DAY 190 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64

Another below zero night, but no new snow on the ground, this morning. A nice, crisp morning, too, with the sun shining through the trees wanting to melt the snow in the corners of the porch. But the power that burns skin on hot,summer days is too weakened by it's winter position to melt any snow on this frigid, January day. Snow piled at the curb and along the walk will wait for warmer days to be slushed by the sun.

 ***

On those cold winter days of so long ago, our legs were warmed by knee socks held tightly above the calf with thin rubber bands. The tops would stretch, and those things just wouldn't stay up on their own. Boys, on the other hand, wore long pants or dungarees (that's what we called "jeans", in those days), a ready protection from the cold. A girl wearing pants "out" wouldn't be proper, you know. They would only be worn at home.

Were car coats a fashion new to the fifties? A red, hooded one resides in my memory. No thought was given as to why a "car coat" was called a "car coat". It had a name, and it's name was "car coat". A younger brother had a red car coat, too, just like mine. So "unisex" wasn't alien to the fifties. Was he embarrassed to be wearing a coat like his sister's? Was I embarrassed to be wearing a coat like my brother's? It might have crossed my mind.

 * car coat

    noun

   a hip-length overcoat or jacket originally designed to be worn while driving a car.

   http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/car+coat 

    What is a Car Coat?

   http://www.ehow.com/about_7237905_car-coat_.html 

1957 Advertisement for Car Coats

 Adorable car coats. Still such a classic look.

***

Eddie Fisher - Dungaree Doll
 No. 7 on both the Billboard and Juke Box national charts in early 1956.

Dungaree Doll 

Dungaree doll, dungaree doll
Paint your initials on my jeans
So everyone in town
Will know we go around
Together, together, together
Dungaree doll, dungaree doll
Paste my picture on your sleeve
So everyone can see
That you belong to me
Forever, forever, forever
I want you to wear my orange sweater
The beat up sweater with the high school letter
Gonna make a chain of paperclips
And chain us together while I kiss your lips
Dungaree doll, dungaree doll
promise me you never will fall
For any other guy, tell me you are my
Dungaree, Dungaree
Dungaree Dungaree
Dungaree, Dungaree doll
Hello doll
Your my dungaree doll, dungaree doll
Paste my picture on your sleeve
So everyone can see
That you belong to me
Forever, forever, forever
I want you to wear my orange sweater
The beat up sweater with the high school letter
Gonna make a chain of paperclips
And chain us together while I kiss your lips
Dungaree doll, dungaree doll
Promise me you never will fall
For any other guy, tell me you are my
Dungaree, Dungaree
Dungaree, Dungaree
Dungaree, Dungaree Doll
Dungaree, Dungaree
Dungaree, Dungaree Doll
***

“It shocks me how I wish for...what is lost and cannot come back.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story