|
|
Houston County, GA | I asked my dad why people are always dressed up in old pics from the 40's to 60's. I know these are from field days and trade shows, but he said some people stayed so poor during depression or dirty all day working they were glad to dress up with ties and what not. Here's some neat older pictures
Edited by Canderson012 5/18/2015 21:17
 (whitney-estates.gif)
 (cotton-13.gif)
 (cotton-8.gif)
 (cotton-10.gif)
Attachments
----------------
 whitney-estates.gif (43KB - 775 downloads)
cotton-13.gif (14KB - 741 downloads)
cotton-8.gif (60KB - 736 downloads)
cotton-10.gif (23KB - 743 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
King City, Mo | Cool pics |
|
| |
|
| A rather large part of society today looks like slobs 24/7.
|
|
| |
|
Mosinee Wi | because they had pride in themselves |
|
| |
|
Central SD | Also I bet leaving the farm was quite a treat. We do it everyday now so it's no big deal.
Edit. Actually I'm pretty excited when I go the whole day without having to make a trip to town.
Edited by Poverty acres 5/18/2015 21:24
|
|
| |
|
Houston County, GA | Very true |
|
| |
|
SE SD | Kooiker - 5/18/2015 20:19 A rather large part of society today looks like slobs 24/7.
If wearing a tie puts me into the select group , I would rather be a "slob" :) |
|
| |
|
| povertypoint - 5/18/2015 21:29 LOL-- so what part are you ?
Most of the time, slob, 24/6
I try to clean up and look decent when I go somewhere public.
Decent doesn't have to mean suit and tie but it probably means that you at least own a pair of dress pants and a dress shirt so you don't show up at a funeral or wedding wearing jeans and a t shirt.
For the record I hate wearing a tie, the suit I'm fine with but I hate the tie.
|
|
| |
|
Highland Center, in Southeast Iowa | Sometimes, they may not be particularly "dressed up".... My dad always wore starched, pressed service pants, somewhat like you see today in equipment dealerships or such.
Our son and I had a discussion along this line recently....I'm of an age where girls were not allowed to wear any sort of pants or slacks to school. No jeans, no khakis, nothing of that sort. No ladies ever wore slacks or pants in public....only to the garden or something like that kind of work.
It was a different world. |
|
| |
|
Extreme SW Minnesota Iowa border | I think the reason they dressed up, was they every day clothes they had were just to terrible. I had older neighbors growing up, that would wear the darndest old rags around the farm, but when they went to town, they put on better clothes. I remember seeing patches on patches. Now, you hardly see anyone with patches. |
|
| |
|
Southeast Wyoming | I suspect that a photo opportunity/day was a very special occasion, a historical event. As such they wanted to look their very best.
I once asked some relation why he always wore more dressy pants than blue jeans. He asked if I compared prices, he could not afford blue jeans.
HERE blue jeans are common in church, at funerals and etc. "Being there" should be more important than getting all gussied up in ribbons and bows attempting to hide the real you. Some people would never recognize me in a suit, though I wear one once in a while. I wouldn't want the grieving to feel that someone had signed the registry to make it look like I had been there. :-)
Beside, "business men" do not dress up better than in their "work clothes" for special occasions. I do.
Great pictures. And yes I have noticed the same thing about old pictures, those generations. They worked hard but apparently made the time to present themselves well. We are too busy to care. |
|
| |
|
Wallis, TX | +1, and,,,,,, those ragged clothes may have been worn more than one day between washings. I had a neighbor who would wear blue chambray work shirts, but if he had to go to town, he would stop by the house and change into 'dress' shirt if at all possible. |
|
| |
|
South-East South Dakota | Yep, never touching the oil road is a good day.
