1950s sort of girl

When I was a child, our winter gear was more basic than winterwear today. Our coats were usually wool, skirt length and buttoned down the front with big silver dollar-size buttons. I think the coats almost always had pockets. When I was a bit older, I can remember getting my first coat with a hood! That was so exciting! and the coat itself had a little flair to it, it wasn't just cut down straight. woowhee! I sashayed around in that coat for awhile!

Our mittens weren't vinyl or waterproof. They were machine or home knit, usually just one layer. They were warm if the temperature wasn't too cold and if the mittens were dry. Usually, tho, those mittens weren't dry! In fact, I don't remember a whole day with dry mittens -- ever -- in my childhood! I can remember when I had strings attached to each mitten. The strings ran up the sleeve, across the back and out the other sleeve. I needed a mitten holder as I was a rambunctious, careless child and prone to loosing mittens and scarves. A lot of winters I would end up with only 1 glove or mitten or mismatched mittens. My hands were often chapped and dry and would crack and bleed some because I wouldn't wear my mittens or had lost them. Poor Mama; she'd say . . . "what am I going to do with you?"

Our boots were plastic or rubber. There was no lining or insulation in those boots. They pulled over your shoes so they were adding some extra warmth but it was always my luck to get snow down my boot on the way to school so all morning I'd be in school waiting for the socks to dry. Some shoes were hard on socks; the shoe would pull the sock down inside the shoe. It was most aggravating and uncomfortable and before long you might have a blister on your heel. To get the boot over the shoe could take a lot of work, if it was a tight fit. Then you'd get to school or back home and try to take the boot off and . . . oops, there went the boot, the shoe and the sock! Then you had to wrench the shoe out of the boot with your hands. Also certain boots would rub on the back of your bare leg and chap that leg. The backs of the legs would be red and raw and burn for a week! Or sometimes all winter.

Little girls wore dresses to school, back in the 50s. Dresses and ankle socks. There was a lot of bare leg in between! When it got really cold, our Mama would make us put pants on under the dresses. Well, imagine how comfortable that would be! Girls didn't have denim jeans. They were cotton or duck. They might be flannel or even corduroy. They had elastic waists so you'd pull them up under your dress or the waist of your skirt which added a couple of inches to your waist line. Next came the coat over those two layers of clothes, and then the boots if you could bend over enough to get them pulled on over your shoes. Mama always wanted a scarf over your ears. There were no knitted hats for the girls like there are today . . . or at least not available to the girls in my family! So a head scarf and mittens, to finish the outfit and out the door to walk the quarter mile to school. And you did that four times a day. If you went outside to play after school, you went through all that six times a day! And in between, you tried to find some way to dry your mittens!