You know you are getting old when:

[LizzieMaine]

Sears for Spring-Summer 1935 features a high-top work boot with a very thick three-layered sole -- two layers of leather, one brown and one tan, and a third thick "tap layer" of black "Sure-Grip Compo." With a big, broad toe and a rather high-ish heel, Sears called it "Sears' Mighty Construction Boss." Yeah, baby. Would've been just the thing to wear to a Village People show in 1976.

In the Boy's Dress Shoe section of the same edition, there's a ridiculously gaudy style that can best be described as a wing-tipped saddle shoe, with knobby two-toned uppers and toe cap, a chunky heel, and lots of rather dainty perforations, the whole thing giving a tres-1969 effect.

 

[BlueTrain]

The one thing for boys that I recall vividly from sometime vaguely in the 1950s were pastel nylon sport shirts. They were see-through. Of course, we won't talk about what I was wearing in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

[vitanola]

I lived through 1970s leisure suits, as many of us did. When I was 13 my parents bought me some weird blue polyester leisure suit, probably for my bar-mitzvah (egad, that means there is a picture displayed prominently in my parents' house). Even at that age, the sight of it made me gag. But I basically had no say in much of anything back then.

Maybe it was the color, or the lapels, or the material. Yes, the whole thing.

I wanted something out a 1940s film that I saw almost everyday on the '4:30 Movie.' Boxy three-piece. Gray herringbone. But that wasn't happening.

I was in the same boat, but wanted a sensible blue serge with two pairs of pants. Mom insisted on that dratted leisure suit, also powder blue, with the most excreble multi-colored rayon sport shirt and a gaudy neckerchief.

I have a school picture of that misbegotten outfit which yet retains its exceptional emitic properties.

 

[2jakes]

When drive-ins, popcorn & corn movies ruled the planet!

 

[GHT]

You know that you must look old when, on public transport, someone offers you their seat. (Very rarely.)

 

[dnjan]

You know that you must look old when, on public transport, someone offers you their seat. (Very rarely.)

I wrote a "rave" (kind of a mini letter-to-the-editor in our city paper) congratulating the parents of the junior high student who offered me her seat to me on the bus, congratulating them on doing such a good job in raising their daughter.

 

[2jakes]

I get more smiles from women when I’m
with a woman.

To women......... why ?



Edit:
Although there have been times when I find myself at the grocery store wearing
my shirt inside out or zipper’s down.
But have learned from Polo to act as if
this is normal, although inside, I’m very
embarrassed.

 

[Zombie_61]

I get more smiles from women when I’m with a woman.

To women......... why ?

I'll take this a step or two further. In my younger days I was most definitely not the kind of guy women approached; I'm still not sure how I managed to have two girlfriends (not at the same time) during my high school years. Then I meet the woman who would become my wife, we get married, and within the first five years more than a few women approached me to offer me far more than a smile. Where the hell were they when I was single?

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^
“They’re teasers!
“They get a kick out of making the woman jealous!”

So I was told.

 

[Zombie_61]

My wife wasn't present when these "events" occurred so it couldn't have been the "jealous" angle, but "teasers" is a possibility. That said, in this part of the world my money's on "looking for a temporary Sugar Daddy" to show them a good time, spend some money on them, then be discarded like yesterday's trash.

 

[Fading Fast]

My wife wasn't present when these "events" occurred so it couldn't have been the "jealous" angle, but "teasers" is a possibility. That said, in this part of the world my money's on "looking for a temporary Sugar Daddy" to show them a good time, spend some money on them, then be discarded like yesterday's trash.

There is some small population of women who are attracted to married men - were you wearing your wedding band at the time these women were hitting on you? I've read all sorts of theories on why - they enjoy breaking up relationships / they are attracted to men who can commit - but who knows why - that said, it seems to be true, again, of a small part of the overall female population (I'm sure there is a male equivalent part of the population as well).

And if you weren't wearing your wedding band and your wife wasn't around, you could simply be giving off a different vibe now that you were married - more confident, not overly eager, what have you (I am generalizing as I don't know anything about you specifically and mean absolutely no offense) that attracted these women.

 

[2jakes]

Two different women on different occassions have passed by
and stroked my lower back as they walked by saying hello.

I didn’t do nothing.... I wasn’t expecting it.
I think I mumbled hello but was embarrassed.
I’ll probably get kidded but it’s not funny when it happens to you.

 

[Bushman]

Two different women, very attractive and on different occassions have passed by me and stroked my lower back as they
said hello.

I didn’t do nothing.... I wasn’t expecting
it! I think I mumbled hello but was embarrassed. This was in a public place.

But if I was to do that... I’d be locked up
in jail!

