Feed Sack Petticoats

I have an old feed sack, cotton petticoat that was found on an excursion to an abandoned community. Rubble was everywhere and in the midst of that pile of used, tossed out and forgotten possessions, there it was, the cotton petticoat. I couldn’t look upon that without ‘hearing’ the story written many years ago; the story my grandmothers could have written. Since they passed on long ago, I want to memorialize them from what I was privileged to witness as a child. Many will recall similar incidents; it’s just the way it was way back when.

I washed it, carefully because there were torn spots on the underarm area and the straps had yellowed probably from the same perspiration that weakened the underarm and caused the fabric to rip.

That petticoat represents a lifestyle long forgotten; the time when a coal stove was used for cooking and heating the home, when laundry was done without automation and for many years when only an old washboard and a block of brown, Octagon soap were used to remove the stains. Add to that coal and wood had to be brought in to start a fire. Yes, that petticoat is a megaphone of days gone by; a representation of the women in the homes who were just as much involved in raising the family as the men who went out daily to earn a livelihood. Those yellowed, perspiration stains on the straps and the torn fabric of the under arms reveals that the woman in the home was no stranger to hard work.

Today automation has eased the workload and we are thankful.

And I had an aunt who made me a purple skirt from feed s ack material when I was very young. Oh how I loved to twirl and watch that skirt spin!

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