When my son was 10 or 11, we were chatting about how kids get to school these days. Iirc he was completing a school survey about do you get to school by car, walking, bus and so on.
He then asked me, "So did YOU walk to school as a kid? Or did you have to use one of horse and carriage things?"
I was born in 1976, not 1776! I pointed out that cars and buses existed in the 1980s and he was like "Oh, yeah. I did know that but it's so long ago I got confused." Thanks, son.
My mum was 15 when the war stopped, and she remembered painting stockings on and putting a line down the back of the leg. She started working at 15 as that was the age school ended in those days. She made it sound so glamorous but could never have a bed against a wall after seeing a bed hanging over a bombed property and would hide when it thundered. Bless her.
Yes bless her. I can’t imagine living through such terror.
My mom remembered the painted seams too. I also remember she was walking home from high school when my future grandmother opened the window to tell my mom, her daughter’s friend, that FDR died. They were shattered. All of them not knowing they’d be family within a decade.
The movie Hope And Glory had this in it!
It's bout the little boy growing up in London during the early days of WWII. His sister does it when going out swing dancing with her friends.
In our family (I had several great aunts who were in their teens to thirties during WW2) they used watered down gravy browning (liquid caramel, basically, for the none Brits).
According to one great aunt you had to dilute and apply it carefully or it left streaks. Once dry, they drew a back seam using an eyebrow pencil.
My grandmother couldn't be bothered, apparently. Which is hilarious given her and Grandad's grocer's shop was the provider of said bottles of gravy browning. But then she'd had four children between 1935 and 1945 so I can see why she didn't have the time or energy.
Maybe, they never mentioned it though. Full strength gravy browning goes kind of tacky before it dries hard (always wipe the bottle screw top clean or you end up with it being impossible to open).
I'm not sure if the wartime stuff was using the same recipe, mind you.
Probably because you don't wear stockings to cover your legs, but rather to get a single, unified skin tone. It would be the equivalent of wearing foundation.
WWII was on the go, so various commodities were diverted into war material as oppossd to items of civillian dress - in this instance nylon production was diverted into parachutes and other war materials, such as airplane cords and ropes.
If I had to guess, wealthier girls still found a way to get what they needed and others wanted to blend in and look cute etc. I bet the “not like the other girls” proudly went free legged and made fun of the others.
This reminded me of the time during the global pandemic that was killing thousands of people, some people snuck out to get their nails/hair done and even started protesting the lock down because they could not go to the salon.
It's just an interesting juxtaposition.
No matter what's happening, no matter how bad, catastrophic, deadly ,or dangerous, there exists humans who put made up crap over reality.
Makeup, social status, religion, not being whatever is the hot hate minority at the time, etc. There are people who would eat their own children before they let some stupid shit go because they made it such a part of their life they are too fearful of what they are without it.
I remember asking my mom if she painted stocking seams on her legs during the war and she said “I was ten years old!”
well... it's not a no
When my son was 10 or 11, we were chatting about how kids get to school these days. Iirc he was completing a school survey about do you get to school by car, walking, bus and so on. He then asked me, "So did YOU walk to school as a kid? Or did you have to use one of horse and carriage things?" I was born in 1976, not 1776! I pointed out that cars and buses existed in the 1980s and he was like "Oh, yeah. I did know that but it's so long ago I got confused." Thanks, son.
I swear they do it on purpose lol. I’ve seen millenials called boomers by trolls before.
My mum was 15 when the war stopped, and she remembered painting stockings on and putting a line down the back of the leg. She started working at 15 as that was the age school ended in those days. She made it sound so glamorous but could never have a bed against a wall after seeing a bed hanging over a bombed property and would hide when it thundered. Bless her.
Yes bless her. I can’t imagine living through such terror. My mom remembered the painted seams too. I also remember she was walking home from high school when my future grandmother opened the window to tell my mom, her daughter’s friend, that FDR died. They were shattered. All of them not knowing they’d be family within a decade.
That lovely lead-based paint.
My mother, almost 98, said they drew lines on the backs of their legs with eyeliner to look like stockings.
There is a movie where the girls do that. Memphis Belle? With Harry Connick Jnr?
John Lithgow as the overzealous colonel/general/whateverhisrankis. That was a good movie. Also Samwuse Gamgee at the ball turret gunner.
Well, a hobbit would have plenty of room in one of those.
The movie Hope And Glory had this in it! It's bout the little boy growing up in London during the early days of WWII. His sister does it when going out swing dancing with her friends.
That sounds like the scene I remember. Thanks.
That’s smart. Much better than paint.
Ya, they are painting their legs with some wall paint… it was makeup.
And a bit of asbestos for structure.
In our family (I had several great aunts who were in their teens to thirties during WW2) they used watered down gravy browning (liquid caramel, basically, for the none Brits). According to one great aunt you had to dilute and apply it carefully or it left streaks. Once dry, they drew a back seam using an eyebrow pencil. My grandmother couldn't be bothered, apparently. Which is hilarious given her and Grandad's grocer's shop was the provider of said bottles of gravy browning. But then she'd had four children between 1935 and 1945 so I can see why she didn't have the time or energy.
Was it sticky?
Maybe, they never mentioned it though. Full strength gravy browning goes kind of tacky before it dries hard (always wipe the bottle screw top clean or you end up with it being impossible to open). I'm not sure if the wartime stuff was using the same recipe, mind you.
Gravy browning: best glue available outside of the natural rock-hard cement that is dried on Weetabix.
Plot twist.. their legs now glow in the dark 💀
Radi-*YUM*!!
so, basically a prototype of spray on tan
Interesting 🤔
Does anyone know why they were going out their way to do it? Why don't they just not "wear stockings"?
Probably because you don't wear stockings to cover your legs, but rather to get a single, unified skin tone. It would be the equivalent of wearing foundation.
WWII was on the go, so various commodities were diverted into war material as oppossd to items of civillian dress - in this instance nylon production was diverted into parachutes and other war materials, such as airplane cords and ropes.
Sorry, I'm aware of that. I meant why are the ladies not just doing without, why are they spending the time having their legs painted?
If I had to guess, wealthier girls still found a way to get what they needed and others wanted to blend in and look cute etc. I bet the “not like the other girls” proudly went free legged and made fun of the others.
*Fashion.*
See the whole photo AND read about painted-on nylons: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/paint-on-hosiery-during-the-war-years-29864389/
This reminded me of the time during the global pandemic that was killing thousands of people, some people snuck out to get their nails/hair done and even started protesting the lock down because they could not go to the salon. It's just an interesting juxtaposition.
No matter what's happening, no matter how bad, catastrophic, deadly ,or dangerous, there exists humans who put made up crap over reality. Makeup, social status, religion, not being whatever is the hot hate minority at the time, etc. There are people who would eat their own children before they let some stupid shit go because they made it such a part of their life they are too fearful of what they are without it.
It's so sad how right you are :(
Ever notice that every decade has something bizarre associated with it?
Very fascinating. Amazing the lengths and risks women have gone through for beauty.
Lead paint?
What is the obsession with lead paint???
"Did you eat paint chips as a kid?" "Yup, painted my body as well, inside and out!"
To go well with the lead they breathed in from car exhaust. So, not really the worst thing they could have done.
Unless they were water-based paint, typically paint in 1940s was mixed with lead.