When Lila and I were very small we wore plain brown high top oxfords. They were very sturdy and usually lasted the whole school year. A few girls had the patent leather shoes and how we envied them. We also wore black or white patent looking shoes later on. They had many straps and little buttons all up the front instead of laces. I am not speaking of the much older ones, but those that were popular in the very late 30's. We had to have a latch hook to button them. They were a dressy type shoe. We seemed to always lose the hook and Daddy would make more from a sturdy wire with a button hook on the end. Many times Lila would not bother to button hers. During the summer months we went bare foot at home. I still go barefoot in the house.

Mama usually made simple little cotton print dresses for Lila and I. Most of them came from printed feed sacks that Mama bought when she bought chicken feed. There were new patterns each week. Sometimes it was hard to get two or three alike for a full dress. Some of the prints were bold and some dainty. I thought way too many of them were gaudy. Mama always knew when a new shipment came in and planned her chicken feed buying that day. Mama bought us a few dresses, most were for dress and school functions. One year she bought me a sky blue taffeta dress and Lila a bright yellow one. We were elated to have such pretty store bought dresses. (Picture above)

When I was five years old and Lila was three, Mama bought burgundy dress dresses of a crept like material. (Pictured above) We had our pictures made in them. They felt scratchy to my tender skin. When I got older I got some very nice hand me downs from relatives.

When I turned 15 years old, I worked for the Ted Templin family during wheat harvest and bought some clothes that I really liked. The first full set of new clothes I had all at one time was when I got married in November of 1947. Not long after that I was buying maternity dresses!