I don't own a tie. Or a suit. Don't really care either. And I don't always get a haircut when I should or shave when I should. I wear cloths that are comfortable and wear them till they are shot. I don't really care what people think. |
|
| |
|
Southern Ontario | I remember my grandma (born 1906) telling me she always made sure she had a fresh ironed and starched long sleeved shirt ready at all times, in case my grandfather had to make an unplanned trip to town to pick up unexpected parts or supplies. He had even more formal clothes to wear to town for planned trips for supplies. My grandfather whom I am sure could work me under the table, seemed to feel it was very important to not be in work clothes when he appeared in public. My grandmother made it clear that was the general opinion of most of the farmers in our area at that time. I asked her why it had to be a long sleeved shirt and I somehow got the impression that farmers were a bit embarrassed by having tanned skin from working outdoors.
Myself, I seem to a have a warmer temperature setting than most and wearing a suit and tie, even in the winter, usually causes me to boil over. I also get hot farming in heavy work clothes and prefer patched jeans because I feel the worn, thus thinner, denim allows cooler air to penetrate and warmer air to escape from my skin. But since I am often wearing patched clothes to farm in , I try to have a decent pair of jeans handy (always behind the seat in truck) to switch into in case I have to get supplies in town. Perhaps someday if I have a grandson , he will find that odd.
Edited by mca 5/19/2015 08:39
|
|
| |
|
Cleveland, MS. Own small farm near Booneville, MS | IMO it was because even though they were, in many cases, very poor, especially during the Depression, they had a certain amount of pride in themselves and respect for both themselves and others. In other words, they cared. So many people today just don't care. They don't care how they look nor what other people think about them. Many have no respect for themselves, others, or anything else.
When I was growing up I would sometimes start to leave the house in something less than what my mother considered "appropriate attire." She would demand that I dress more appropriately and would sometimes add, "Don't be doing that (whatever "that" may have been). People will talk about you." Both my parents cared deeply about their reputation in the community and so they acted in such a way as to build a good reputation. This included maintaining a good appearance, paying their bills, and keeping their word. Their reputation was such that I could go into almost any store in town and purchase anything from a suit of clothes to tools and parts on just their verbal word that they would pay for it.
In those days most people cared about how they looked, how they acted, and what others thought of them (their reputation). Nowadays, many just don't care. I knew one fellow of that generation who occasionally hired out to my father to hoe cotton. He came to work every morning in a clean shirt and bib overalls. He went home in the evening sweaty but clean. I also knew people of that generation who often wore their bib overalls to church. They may even have been patched, but they were clean, starched, and ironed, as was their shirt (sometimes even with a tie). |
|
| |
|
E.Central MN | Wow, not one flip flop wearer in the bunch. Looks great. |
|
| |
|
S.E. Sask. | I've heard it said that work overalls and jeans were not washed, just worn til they wore out. In this photo from the 1930s it appears my great Uncle Alf is wearing his "Sunday go to meeting " overalls as they look pretty clean. |
|
| |
|
S.E. Sask. | I've heard it said that work overalls and jeans were not washed, just worn til they wore out. In this photo from the 1930s it appears my great Uncle Alf is wearing his "Sunday go to meeting " overalls as they look pretty clean.
 (Alf and Jack Goff in 1930s.jpg)
Attachments
----------------
Alf and Jack Goff in 1930s.jpg (185KB - 612 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
SC MN | My dad said his uncle only wore new unwashed bibs to church. Once they were washed they were for work only. |
|
| |
|
| oh you mean those pajama clothes they wear today in public???? Disgusting |
|
| |
|
| We are too lazy to care. |
|
| |
|
West Central Indiana | My Granddad (89) was never allowed (by my Grandmother) to go to town in dirty or ragged clothes. He still wears a coat and tie to Church and NEVER wears short sleeves. I wear bibs and a button up shirt just about everywhere. Usually don't wear them to Church but most everywhere else. For evening meetings such as Farm Bureau, Fair Board, etc. I pick out a fairly new clean pair and then wear them for work the next day. I'm not ashamed to go to town in dirty or well worn clothes to me it is a sign of hard work. I have changed out of a really ragged pair on occasion. I wear bibs for 2 reasons, number one I like them they are comfortable and functional, and two they are a reminder of the days shown in those pics when neighbors were still neighborly. The pair in this pic is getting well worn but not wore out because there is not a hole above the right knee.