I’ll probably get kidded but it’s not funny
when it happens to you.

There are certain privelages society affords both men and women, separately. For example, a woman can sit on a bench near a playground and not been seen as suspicious, while a man would have the cops called on him. Meanwhile, a man may work construction and nobody would raise an eyebrow. A woman does so, and her femininity is called into question.

 

[BlueTrain]

Of course! Women work in factories; not in construction. Everybody knows that.

 

[Zombie_61]

There is some small population of women who are attracted to married men - were you wearing your wedding band at the time these women were hitting on you? I've read all sorts of theories on why - they enjoy breaking up relationships / they are attracted to men who can commit - but who knows why - that said, it seems to be true, again, of a small part of the overall female population (I'm sure there is a male equivalent part of the population as well).

Yes, I was wearing my wedding band at those times. I've heard of women who do this, but don't know any personally so I have never had an opportunity to inquire about it. Given my track record prior to getting married, I have a difficult time trying to figure out why any of those women would express an interest in me, wedding band or no; from my perspective I was the same awkward shmoe after I got married that I was before. I just consider myself fortunate that my wife somehow saw something beneath that, and chose to look further.

...And if you weren't wearing your wedding band and your wife wasn't around, you could simply be giving off a different vibe now that you were married - more confident, not overly eager, what have you (I am generalizing as I don't know anything about you specifically and mean absolutely no offense) that attracted these women.

Zero offense taken, we're just throwing out ideas here. This could also be correct, except for the "eager" part. I've always been very conservative where women are concerned, and have always defaulted to conducting myself like a gentleman. In fact, quite a few times I was informed after-the-fact that I had missed a potential opportunity with a certain girl because I didn't "make a move", and this was interpreted as a lack of interest. Needless to say, I didn't do a lot of dating in those days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Of course! Women work in factories; not in construction. Everybody knows that.

 

[BlueTrain]

That women work in factories (rather than factory work is women's work) is no joke. I've never understood the logic behind the claim that women always stayed home while the men went out to work when the evidence to the contrary was everywhere. True, some women didn't but work was one area in which women were more equal (to men) than in other ways, if not necessarily in pay. Naturally, it helped to have a factory somewhere in the vicinity. Offices and retail stores were also usually staffed in the majority by women.

More recently, women have been entering into employment fields that had always been filled by men, giving rise to objections by men, presumably because they would no longer have a "manly job." Truck drivers, coal miners, fire fighters and the like beware.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You will find the answer to that question in class theory. Historically, bourgeois women didn't work outside the home, which is why working-class men with illusions of rising into the bourgeoisie were so loud and obnoxious about "no wife of MINE will ever..." It's not that they were concerned about the well-being of the family structure, it's that they felt that a working wife characterized *them* irredeemably as proles. You will find the same class insecurity at work even today among those reactionaries who bellow loudest about "In MY day, you could raise a family on ONE salary."

 

[Fading Fast]

Having grown up in a home with a dad who was raised by his working widowed mom and in a town where plenty of women worked - even with some of the culture (many, not all, TV shows) telling me otherwise - it was normal for me to think of women working. And, yes, the more prosperous households had more stay at home moms, but some of them also had moms in more prosperous jobs - real estate, running local businesses, doctors, lawyers, etc.

I have noticed in the last several years more women in NYC working in construction. I've asked a few of my buddies who also work construction and to a man they all said about the same thing - they have no issue with it if the women can handle the work and the lifting required. They said many can do the work, but the lifting becomes an issue and a handicap for many and adversely impact all the workers. And these are not Neanderthals and all seemed open minded but honest versus just saying it was no issue.

That's it - no big points, just some observations.

 

[BlueTrain]

You will find the answer to that question in class theory. Historically, bourgeois women didn't work outside the home, which is why working-class men with illusions of rising into the bourgeoisie were so loud and obnoxious about "no wife of MINE will ever..." It's not that they were concerned about the well-being of the family structure, it's that they felt that a working wife characterized *them* irredeemably as proles. You will find the same class insecurity at work even today among those reactionaries who bellow loudest about "In MY day, you could raise a family on ONE salary."

I'd have to say that class insecurity and insecurity in general are very real to most people. American history has always been boom and bust, sometimes localized, sometimes nationwide. Sometimes government policies help, other times not. The problem is, the economy is not something that can be easily controlled and usually can't be controlled at all, at least not under our form of government and economy. There is a lot about it that is unfair, sometimes verging on criminal, a lot that is bad for the country as a whole (meaning the national government), which is not to say that the national government never makes bad decisions. The government does not operate with one mind, though, and national fiscal policy seems to benefit a few people at the expense of the future. The day will come when we won't be able to find anyone to loan us any money.