The Old Coot notices the old dress code.
By Merlin Lessler
Gerald R Smith, the former Broome County Historian and now Executive
Director of the Tioga County Historical Society, had a column in the Binghamton
Press a few weeks ago. It included a picture of a group of Endicott Johnson
Shoe Company workers, circa 1935. The picture captured the images of fifteen
workers and one foreman. The foreman was standing next to a rack of leather soles
that the workers had carved out of thick, leather slabs. He wore a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves,
a tie and suspenders. It kind of surprised me.
Then, I looked at the workers; even more of a surprise. All
15 were in collared shirts, protected by work aprons; nine of them had on ties;
two wore bow ties. One worker wore a derby hat, another wore an old fashion
golf cap, sometimes referred to as a news boy cap. This crew was better dressed
than most people you see in church today. Even better than some people at
wedding receptions who call their dress style, casual chic. I’m sure none of
those guys took their shirts to the dry cleaners, nor were they made from permanent
press material. You can be sure they were cleaned in a ringer washer, hung out
on a clothesline to dry and as you probably guessed, ironed by their wives. That’s
the way it was in circa 1935.
My grandfather was a foreman at EJ’s in the early 1900’s.
My mother worked in an EJ office in the 1930’s and I worked there in my teens
during summer break, pushing around racks just like the one the foreman in
Gerald Smith’s article was leaning on. Years later, I acquired three of those
oak racks that became available after EJ went out of business. I removed the
glue that had layered up over the years and refinished them. They were unique
shelves for books, quilts and other vintage items that we collected. The only
one left is in my daughter, Amy’s house, holding up quite well after 100 years
of service. What’s my point? People were better dressed 100 years ago.
Photo From Gerald Smith’s column
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