 (Old and new tractors 002.JPG)
Attachments
----------------
Old and new tractors 002.JPG (144KB - 158 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
central Iowa | Our family has a story, that as kids,my Dad gave his next younger brother a whooping' for wearing dirty overalls to school.
Dad was one to never go to town dirty,either. |
|
| |
|
deep SW On. | Kooiker - 5/18/2015 22:38
povertypoint - 5/18/2015 21:29 LOL-- so what part are you ? Most of the time, slob, 24/6 I try to clean up and look decent when I go somewhere public. Decent doesn't have to mean suit and tie but it probably means that you at least own a pair of dress pants and a dress shirt so you don't show up at a funeral or wedding wearing jeans and a t shirt.
For the record I hate wearing a tie, the suit I'm fine with but I hate the tie.
I think that covers lots of us farmers , being livestock guy I try and watch which "dirt" is on my jeans if I go someplace public.....and at the Mall you see those young girls wearing hardly anything in summer,they must keep forgetting that malls are air conditioned |
|
| |
|
| i grew up in the 6o's graduated in 1972. remember in high school boys were sent home to get a belt if found not wearing one. girls wore dresses except Fridays where they could were slacks. this was a public school. |
|
| |
|
Bremen, KS | On a similar note, my dad has said that when he was in the army in the early '50s that they did not leave the base wearing their field uniforms; they always wore their dress uniforms. Contrast that with today's military where the field uniform seems to be the only one worn off base. There has been a general loosening of societal standards for at least the past 50 years to the point that everything is flopping around.
|
|
| |
|
SW Michigan | My dad was (is) a farmer and owned a business in town and was always involved in community projects (school board, realestate developement) and said to me at a young age part of the reason farmers don't get much respect or taken seriously as businessmen is because a "farmer looks like a farmer"!
Edited by SpartyMike 5/19/2015 06:51
|
|
| |
|
Highland Center, in Southeast Iowa | Re: the long sleeved shirts. "Here" and throughout most of the midwest area, farmers in that older "grandpa" generation always wore long sleeved shirts.....always. Skin stays cooler if you keep the direct rays of the sun from hitting it and the old timers knew that fact and lived by it. My granddad lived to be 94 and in all the years I knew him, I never saw his sleeves rolled up beyond the 3/4 or so point so he could wash up for dinner and supper and he never owned a short-sleeved shirt. |
|
| |
|
North of London | Exactly and those 'rags' they wore around home were the 'good' clothes that had worn thin.
Those who came through the 30ies did not throw anything away.
When the 'rags' they wore around home had to be retired then parts of them made patches for the next set of 'rags' and the rest was kept to make braised rugs for the floor.
Some really nice parts would be used to make a pieced quilt.
That is why they did not need weekly garbage pickup. |
|
| |
|
North of London | Yes a different world.
Girls did start wearing jeans under their skirt or dress when walking to school or to the bus for high school but they came off as soon as they got to the school.
It gets cold in the winter. |
|
| |
|
North of London | Your picture reminded me that they all wore 'suspenders' no belts.
I had suspenders or strapped pants when I first started school.
Elastic waist bands must have been a later invention. |
|
| |
|
New London, Wisconsin | I stopped into my local dealer last year for parts last year wearing a suit and tie. I was roundly criticized by another farmer I did not know for the way I was dressed and was told that he wasn't impressed by what I was wearing. He went on and on for another five minutes. I just let him talk.
Once he ran out of steam, I politely told him the reason for the suit was the level of respect I had just been showing to the family of a friend they were burying, and that receiving his respect wasn't any concern of mine.
On occasion I have also been the oil soaked guy needing a new hydraulic hose. So I don't judge.
