Show I r t S' S r SWEEPINGS f I Z f By IRIS I I have never learned to take convenience for granted w wh Vh hen I go shopping It always surprises me to know needed for day to day 11 living ving Is to tobe be got from stores anything that i g n this area are never more than a few minutes away I IP can canI an anI recall when this was not the case 1 GROW UP IN THE DAYS when I DIDN'T supply lines Ini in Into to this valley extended clear from the Mississippi 1 Valley Valle Y am and consisted o of f ox teams but where I did live w was as isolated took anywhere from a week to a enough It couple of mont months to make most of our purchases from the catalo catalogues goes of Sear S Roebuck or Montgomery Ward We did have stores in our town to be sure but they we too o small to supply the inhabitants with anything but the the F bare basics The one goods dry-goods store store known known natural naturally a. a the op didn't all op Co didn't carry ready-mades ready at all If u a local 1 mother Insisted on sewing clothes for her children she could coin buy yard goods goads That is she could if she was wit willing ling to settle e for a ripe yellow broadcloth a wine colored wine corduroy born or or a sort of disastrous blue cambric decorated with wilted flowers that appeared to have been bequeathed rath rather er ertha than tha n woven Into the fabric But anyone who want wanted ed ready I mades mades' sent out for them THIS TillS WAS TRUE OF SHOES AND hats as well as dresses coats or suits I was a big girl before I went into m my Y first first i shoe store and was Introduced to the little device with which clerks measure the foot Up until then my foot had always been measured by my father His method was quite simple He fetched the child who was getting new shoes smashed on one small foot onto a piece of paper placed on the floor and traced the foots foot's outline outline a a ticklish and highly Inaccurate method Since we didn't order shoes until it was absolutely necessary sary anyway and since It took about a month for an order I Ito to arrive from Denver or Chicago the shoes we were wearing wear wear- 1 ing often orten had soles that parted company from the uppers so sowe sowe sowe we walked around and flapped a lot By the time the new shoes came we were next door to barefoot and if the new ones didn't exactly fit well fit well better luck next time COLOR WAS ANOTHER HAZARD we encountered In shop ping by mall mail The catalogues of that day didn't have colored advertising but they did have high-flown high Once our local spinster Miss Clawson bought a hat described In the catalogue as fuchsia trl trimmed m med with copper When the hat came what It was was a sort of unwell pink trimmed with I mud color Miss Clawson wore the hat but the words she used to describe it weren't picked up teaching school Duplication was another problem we of often orten ten met with If half halfa a dozen little girls turned up wearing identical coats nobody minded much much except except the little girls girls but but among the matrons this same coincidence was often oHen the overture for fora a full blown Tl tragedy complete with everything but bassoons Like the day Mrs Pratt who was not on speaking terms with Mrs Perkins came to Relief Society in a new navy nary blue chiffon with white polka dots and a darling ruffle clean down the middle Mrs Perkins showed up in a dress exactly like it but what was worse she looked GOOD In it being fifty pounds lighter than Mrs Pratt I SINCE MRS PRATT had blown her clothing j the next 12 months on one good dress she did the only thing she could She stayed home for a year |