At some time beginning in late March, my mother managed to provide each of us four girls with a new spring coat. These were usually short, longer than jackets but well above coat-length and sometimes featuring three-quarter length sleeves. Made of light-weight material and satin-lined, most were pastel colors, had pockets, and some were designed without buttons or other front closures. Just “a little something to take the chill off“ when we walked to school on cool spring mornings, they were often left behind at dismissal time when afternoons turned warm.
With four girls to dress, you’d think the spring coats would have been passed down from sister to sister, but few of them survived for more than a year, due to steamy spring afternoons and forgetful girls who left them at school, friends’ houses, soda fountains, piano lessons and places that may have bordered on the “off-limits” list our parents insisted on. These included such “wicked” places as any restaurant that served beer, any place that housed pin-ball machines, and all places that might be frequented by what my dad called “a rough crowd.” If we had dared to enter any of those places and inadvertently left anything behind, we would never admit it or dare to go back to retrieve our property.
Hand-me-downs did occur, however, when it came to raincoats and cold-weather gear. Winter coats, truly rain-proof raincoats and boots were expensive and had to last for several seasons. Usually passed down as we grew, good woolen winter coats were sent to the dry-cleaners every spring where they were kept in moth-proof storage until the next fall when winter weather was on its way. There was a variety of different qualities of raincoats over those years. Some were of tightly-woven fabric that had been treated to make it shed water. When these required cleaning, they had to be water-proofed again, a procedure not always as effective as the original treatment. More effective but less desirable and definitely not as fashionable, were transparent plastic raincoats that featured attached hoods. These offered little warmth and required sweaters or jackets underneath to ward off the cold. They also became very stiff in chilly weather and rattled and crackled on windy days. I never had the raincoat I longed for – one of those rubbery yellow slickers with buckles and a matching hat with a wide brim. It may not have been fashionable in my mother’s estimation, but I’m pretty sure it would have kept me cozy and dry.
The acreage where we lived beginning the year I was in third grade, was at the very edge of the city limits and a little short of a mile from the downtown area. The high school and junior high buildings were another three or four blocks farther and, most days, we walked to and from school, at lunchtime as well as the beginning and end of the school day. If we timed it right, we could catch a ride home for lunch with Dad, as his Chevy dealership was just three blocks from the school buildings. Lunch hours were long because there was no lunch program in the school then.
Sometimes when the weather was especially stormy, Dad drove us back to school after lunch, but it was seldom a sure thing. Many times when the day had started out clear and pleasant, it became stormy by noon and we arrived home in need of dry clothes as well as a hot meal. The noon meal, as it was for most people then, was the main meal of the day. Generous helpings of Mother’s succulent roast beef, crisp pork chops or sage-laced fried chicken, potatoes and rich gravy, buttery vegetables, warm rolls with homemade butter and jam, washed down with cold glasses of rich, whole milk from our own cows, and a dessert took time to devour and enjoy. There was always dessert; sometimes simply home-canned fruit and a cookie, but more often cake, pie, warm chocolate pudding, peach cobbler, Jell-O with fruit, or ice cream sundaes, and always whipped cream. Warm and well fed, it was hard to resist a nap instead of heading back to school – especially on a cold rainy day.