EV Melotte - Clothes

Just so people don't think I passed away I better put something on "paper".

The golf Gods were not as kind to me last night. The were not displeased, just not as forgiving as I the last 4 weeks and I had to make some recovery shots . . .backwards which is never a good sign for a low score.

For instance, I had a great drive but the ball rolls into a trap and then since I'm feeling pretty cocky I accidentally top the ball which then rolls 20 yards to end up literally on the trunk of a tree and the ONLY shot is backwards to the fairway. Never a good sign.   I actually swore.

Then I try to hit a 160 yard 7 iron which is ridiculous for me but it goes 150 and 2 chip shots and a couple putts later . . . . . . sigh.

This morning I'm taking off to play The Legend at Bergamont so I only have a few minutes for this.

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So to fill up space.

EV Melotte - Clothes 

In the l930's girls didn't dress like boys. Designer jeans didn't exist and neither did $150 athletic shoes. In our part of the country the boys wore bib overalls and blue chambray shirts. Girls wore one piece cotton dresses with ties in the back to make them fit longer. Sweatshirts didn't exist, Tee shirts were considered lightweight undershirts. I never saw a pair of bluejeans until we moved to Iowa in 1940.

One of the disadvantages of being the youngest child and the only girl was that the clothes that are passed down to you are boy's clothes. I always wore passed down through-three-brothers bib overalls and chambray shirts at home and frequently wore them to school. In the early grades I never owned more than one dress at a time, and if it got dirty before Friday I went to school in overalls. This bothered me sometimes, but I was never ashamed of it. I remember feeling sorry for, and embarrassed for, any girl who came to school in a dirty dress.

In winter we all wore long underwear. The girls all wore long cotton stockings over it. The stockings were held up with a garter harness which hung from the shoulders with a loose crosspiece around the waist and garters that hung from that since both underwear and stockings were 100% ribbed cotton, (no Spandex in those days,) by the time I got up from Monday morning breakfast the knees of both long johns and stockings bulged out an inch beyond my knees. By Friday the underwear legs would be so stretched out I would have to wrap them around my legs twice just to pull the stockings over them.

In winter snowpants were essential. They were made of a rough wool that hung on to every flake of snow they met. Snow pants always had to be thoroughly swept off with a broom before a child could come into a building. All winter, every house, school and probably church had a broom standing at the door. Above the snow pants I usually wore a sheepskin coat, passed down through three brothers and smelling strongly of cow bam. Then there was a wool cap that covered my ears, a wool scarf wrapped to cover most of my face, rubber galoshes lined with cardboard and leather mittens over wool mittens.

Two and a quarter miles is a long way to walk to school when the temperature is below zero.

The snowpants were no trouble if I was wearing overalls. If it was a day for a dress I had a choice of wearing the skirt outside, and probably having to sit on a cold wet skirt all day, or tucking it into the snowpants and having it emerge looking like I pulled it out from the bottom of the ironing basket and only ironed the top half. Usually I stuffed it in. Comfort was more important than appearance.

My panties and slips, which were called petticoats and bloomers in those days, were  made by Ma out of flour sacks, and bless the woman, she was always careful how she cut them out. On dress-wearing days I never had to worry about having "Pillsbury's Best" printed across my bottom as some of the girls did.