Figure 1.-- Here we see the Weber children all dressed up for Sunday School in 1936. The Webers were a Pennsylvania farm family. |
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Earl M. Weber was the oldest son in the Weber family from rural Pennsylvania. He had a younger brother and two sisters. He provides an interesting account of his boyhood during the 1930s, "Waste Not, Want Not". The 1930s in America were dominated by the Great Depression. Earl mentions that his family was not affluent during the Great Depression and had to economize. family in different situations. The children are shown dressed up for Sunday school with their best clothes and then playing. We also see them in their winter clothes. There is interesting and important information included here, and some interesting reminiscences from Earl.
The 1930s in America were dominated by the Great Depression. Earl mentions that his family was not affluent during the Great Depression and had to economize. Many farm families were hard hit by the Depression. The farm economy did not participate in the economic expansion of the Roaring 20s and many fam families suffered by the turn down in farm prices during the Depression. Money may have been tight for the Webers, but at least they didn't lose their farm. Many farm families did.
A photograph shows the Weber children "dressed for Sunday School on a spring morning" in 1936 (Figure 1). As Earl tells us, "we had to wear garters [i.e., hose supporters fastened to an underwaist] to hold up our long stockings" that proved to be "a nuisance." Notice that these boys wear rather long short trousers for 1936 with dark tan cotton stockings, white shirts, and neckties. The
girls also wear long stockings, white in the case of the younger girl, tan in the case of the older daughter. The girls were about 13 and 11 in this photo. Earl seems to have been about 10 and his younger brother 7. Earl's stockings seem to be rather loosely gartered, possibly because his supporters were too long or had lost their elasticity.
Farm families commonly bought clothes and other items from mail order catalogs. Sears and Montgomery Wards were the two most important. Earl mentions that the family shopped for clothes from a Sears Roebuck catalog. Sears still offered a range of long stockings in 1936. The Sears catalog also shows the waists and stockings that the boys probably wore. Wards for the same year shows the supporters, also available at Sears.
We also see the Weber children playing in their yard with a hand-made seesaw, fashioned from a barrel and wooden plank. The photograph is a little strange because the children do not seem dressed in play clothes. Apparently mom wasn't strict about that. Notice that the children wear long stockings for play as well as
dress-up. The younger brother wears black long stockings with his shorts and probably long underwear. Notice the patch of white between his stocking top and the hem of his trousers. Both boys wear flat caps. The two girls wear white stockings.
The boys slept in nightgowns made out of livestock feed sacks.
We also see the whole Weber family on a chilly day, probably in fall. Notice the outer coats and jackets. One of the girls wears a middy blouse. The boys wear peaked and flat caps. The children are wearing long stockings. They were still widely worn, but beginning to go out of style in 1936.
These images come from an interesting account of Earl Weber's personal experiences in an article entitled "Waste Not, Want Not".
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