Bib Overalls- Just a Small Bit of Nostalgia

Indulge me as I cast about for long ago memories.  Every time I look at this picture I seem to go back in time to a definite and very nostalgic period of my life.

It seems that maybe 60 to 70 years ago you weren’t really a farmer of any kind unless you wore Bib-Overalls !  At least within the small farming communities of Western Washington State that were within my view of the world back then and that wasn’t a very large world with me I must admit.  I can’t be certain what subtle dress code the farm owners of large crop growing acreages ascribed to but within the memory of my young years what I recall as what was almost a required uniform among the small dairy farmers, i.e., Bib-Overalls, that seemed to define and identify one’s occupation quite well.

Uncle John McGinnis on the right, and Cousin Tommie McGinnes, along the road in Florence

Tommie was not one to conform to the common spelling of the surname

 

The McGinnis cousins and many of the neighbors certainly lived up to that standard.  Looking back, the stiff dark blue denim overalls seem to almost have been part of a uniform worn by the farmers of Florence.  If you were a dairy farmer, another uniform accoutrement was also a part of your daily work attire, and that was knee-high rubber boots with your overalls tucked in or out, it really didn’t matter.  That was more dependent on the task at hand.

Just what possible superior functionality the overalls possessed I really can only speculate.  Quick and easy on and off ? Perhaps, but coupled with the ability to go beltless must have been an enticement for the more portly farmers.  I suspect there were more advantages that certainly escape me at the moment. 

Since this but an exercise in nostalgia to go further might dilute the wonderful memories of spending a few summers on a small long established dairy farm some sixty or more years ago.  Those were good and innocent times compared to the world we live in today.  Much has been written about the events and culture of the 1950’s, a place that my memories so often wander off to in the daydreams of my senior years, and what seems to be common in the writings I have come across is how much simpler life was during that decade.  If only today I could live in a world that cherished only the positive values of the period.  If only we could have seen back then what cultural and political changes were about to descend on us beginning in the 1960’s.  Perhaps a slower approach to major changes might have prevailed but that was not to be.

Nostalgia never solves anything but it can be soothing to the mind at times.  It can actually have a calming effect on me.  Those that ignore this phenomena are really missing out on the benefits of one’s advancing years.  Maybe it’s time to invest in a new pair of overalls.  I have gone without far too long and so have many of our leaders I fear.