The Green Jacket
I started thinking about clothes after seeing Stairway to Heaven listed on Barbara's random shuffle. It seemed like every dance from grade 7 to 12 ended with that song. Anyhow one thing led to another, my mind can make the craziest leaps in thought pattern, I started thinking about clothes and weird fads.
My mom said at the start of the depression short skirts were in and then suddenly skirt lengths became longer. Since there was no money to actually buy a longer skirt they would make do with adding material to their short skirt. She said the wilder the better. Plaid would be added to a flowered skirt. Wool to cotton. It did not matter.
Another fad during my mother's time, although I suspect this one probably never stre.JPG)
tched beyond their own town limits, they would put clothespins onto the bottom of their skirts. Yes, you read that right, clothespins!
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One of my all time favorite pieces of clothing was my green jacket that I inherited from my brother. That's the green jacket on my older brother and my little brother and I are below playing with our chopsticks. There of course is me in the jacket with really crazy hair. I suspect it was wet. Either that or I didn't bother to comb it after swimming. All of kids were speed swimmers and I think much of my youth was spent wandering around with uncombed wet hair. The uncombed part drove my mom mad.
The colour ended up going all funny and when I started wearing the jacket it was miles too big and by the time I finished it was way too short. My mom would try and get rid of the jacket but I always managed to save it. I lived on a block with tons of kids and we would play neighbourhood tag, hide-n-seek and a cross between soccer and murder ball. There was always a handy truck parked out front of a house down the street that we would use to hold our jackets. One night owner of handy truck hopped in and drove off with all our jackets. Poor little green jacket was never seen again. I was crushed. My mother was thrilled. I can only hope it found a good home.
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tched beyond their own town limits, they would put clothespins onto the bottom of their skirts. Yes, you read that right, clothespins!.JPG)
One of my all time favorite pieces of clothing was my green jacket that I inherited from my brother. That's the green jacket on my older brother and my little brother and I are below playing with our chopsticks. There of course is me in the jacket with really crazy hair. I suspect it was wet. Either that or I didn't bother to comb it after swimming. All of kids were speed swimmers and I think much of my youth was spent wandering around with uncombed wet hair. The uncombed part drove my mom mad.The colour ended up going all funny and when I started wearing the jacket it was miles too big and by the time I finished it was way too short. My mom would try and get rid of the jacket but I always managed to save it. I lived on a block with tons of kids and we would play neighbourhood tag, hide-n-seek and a cross between soccer and murder ball. There was always a handy truck parked out front of a house down the street that we would use to hold our jackets. One night owner of handy truck hopped in and drove off with all our jackets. Poor little green jacket was never seen again. I was crushed. My mother was thrilled. I can only hope it found a good home.
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20 comments:
Awwwwwwwwwww! That man should have come back with all of your jackets!!!! I desperately want you to have that jacket back! hehe. I know what it's like to have favorite cloths for sure! What a great post. Fads are hilarious eh? I love the adding material to the skirts one. Have I ever shown you that site Retro Land? OMG it's a TREASURE TROVE!!! I will hunt down the link and email it to you k :)
The only favorite clothing item I can think of at the moment is the orange shirt with the puppy applique that I was wearing for my kinderg. photo. I loved that shirt so much!!! The puppy's ears were gingham :O)
Fads are great. My students seem to have much more creative ones than I remember. Maybe it's growing up in a small town but it seemed like we acted a lot more like sheep than my students do here. Well, sometimes they are a bit like sheep but there seem to be a lot of different herds!
I keep seeing that teenage girl uniform that Alana mentioned not long ago, and it's really FREAKINGMEOUT!
Pony tail, with headband, skinny jeans, tucked in to ugs, and a vest.
Gawwwwwd The 70s and 80s were just so much cooler I think ;) hehe
Ew, that is a rather freaky image. Ugs is definitely an odd fad but one that seems to have petered out here. What was really strange was when they were wearing ugs with shorts and mini skirts! Too funny.
I really loved that story. I love nostalgia.
And the clothespin thing was pretty funny...the things we do, eh? Safety pins, clothespins - I remember that for a brief period when I was a teen the cool thing was to "doodle" all over your jeans with permanent markers. Life graffiti'd pants!
