Fred and I will be traveling to my 55 High School reunion
this summer. I have been digging out old pictures for the video that will be
shown then. And on top of that,
Fred and I recently attended the 50th Wedding
Anniversary celebration of two good friends, Otis and Greta. There were
pictures everywhere. As I looked at the
many memories, I thought how much we forget about our lives.
Such reminiscences
those pictures evoke! Where has the time gone?
I noticed
the dress attire both in the wedding photos and my high school pictures. I
couldn't help but observe that no one was overweight! I refer to my teachers, the guests at the
wedding…all the pictures of the common population in the photos. Everyone was a
normal weight. We know that these folks ate well. I asked myself "What has gone wrong in
this country with all these heavy people?"
Some of
these pictures caused me to ponder. I hope my descriptions bring up some
memories for you. You younger ones are going to get a good history lesson!
Women wore dresses,
and skirts and sweaters, most of the time. We owned hats for special occasions.
I wore hats to church and I remember when the "whimsy" came into
style. Gloves were a common "dress up" item as well.
"Panty hose" were non-existent in
the 50's and early 60's. But stockings were a normal part of our dress attire. We
secured the stockings with garter belts. The hose didn't come up totally on the
thigh, so the garter belts had to reach down the top of the leg to connect with
the top of the stocking. Was that uncomfortable? I don't remember. It's just
the way it was.
The guys
wore slacks, button down collar shirts, and narrow belts. But the fashion Fred
remembers the most is that the guys wore jeans rolled up; penny loafers with a
real penny in the slot, and shirts with the short sleeves rolled up. If you
were a real daring guy, you stuck a pack of cigarettes in the rolled up sleeve.
The "ducktail" was a popular hair style among some of the crowd.
We
shouldn't forget the "letter jacket" either. The guys wore them
proudly, and the girls wore the guy's class ring on her finger (with tape
wrapped around the ring so that it would fit) if she was going
"steady".
We girls wore saddle shoes and both guys and
gals wore white bucks. The "white bucks" were nappy, white, sporty
oxford-type shoes. We carried a little chalk pillow to tidy them up with they
got scuffed.
Angora sweaters were the rage for a time. We wore little
scarves around our necks. Does anyone remember the fuzzy colored balls on a
string that also were worn around the neck? The scarves were a longer lasting fashion. But
the little fuzzy balls on a string were definitely accents to our school
wardrobe.
Somewhere
in the early 50's, the see-through blouses became popular. I bet our teachers
went ballistic in the teacher's lounge. We had "slips" then that we
wore underneath, but still….
Clothes
were laundered in automatic washers by the time we were in college in the 60's,
but in the 50's, we washed clothes with ringer washers. Water was hosed into
the washer, and the machine rotated the clothes. Once washed, each item then
had to be lifted out with a spoon or stick (the water was hot), and run through
the ringer. I had heard stories of fingers and hands caught in the ringer so I
was very careful. The same water washed several loads, (whites first and
colored next) and once the clothes were removed, the washer was emptied,
refilled with rinse water, and the process of rinsing all those rung clothes
again began.
We hung
clothes to dry outside or in our basements during the winter. In my hometown in
the north, the clothes often froze on the outside line, and they remained there
until they eventually dried. Once in the house, the clothes were sprinkled with
a bottle of water with a stopper in the top. We rolled them up to get good and
damp, and then ironed them.
What a
tremendous luxury it was to own a modern washer and drier. Many went to the
Laundromat to wash clothes, and of course, still do.
It's
amazing how fashions and society has changed. But the kids still take as much
time and expense to dress cool. That's not changed. However, today no in that
crowd irons clothing. Oh I know some of you are saying right now, "Well, I
do!" me too. We are not those
"no ones." No one wears an item of clothing twice. Our modern
laundering tools waste water…And maybe, just maybe, we will return to some of those
habits from the past.
They say the pendulum swings.
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