Jim
Edited by 150pilot 5/19/2015 08:21
|
|
| |
|
E. Kansas | Neat pics, thanks for sharing.
People took pride in their appearance when they went to town or a gathering. Almost everyone in the pics are wearing a dress hat or good hat, not their work hat. They always wore a hat of some type whenever they went outside. Not many guys today wear a hat when they dress up or wear good clothes. Actually not many hats of any type worn anymore, mostly caps. From what I've heard, hats went out of style in the early 60's because President Kennedy did not wear a hat.
|
|
| |
|
S.C. Wisconsin | Thanks for the pictures. I often wondered about that myself. Probably was just the times. But it seemed in those days farmers would wear old dress clothes when doing farm work. My self I could care less about what somebody is wearing at a farm supply store. A filthy person in a eating place might be irritating though. |
|
| |
|
Just A Bit West Of The Holy Land. | The same thing is seen in the old clips of baseball games, they wore a suit and tie to the games. The women did all the laundry, if a man was seen in town or at an event in dirty ragged clothes it actually reflected bad on her, not him as it was her job to keep the clothes clean, the men knew this and did not want other women and men seeing him in dirty ragged clothes, and then having his wife a topic of gossip that she does not do a good job of laundry and mending. |
|
| |
|
| I loved looking at the old pictures, especially like the style of the hats they wore back then. Interesting topic, to which I do not have an answer, but a lot of the replies above make sense. For the most part, I'm usually on the dressier side of things, absolutely am when going to do business in town, except maybe to parts store after I've just blown a hydraulic hose. My off farm job, I wear dress slacks, sport coat,sans the tie most days. Might consider getting a hat like those in the picture. I think they are very stylish.
|
|
| |
|
Schlegel Farms, Hagerstown Indiana | Great pictures. |
|
| |
|
| When I was on active duty '67 to '69 uniform rules were individual to the post. At Ft. Belvoir fatigues (field and work uniform) were not to be worn off post unless the soldier lived off past, then they could be worn home minimizing stops for fuel. Otherwise khakis or dress uniforms were required off post. Khakis were only summer uniforms, not winter. Belvoir was apparently one of the few posts that allowed khaki shorts and knee socks as uniform. I wore those summers especially while bicycling to the office. Civilian shorts were not allowed in the PX, and I was accosted by more than one visiting officer from other posts where khaki shorts were not allowed. I always invited them to come to my first sergeant's office where a current copy of the post uniform regulations was available and none took me up on that visit. I still have all those uniforms, but I have not worn them and don't plan to ever.
Gerald J. |
|
| |
|
NW Illinois Stephenson county | My wife was shocked the first time we went to Hennessey Implement open house after we got married. She thought using 55 gallon drums of oil for tables was bad; that was until some of the farmers came into the store looking like their clothes had not been washed for a longgg time. One looked like they took a nap that morning in the manure gutter, another one we could not tell if it was a man or a woman. Of course a farm sale near Browntown wasn't much better. |
|
| |
|
North of London | Thinking about this picture today so had to come back and yes I was correct very little grass cut around it.
I do remember when there was a small patch of grass mowed behind the house, a narrow strip either side and the front lawn that was enclosed by cedar hedge and it was done with a push mower with no motor.
Other than that they might have knocked the long grass down each side of the lane with the hay mower and the patch of 'grass' that grew between the house and barn too.
Now a days most people cut half the county with $12k riding mowers |
|
| |
|
| Sorry Cyndy, but after all the time I've heard people say how great long sleeves are in the summer I still can't stand them, and I don't buy the argument. I've got my share of time square baling, sweeping bins, pouring concrete, and other fun things in the heat. Give me shorts and sandals whenever possible if the thermometer is above 90 degrees. |
|
| |
|
Houston County, GA | +1 summer time is shorts and nikes for me. Unless we are walking in briars or something. |
|
| |
|
Highland Center, in Southeast Iowa | Clay SEIA - 5/19/2015 20:35Sorry Cyndy, but after all the time I've heard people say how great long sleeves are in the summer I still can't stand them, and I don't buy the argument. I've got my share of time square baling, sweeping bins, pouring concrete, and other fun things in the heat. Give me shorts and sandals whenever possible if the thermometer is above 90 degrees.