The ugs with mini skirts sends a mixed message to me - are you freezing while you feed polar bears in the Arctic or parading around in California in July?.....time to choose. Geesh.
Deb, I'm laughing at your comment about ugs and mini skirts.
The safety pins reminds me we used to wear them in our pierced ears! Now just the idea of it makes me cringe. Ew. I can't believe I actually willingly stuck safety pins in my ears! They had to look ridiculous.
Ew, I remember putting safety pins in my ears too UCK!!!! *runs to get a tetnus shot*
Mel, I'm glad I'm not the only dork out there! lol
I have a child who still puts safety pins in her ears - some things never change.
I love those pictures you posted. I was looking and looking at the first one, thinking man those look like chopsticks!
*Life = like. Makes more sense that way.
And the pins in the ears...I remember that. Now some of the kids are using poster pins?!
That was such a good story. I let out a 'awww' at the disapperance of the jacket though. I'm forever attaching myself to clothing, getting better as I age though.
Loved the pictures too.
Have a good new years :)
Barbara, Eva is putting safety pins into her ears? Eww! That's pretty funny. Some things don't change but should! Oh well, I guess if our generation can survive the safety pin thing, Eva's generation will no doubt survive as well.
Barbara that picture was taken in Chinatown in San Francisco. I was in grade one and my most vivid memory was of seeing a man dressed up as a woman wearing makeup. I was absolutely mesmorized and was trying to show my mom. I was pointing at him while my mom was trying to drag me away and shush me at the same time. The more she tried to shush me the more insistent I became. My mom is very prim and proper and sometimes I think she wonders how she ever ended up with such loud, obnoxious, opinionated children. It was not so much that I thought a man in woman's clothing was wrong it was just so different.
Deb, poster pins?! That's even worse than the safety pins! No doubt one day they too will just cringe at the idea. Too funny.
Allison, I almost didn't post the picture of me in the dorky pigtails. I was such a disaster when I was a kid, completely oblivious of the any kind of impression I was making. It's kind of funny about clothes and how attached we can become to them. For myself it's not usually the fancy clothes but the everyday knock around clothes that I end up loving so much. Happy New Year to you too.
I love the story of the cross-dressing man! I can just picture your mother not wanting to have to explain things to you, while you are absolutely delighted with the sight and wanting to share the joy!
And you look strangely familiar to me in your green jacket photo. I can't imagine we've met, but you do look like someone I have met. Odd.
Barbara, you never know. I was with my sister once and she met a guy and they both looked at each other and said, "Do I know you?" So they get into this long discussion of all the places where they might have crossed paths. Nothing. I was sitting there thinking, "Oh for crying out loud, admit it, you guys have never met." Well, one of them mentioned the town Radville. Turns out they were in the same class for grade one and two!
I'm just home for a bit and then I'm off again. Man, all this socializing is starting to get to me! I think I need a pyjama day!
Have a fabulous New Years and enjoy those crab legs.
omg I found an ugly green jacket as a youth...we're about the same age right?...saskatchewan?....I used it for rags
kidding...thats really too bad when "comfort" clothes disappear like that
what are ugs?
Kelly, using my lovely greeen jacket for rags. How could you? Ugs, I'm trying to describe them but can't I'll post you a picture. They're fur boots. They're like moutons for feet. I'm off to find you a picture.
Thanks for this post Toccata. I am so sorry for you that your jacket was lost:( I hate it when stuff like that happens. When I read the part about the truck you put your jackets on that was my thought "that's how it happens" then when the guy actually drove away I said "NOooo!"
Happy New Year Slaygirl! As an adult I can't believe we would just throw our jackets into an unknown truck but as a kid it made perfect sense.
The comments are as good as your blog. ha.
Nice story and pictures to go with it.
I had a surplus Army jacket I wore all thru the college years and through all seasons. I can see myself at the side of a road thumb in the air with the jacket on hitching a ride.(Hitchhiking was safer once) It went with anything and was sooo cool. It gave me a nonconformist look. I must have worn it out. Wish I had a better ending as to where it went. I honestly don't remember anymore.
Busterp, I like that you liked the jacket because it gave you a nonconformist look. That just sounds so much like a college idea. Hey, I took my first degree in the states. I don't know if you know that. I had a great time down there.
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