Tag Archives: stockings

Did You Wear Wool Socks to Bed? From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series Part 8

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Did You Wear Wool Socks to Bed? From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series Part 8

69694683_10156695697031886_9116878524613918720_n.jpgJohn Jacob Mahon married Mary Steep, then Mary Ann Hudder (twenty children! between Mary and Mary Ann) —CLICK here for more

 

Mary Ann Hudder Mahon used to knit and I was told she used to love to knit a lot. She also wore the wool socks she made to bed. Did you wear wool socks to bed?

 

Wool socks were number one for explorers and mountaineers. When the body of George Mallory was found on Everest 75 years after his disappearance in 1924, he was wearing three pairs of wool socks. It’s since been proven by academics that Mallory’s clothing was warm enough for climbing conditions and perhaps even an improvement on modern options. So although Mallory sadly met his maker up on Everest, his socks weren’t to blame for his untimely demise. As well as wool socks, they were also available in other materials such as cashmere, cotton lisle and silk. They could be smooth or ribbed. When debris from the RMS Titanic was recovered, following the ship’s sinking in 1915, a suitcase was opened up to reveal neatly folded clothes, including a pair of unworn socks made from finely knitted black silk.

Colors and patterns started to grow more vibrant into the 1910s. This was due to advances in high-speed knitting technology which led to various patterns, constructions and colors.

As socks were not elasticized like modern examples available so freely at the likes of Target, men were at risk of having their socks sag to reveal bare ankle. To prevent this, gentlemen pulled their socks up which they secured with sock garters (also known as ‘hose garters’). Made of leather or striped elastic, the garter clipped to the end of the sock and fastened around the upper calf.

For working classes the lumberman’s socks had a draw string cord at the top (they look like Christmas stockings!)

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CLIPPED FROM

The Wilkes-Barre Record
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
20 Nov 1913, Thu  •  Page 22

 

Murder Over Bed Socks

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CLIPPED FROM

Lead Daily Call
Lead, South Dakota
01 Nov 1911, Wed  •  Page 2

geneology

John Mahon

Mary Hudder

  1. 1847
  2. 1923

bur. Holy Canadian Martyrs Cemetary, Combermere, Ontario

  1. 1867
  2. 1965

bur. Holy Canadian Martyrs Cemetary, Combermere, Ontario

Children

Michael Mahon

Tom Mahon

Patrick Mahon

Kay Mahon

Agnes Mahon

Tessie Mahon

Evelyn Mahon

Annie Mahon

 

 

relatedreading

The Local Flappers

How to Deal With a Garter Belt Emergency! – Actual 1940’s War Bride Letter

 

 

From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series –Part 1

From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series –Part 2

From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series –Part 3

From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series –Part 4 — The Family Photograph!!!!

 

From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series –Part 6– Do you Know These Unknown Folks?

From Dublin to Drummond- Mahon Family Reunion — The Series Part 7 — The Mica Mine

“Wear Your Woolens Ladies” — says The Carleton Place Canadian

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silk

December 27, 1940.

An editorial letter in the Carleton Place Canadian made news in the major newspapers basically telling women they needed to suck it up (nicely) due to the war time shortage.

There are men of our acquaintance, men with no angelic qualities worthy of mention, for whom silk socks are essential, but their numbers now are relatively small. The news that the manufacture of silk stockings is to be curtailed, if not entirely eliminated is sad news, but it is a necessary war measure. Women by reason of quality insist that even hosiery shall harmonize perfectly with their greater delicacy. Adam’s apron was probably made of the same quality fig leaves as Eve’s, and if sartorial differences crept in a later time, the historians of the period ignored them.

If silk stockings are essential to the happiness of women, we can understand their anxiety, for the ban on these luxuries will probably remain in force until after the war. Let them cry their eyes and smile happily and cultivate as profound a philosophy as their femininity will permit. They will look as charming and alluring in woolens as they would in the finest silk.

Man does not appraise woman by the stockings she wears.

Carleton Place Canadian