It suddenly dawned on me the other day, while falling down a rabbit hole on historical costume research (one of my childhood passions; I do own an original 1863 Goodey’s Ladies Book), that if you live long enough, ahem! cough-cough, your own life becomes a witness to history sort of experience. I was born and raised in Dallas, Tx and was alive for the JFK assassination. I remember it from a 3 year old’s perspective : my mother watching it play out in real time on a tiny B&W tv, crying uncontrollably, while ironing. A stay at home mom, she was perpetually ironing in those days, mostly my dad’s shirts but also dresses, petticoats, sheets, curtains, table cloths - wash and wear hadn’t been invented yet. See what I mean about one’s life being a footnote to history, in the mundane details? Who even knows what most of these items are any more? Much less wears them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPUCXnjtIlE
My 3 year old birthday party, held at home (There were no Chuckie Cheeses, theme parks, bounce houses etc in Dallas in the 1960’s….Roller skating rinks, maybe.)….I am front and center in the red stripes, known as a “candy cane” or “peppermint” dress……no one is playing wild, making messes, getting dirty sweaty or having fun at this party. Very sedate, although there might have been a dizzying game of “pin the tail on the donkey”. No one really wants their picture taken, either.
School dress - note plaid w white collar and cuffs 1964-5
These were all cotton, and heavily ironed and starched. If the skirt is flared, it means ruffled starched petticoats, a type of slip, underneath.
Growing up in the 1960’s in America, in the South, little girls did not wear pants, shorts, leggings, or otherwise. We wore dresses. All kinds of dresses, for every occaision : school dresses (cotton or wool), often plaid or dark colors. Church dress were fancier, better fabric, more details often ruffles, lace, etc.
Church dresses - This is clearly a “Jackie O” outfit for a 4 year old. 1964-5. Easter dresses always required straw hats and patent leather shoes and handbags. We got a new set each year for Christmas, and one for Easter. Woe be it if you had a growth spurt and outgrew your dress before next time to buy one.
Ladies and little girls always wore a slip under their dresses, to prevent any “see through” or push through nipple effect. Growing up, I had all purpose every day slips, as well as special formal ones for certain dresses.
Assorted plaid dresses, cute short hair. I call this one, the “Natalie Woods” look 1965 ish
Play dresses - Yes, this is a thing. 1966-7. I keep trying to explain to folk the reason it feels natural and comfortable for me to wear Indian block print cotton kaftans at home, while gardening, painting, cooking, and more - is because that’s how I grew up. We hadn’t yet outsourced all our clothing manufacturing to far eastern sweatshops; no stores sold cheap polyester kids clothing. There were boutique dress shops and upscale department stores for fancy “church” or “party” dresses, and everything else was sewn by mom.
There’s a reason little girls back then didn’t climb and run and jump and “play rough”…..our clothing (and our mothers nagging us to be demure and ladylike and not ruin our dresses) meant we were not allowed.
Dance recital costumes, also home- made 1964-5
Even my little brownie troop had dresses for uniforms. 1968
Girls Scout camp 1967-8
But as the 1960’s wore on, concessions started to be made. My group of childhood friends from brownies, later Girl Scouts, were all athletic tomboys. We loved hiking, camping, horseback riding, bike riding, exploring local creeks and woods, climbing trees. My mom realized quickly after I ripped apart an expensive store bought school dress while climbing a fence that it was a losing battle, and she caved and bought me one pair of denim jeans. Only the one. They were adorable - royal blue with white daisies scattered throughout. Wish I still had them. But the idea of skirts persisted for a long time, still do, in the form of “skorts.”
Family vacation around 1968-9
My sister and I : Our clothes, toys, bedroom furnishings, school supplies and even candy were separated out by color, so there’d be less squabbling. I was blue, yellow and she was pink, red.
School photos
Assorted school photos, during elementary aka primary school years. First grade was remarkable because my BFF Monica, whose mother was from Germany and didn’t know any better, sent Monica to school on the first day wearing pants. Big kerfuffle : Monica was sent to the principal’s office until her mother showed up with a dress for her to put on in the restroom. Big argument ensued, with Monica’s mother yelling, “How does any of this impact her ability to learn?” in a thick German accent.
These are nice bc they are dated. Notice none of the girls wear pants. As puberty set in, my mother forced me into a series of uncool, unattractive short haircuts. We argued constantly over them. I also never realized until much later that my mother was making some kind of “statement” by forcing me to wear Izod sport knit dresses on school picture day. I do remember the fights we had about what I was going to wear…..brutal. She always won.
Unattractive short haircuts 1970-73
1970s
As the 1960’s turned into the 1970’s, and my docile childhood ways morphed into those of the ornery teenager, my clothes changed too - just like those of all my friends. Rebellion set in. It grated on our parents nerves, but there was little they could do about it. They could buy us stuff, but couldn’t make us wear it the way they intended.
Me in a swimsuit from Neiman Marcus….My mother thought this bikini was too risque and would not let me wear it in public…..only at the lake house
Photos, above : Childhood pre-teen and teenage friends, all taken at a local golf club residential community, with lakes and boat docks and country roads, where one of my friends lived. Around 1973-4. The happiest childhood years.
Interesting sidebar - as I approached young womanhood, my mother responded with some strange retrograde increasingly old fashioned, out of style, childlike clothing choices for me. See me in the peculiar red and white check pinafore? Suitable for a Victorian 4 year old child? I am trying to hide it by standing behind my friends, wearing contemporary dress. I had no choice but to wear what she made for me, until I got a job at 16 and started earning my own money. Mom also forced me to cut all my hair off, and I spent my formative years wearing dorky chunky uncontrollable short “do’s”. You know, when everyone else in America was rocking hippie hair……..
Hip fashionable girlfriends, wearing the latest looks, on a school trip in 1975. The one in the hat’s father was a big honcho at a local high end department store, and she always was on trend.
What mom doesn’t know you are doing, she can’t stop…….Whenever I show this one, circa 1975, to young folk today, they get all freaked out that I am not wearing shoes or a helmet. This was only the beginning.
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