Feedsack Dresses

I had to check back through my blog to see if I had already written a memory worthy of mention. I don’t see it so I’ll review it for all of us. Recently I wrote about chickens and told about stealing a slurp of grey pasty buttermilk that my grandfather fed to his chickens. It occurred to me today that there is another story that deals indirectly with those chickens that must be remembered. In the days when I spent most of my waking hours next door at my grandparents, my grandmother wore housedresses as her daily mode of dress. (My mother and mother in law also wore housedresses for longer than I care to remember but they eventually and gradually succumbed to modernity and changed to some form of pants but never jeans. Jeans were for the farmers) I can’t imagine dressing like that to clean house or work in the yard, but she did. She usually wore an apron over the top on which she could wipe her hands as she cooked and baked. The apron was used in the chicken coop, too, as she would scoop the eggs from under the hens and cradle them in her drawn-up apron. As long as she didn’t trip and fall or run into anything, the eggs were safe in the apron until they were brought into the house.
Grandma’s housedresses had a strange beginning. While most of my clothes are either from Kohl's or Penny’s, Grandma got her everyday clothes by making them from scratch. In those days, companies that made chicken feed sent the feed to feed stores in nice patterned cloth sacks. They came in a variety of colors and patterns. When Grandpa and Grandma needed feed for the chickens and Grandma needed new housedresses, Grandma would tell Grandpa she wanted to go to Kaper’s Feed Mill to get the feed that particular time. I was allowed to accompany her a few times and I watched as she scanned the selection from the mountains of feedbags lined up along the walls. Neil Kaper would graciously get Grandma the patterns she liked even if he had to move some to get to the ones she chose. Home we went with the raw materials that Grandma would transform and wear on a daily basis for the next year. If memory serves me right, Grandma would get some for my mother also, but I don’t recall my mother ever darkening the door of Kaper’s Feed Mill. My mother had a pride that Grandma didn’t have. Oh, Grandma was proud of her accomplishments when the dresses were made and she was wearing them, but she was never too proud to save a penny here and there. There in was a hint of a generational difference, which has only grown on us since that time. That is only three generations ago and I don’t know of anyone today who would get his or her material for daily wear at the feed store. Perhaps we could compare it with getting one’s clothes at garage sales and Good Will. I know people like that and admire them for their frugality. I have better success at getting great deals at the stores in which I shop. I’m gifted in finding clearance items. Today, I made a trip to Kohl's and got six beautiful tops for less than forty dollars. I am a scavenger when it comes to clearance items. Clearance shopping is generally the only time I shop. The store had goods at 70-80 percent off and then I was blessed to get an additional 30 percent off coupon. It's a blast. Maybe Grandma’s frugality has been passed down to me. I love a good deal. Just like Grandma loved getting her dress fabric free after dumping the feed into the bin in the chicken coop. I find myself confirming over and over that God always gives me the desire of my heart. If I really desire something, He always seems to supply it for me at a fraction of its original cost. I praise Him for that gift to me.