Can't argue the notion, Clay. I can't do the long-sleeved thing either. But Grandpa not only alwaysalwaysalways wore long sleeves, he wore cotton "union suit" underwear all his life. Short-sleeve, short legs in summer, long sleeves, long legs in winter. Button all the way up the front and drop seat in back. In his later years, my mom had a heckuva time finding them for him, but he wasn't about to do anything different at that point in time. ;~) |
|
| |
|
Cleveland, MS. Own small farm near Booneville, MS | Take a look at what the Bedouin who live in the Sahara wear. I know it's hotter there than anyplace in North America with the possible exception of Death Valley. |
|
| |
|
Southeast Wyoming | Clay SEIA - 5/19/2015 19:35 Sorry Cyndy, but after all the time I've heard people say how great long sleeves are in the summer I still can't stand them, and I don't buy the argument. I've got my share of time square baling, sweeping bins, pouring concrete, and other fun things in the heat. Give me shorts and sandals whenever possible if the thermometer is above 90 degrees.
Sounds like dressing for a walk in the park, which farming today is when compared to back then.
I know a guy who dresses like that, he will not walk 20 ft through tall grass, "the help" has to do the dirty work, well, the work.
I wear long sleeves year round for work. Bucking bales with shorts would not last long, I wear hay chaps over blue jeans to save the jeans. Insects, thistles, stems, snakes and etc take their toll on exposed skin, along with skin cancer issues. I don't mind my clothes getting filthy, my hands and my face also but I just do not like to bath in dirt. And I find loose fitting jeans and a long sleeved shirt to be cooler and protective.
Now it I'm going on a picnic I may put on the sun screen and a short sleeved shirt. There are usually enough people at picnics to keep the insects relatively busy elsewhere. : ) |
|
| |
|
| Gary Lyon - 5/19/2015 22:17 Clay SEIA - 5/19/2015 19:35 Sorry Cyndy, but after all the time I've heard people say how great long sleeves are in the summer I still can't stand them, and I don't buy the argument. I've got my share of time square baling, sweeping bins, pouring concrete, and other fun things in the heat. Give me shorts and sandals whenever possible if the thermometer is above 90 degrees. Sounds like dressing for a walk in the park, which farming today is when compared to back then. I know a guy who dresses like that, he will not walk 20 ft through tall grass, "the help" has to do the dirty work, well, the work. I wear long sleeves year round for work. Bucking bales with shorts would not last long, I wear hay chaps over blue jeans to save the jeans. Insects, thistles, stems, snakes and etc take their toll on exposed skin, along with skin cancer issues. I don't mind my clothes getting filthy, my hands and my face also but I just do not like to bath in dirt. And I find loose fitting jeans and a long sleeved shirt to be cooler and protective. Now it I'm going on a picnic I may put on the sun screen and a short sleeved shirt. There are usually enough people at picnics to keep the insects relatively busy elsewhere. : )
Gary, I said "whenever possible." I said nothing about baling hay or any other miserable work in shorts and sandals. I said that was my preferred summertime dress when it's really warm. If I've got to handle a thousand bales of hay, I will be dressed in work boots, gloves, and pants appropriate for the job. |
|
| |
|
| clevepreach - 5/19/2015 21:59 Take a look at what the Bedouin who live in the Sahara wear. I know it's hotter there than anyplace in North America with the possible exception of Death Valley.
Point taken. But how many times do they have 90+ degree heat with 60% relative humidity? I could be wrong, but how many people in Jamaica, Colombia, Hawaii, Guam, do you see wearing overalls and long sleeves and long underwear all summer?
Edited by Clay SEIA 5/20/2015 00:33
|
|
| |
|
North End I-15 | Mine was 14K ;>) |
|
| |
Why Did Farmers Always Dress Up (Old Farm Pics)
