Originally Posted by MillieH
So wonderful to read from the many friends my age (I'm 67 now) about their feed/flour sack clothing. The Depression and War years meant we appreciated whatever we got, and we were from way out in the country--no stores other than the one General Merchandise/Feed/Grocery store. My grandmother made me beautiful dresses from these sacks. A neighbor friend scorned my sack clothing. Her mom could afford to buy her dresses from catalogs (but not many, and her mom couldn't sew, either). I wasn't hurt by that. My grandmother could look at those in the catalogs and make tne dress for me from the fabric (feed sacks or whatever) she had on hand. I knew who was best dressed and that my dresses were made with love, not ordered from a catalog. Those catalog dresses weren't so well made. One rough day on the school playground and their seams were ripping and the lace trims were hanging. HA!
I now have my grandmother's treadle machine (still works!) on which she sewed all these wonderful dresses, slips, panties for me back in the 1940"s.
My grandfather and his sons and one daughter owned a general merchandise store. My aunt managed the "front" of the store. That was where the fabric, patterns, notions were. Also the shoes -- children's, ladies', men's -- both dress shoes and work shoes and boot; men's work clothes (khakis, denims); lingerie, costume jewelry, household small appliances (I still have the rice cooker I purchased there in the early seventies -- and I still use it.), hats -- ladies and men's; dishes, glassware, pots and pans; men's dress shirts and pajamas. There were a few pieces of unfinished furniture (chest of drawers, etc.), refrigerators. Then in the "warehouse" were the sacks of feed, tools, and things like paint, etc. They sold groceries, metal awnings -- installed; one of the "boys" delivered coal and kerosene to those who needed it for heat.
This thread has brought back so many memories of my little sister and my cousins and me sneeking into the warehouse to climb and jump on all of those pretty sacks. Yes, and as mentioned before, we wore items made from these sacks.