscope to see it they fit right. This was an x-ray machine you tucked your foot into so you could see all your foot bones inside the shoe. Pretty cool. This awesome machine was right there in the shoe department but disappeared years later when it was discovered that excessive x-rays could do damage.

To keep it easy for Mom, our hair styles were kept very simple. My sister's hair was braided during the week, and I had a Dutch cut which only required a quick comb through. My hair was thin and slow to grow so that seemed the best style for me. In case you are not familiar with what a Dutch cut is, it is just squared off bangs and squared off sides, just below the ear...not too attractive. But for Sunday our hair was curled, either in rags on Saturday night or with a curling iron on Sunday morning. Yes, we had curling irons back then, but time did not always permit Mom curling three heads of hair on Sunday morning, so it was usually rags on Saturday night. I'm sure by now you're wondering by now how rags were used to curl hair. First of all, let me explain that the only curlers available were big metal ones that would be uncomfortable, if not impossible to sleep on, so Mom would tear up an old sheet or pillow case into strips about four inches long and two inches wide. The end of a section of hair was placed in the center of the "rag", the rag folded over and rolled up to the scalp...much like end papers when getting a perm. The ends of the rag was then tied in a single knot over the piece of hair. This was repeated until all the hair was rolled. I want you to imagine what the hair might look like the next day when those home-made curlers were removed. Right! Major FRIZZ! But with a lot of brushing, the curls would relax some and even last another day.

I know that in America today it is customary for well-groomed citizens to bathe every day. Not so back then...even for dirty little kids. Don't get me wrong. My mom insisted that her children look neat and clean. But that was accomplished by washing arms up to the shoulders, legs from feet to above the knees and faces including the neck and behind the ears with soap and water every night before going to bed. But this was all done in a basin full of water. Bath nights were Wednesday and Saturday when hair was also washed. Of course if we fell in the muddy ditch or somehow got extra dirty playing, an additional bath during the week was required and encouraged.

All in all, we children were kept clean and neat. My dad is Dutch, you know, and they have a reputation to maintain. We could never claim setting a fashion trend, and sometimes other children at school made fun of us...mostly those long stockings! But then that builds character, or so they say.