Did most everyone dress nice back in the day? (1960s, date, torture)
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If you look at photos of crowds in old newspapers, the clue to the era is the fact that 90 percent of the adult men are wearing a HAT. Even kids as young as 12, wore a hat, of some sort.
That started to change with the popularity of JFK. Ever see a photo of him, wearing a hat, except while he was in the USN ? He changed male fashion, just as Clark Gable did, when he appeared in a movie, wearing a under shirt. Sales went through the roof.
Sure. On his way to his inauguration:
In reality, the ubiquity of the hat on the gentleman's head had been steadily in decline through the 1950s, and it wasn't due to the head attire (or lack thereof) of a Senator from Massachusetts.
In fact, at Kennedy's actual swearing-in in January 1961 most men were not wearing hats - it wasn't just JFK. Here, I can see only two men who are wearing hats and who are not obviously not in military uniform (where the hat is part of the uniform, not an optional accessory choice):
In fact, at Kennedy's actual swearing-in in January 1961 most men were not wearing hats - it wasn't just JFK. Here, I can see only two men who are wearing hats and who are not obviously not in military uniform (where the hat is part of the uniform, not an optional accessory choice):
OTOH, looking at another photo that day of the inauguration, we see that all the men are wearing their hats. I would suggest that the men have removed their hats in specific respect to the swearing-in ceremony itself.
OTOH, looking at another photo that day of the inauguration, we see that all the men are wearing their hats. I would suggest that the men have removed their hats in specific respect to the swearing-in ceremony itself.
Right, different events, So let's directly compare the identical events of Kennedy's post-swearing-in speech with that of Truman 12 years earlier.
Kennedy, 1961 - there are numerous hat-less heads:
My mom told me a story about my grandmother. My grandfather worked on the other side of the camera, as a set dresser, in the Hollywood of the thirties and on. He started at the beginning, with the silents. But my grandmother didn't know the stars when they first met.
There was a get together he was invited to given by a well known actress. She was very excited to go with him and wore her very very best dress. But they arrived early, before the actress got dressed. She was finishing up in the garden. She had on the same dress.
She was terribly embarressed, but they stayed for the party. To the other woman, it was a gardening dress. To grandma, it was her best. I feel for her since she was a very proud woman.
Actually, snopes says that his hatlessness was "much more likely the continuation of a trend that had long since begun," not that such a trend had actually begun. Snopes does not make the assertion you've made, and to prove it, you'd have to show numerous images of "hatlessness" from the latter 50s, not from the 60s.
I won't deny that the Boomer generation coming of age in the 60s declined to take on the earlier attributes of adulthood, such as wearing hats. I've already said that, in fact.
Here's what I do know: when I see people wearing jeans and t-shirts to Sunday church services, a part of me dies inside.
I remember wearing a dress on my first plane ride, and for almost all plane rides in the 70s. I also remember when that changed. It was the 80s, I was 13 or 14, and I remember picking out shorts (bermuda type) with a polo shirt and sandals for my flight back home to TX from Ft. Myers, FL. My grandmother was a little horrified. I had tan legs, I was skinny, and good lookin' after a summer in South Florida! I wanted to show that off!!
I know what you mean. I wouldn't allow my daughter to wear jeans to church even through high school -- and this was 5 years ago! She was annoyed, and I told her that when she graduated, she was welcome to wear whatever she liked. Funny -- on her weekends home from college, I noticed that she still never wore jeans. I asked her about it one day and she grinned and admitted that "they just didn't feel right" in church. I'm still trying to figure out how strapless dresses became the norm for wedding dresses -- it wasn't that long ago that having bare shoulders in church was just a few notches short of scandalous.
T-shirts used to be underwear!! Women never wore them. I'm not that strict, and goodness knows, I have a few t-shirts of my own, but a lot of people don't know the difference between "casual" and "sloppy".
My first plane ride was in 1969, to NYC when I was still in elementary school -- I wore a dress, nice coat and patent-leather shoes, because going on a plane was special. Now a plane is about as special as the Greyhound bus.
Back in the disco era, people dressed for the clubs. Some of the classier ones had dress codes anyways so people had little choice. For country and rock music places, it was a little more casual.
Back in the disco era, people dressed for the clubs. Some of the classier ones had dress codes anyways so people had little choice. For country and rock music places, it was a little more casual.
I dunno. I saw people pretty well dressed for some of the country clubs. A decent pair of boots and and a good cowboy had aren't cheap at all.
This thread has gotten me up and looking at photographs of my family "back in the day". I have a photo of my grandfather and I, (I was about 12), I was wearing a blue plaid "granny dress" (in style in the 70's) and he was wearing a suit, tie and hat (as usual) and holding his ever present pipe.
I found a couple of us kids in shorts (just above the knee) but all "play clothes" pictures were taken in the back yard. I can't find one where I'm not wearing a dress.
In school, I can vividly remember the principal stopping any random group of girls and pulling out his ruler (the group of girls would immediately drop to their knees) and measure the distance between the hem of the skirt and the floor. If any hemline was over 3" above the knee, the child was either sent home to change into something appropriate, or she could opt to let out the hem (which happened often, as kids grow rapidly) and the home ec teacher would help iron it and sew in a new hem. (Yep, in school, where they actually looked after you like you were theirs until they saw you safely home).
We always looked at dressing well (not expensively, just well fitting and clean and pressed) as being respectful to ourselves and to those we were to encounter. Just like good manners were first and foremost.
The only time clothing got really expensive to make was during the cotillion days. Thank goodness my grandmother was a seamstress who made wedding gowns!
To this day (and I work on a small farm), I wear skirts and a blouse....yes, even to bail hay.
(I hate seeing jeans in Church as well. It's disrespectful.)
Ya, they dressed nice way back when. The women went out shopping with curlers in their hair tied up with a bandana. Real fancy like.
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