The UNION(suit) Forever!

About every other day, it seems, a catalog comes to my house in the mail selling all types of underwear.     Wondering what to write for my post for this week, my eyes were drawn to one hawking the latest from Hanes and it set me to thinking, what was fashhionable in the underwear drawer for men and women during the 20s and 30s? As the ancient Latins said, Semper Ubi, Sub Ubi--"Always Wear Under Wear"--so let's take a look in your Grandpa's drawer (that's drawer, not drawers!). Aha! The venerable union suit!

 Union suits originated in 1868 and were so called because it was a union of shirt and pants in one. Sometimes called combination suits, they were first worn by women as a way to get away from constricting Victorian garments.

However, men soon took over the union suit, making it the single undergarment worn by males into the 1930s. It consisted of a knit garment covering a man or boy from neck to ankle with a button-up front from neck to crotch. The back of the suit contained an opening often called a "drop seat" or "fireman's flap". I'll let you guess what the opening was used for.

By the 1920s the union suit was sold in various styles with long or short sleeves and long or short legs. Of course, the different kinds were worn during different seasons. Some of the suits were sleeveless for hot summer weather. They were also made in different colors and designs during this time.

Working class men who lived in rural areas often owned only two union suits, wearing one continuously all week, changing to the other suit on wash day. Some may have worn them all winter when living on the frontier. Can't imagine washing those in spring!

By mid-1930s this changed because of the innovation of Jockey shorts. Men found these to be much more convenient when getting dressed in the morning so union suits lost popularity. Later that same decade buttonless drawers came on the market utilizing elastic waistbands. These became known as boxer shorts because they were the same style of pants that professionals used in boxing matches.

To replace the union suit for warmth in winter, two-piece underwear, known as long johns, came to be well-liked. These are still used today by men and women for outdoor winter activities.

Union suits have long been the brunt of jokes with the unfortunates wearing them considered hicks. The rear flaps are often used to comical effect in movies or on TV.  It's undeniable that the union suit is a bit light in the sex appeal department despite the best efforts of the models in the ad above.

Even though union suits have gone the way of the Edsel, I can remember them hanging on our family clothesline into the 50s. My grandfather wore a white union suit all year, changing to short sleeves and legs during the summer months. I remember asking him how he could wear something so hot all the time. He just shrugged his shoulders, "That's the way it is." Many older men continued to wear what they had grown up with even into the 60s. No matter what.  After all, semper ubi, sub ubi!

Food, Hope, and Cheer for the Boys

Today I have a guest writer - Terri Wangard from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. She's an author of three World War II books. Thanks, Terri, for sharing your research with us.

America’s entrance into World War II brought about a mass mobilization of service men and women crisscrossing the country on their way to training facilities and embarkation points. Many of these people had never been far from home. Fresh out of school, they faced uncertain futures at unknown destinations. War fronts are dangerous places, and they had to realize not everyone would be returning home.

The railroads provided the bulk of the wartime transportation. Trains pulled into stations to take on water or change locomotives, giving the soldiers a few minutes to get out of their cramped quarters. Some suffered through five or six days sitting in overcrowded trains with no air conditioning. They arrived at small town train stations homesick, exhausted, scared, and hungry. Always hungry.

Civilians mobilized as well. Volunteers met trains carrying 600 to 800 troops with smiles of welcome and baskets filled with food during the brief moments the trains paused at the railroad station. They offered  sandwiches, pies, cookies, cakes, coffee, milk, magazines, newspapers, writing paper, and sundry items. All free and all donated by residents in the surrounding region.

The North Platte, Nebraska canteen met every troop train with volunteers who prepared and served sandwiches, coffee, cookies, cakes, and other homemade treats during stops there. For 51 months, 24 hours a day, throughout the war, they provided food and hospitality to between two and three thousand soldiers per day.

The state of Ohio led the nation with twelve track-side canteens. The Dennison Canteen, started locally by Lucille Nussdorfer and later supported by the Salvation Army, attracted volunteers from eight counties. From March 19, 1942 to April 8, 1946, the Dennison Canteen never closed nor ran out of money or food. They also served food to German prisoners of war, en route to prison camps.

Dennison was the water stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) halfway between Pittsburgh, PA and Columbus, OH. For the operation of steam-powered trains, this stop was mandatory. For the operation of a canteen, volunteers had five minutes to serve the troops while the trains were being filled with water.                                                  

It was not uncommon for the canteens to receive notes of thanks from far-off battlefields:

Words can never tell you how much I appreciated your most generous gift . . . with folks like you behind us it gives the added incentive that some of us might lack, to fight harder and better than ever before, and it's people like you that make the old USA. The best nation in the world, and worth working and fighting for.

From “Somewhere in Germany in 1945:

Late last Christmas Eve, a troop train rumbled across the U.S. en route from Texas to a P.O.E. The men were in their bunks but most of them were awake, thinking of their loved ones and the Christmas Eves of years gone by. Being away that far from home on this particular night was pretty rough and the men’s spirits were naturally very low. On top of it all, they had been traveling across the nation that whole day and no one had so much as wished them a ‘Merry Christmas.’

Then an event happened that none of the men will ever forget. The train rolled into a town and baskets of neatly wrapped gifts were brought on board. The shout of "Merry Christmas" was heard in the still night. This event made all the men feel pretty good. They knew then that someone appreciated what they were doing.

Sometimes the stops were too short and the troops were not allowed off the trains. Then the women gathered their food in baskets and went to the trains, offering their gifts to eager hands in the open windows.
My friend Ron Hopley remembers "on the train to Norfolk we stopped in Columbus, Ohio, and there women handed cookies to all of us sailors on the train. I thought that was very nice and have never forgotten them."

The Lima, Ohio, canteen offered an extensive menu:

Sandwiches: Roast Beef, Roast Pork, Baked Ham, Chicken, Turkey, Barbecue, Bologna (Ham) Salad, Meat Loaf, Egg Salad, Cheese, Chicken Salad, Goose, Rabbit

Fried Chicken

Cakes, Fruit Cake, Brownies, Doughnuts, Cookies, Peanut butter, Oatmeal, Molasses, Sugar, Gingerbread

Pies: Lemon, Apple, Cherry, Peach, Raisin, Strawberry, Pumpkin, Raspberry, Blackberry, Rhubarb, Pineapple

Hard boiled eggs

Candy bars, Fudge, Popcorn balls, Ice Cream, Other candy

Drinks: Coffee, Milk (white & chocolate), Orange Drink, Orange Juice, Tea, Hot Chocolate

Fruits: Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Grapes, Pears, Peaches, Cherries

Other Items: cigarettes, matches, tobacco, chewing gum, magazines, newspapers,  post cards, writing paper, pencils

The citizens of Aberdeen, South Dakota, opened a Red Cross/USO Canteen on August 19, 1943 in the depot of the Chicago-Milwaukee railroad, serving troops for more than two years, until March 22, 1946. Ham sandwiches, fruit, and cake were supplanted by pheasant-based dishes. Donated birds, at one time more than 1,000 pheasants were in storage for the canteen (the patriotic local warden kindly looked the other way), formed the basis of the meals.

The largest train canteen in North Platte no longer exists, but the Dennison Salvation Army Canteen has been completely restored, including the stained glass windows with the original black paint around the edges from the wartime black-outs. They even have some of the sandwich bags in their museum. The Dennison Depot is recognized by the National Landmarks Commission and the National Park Service as the most significant remaining example in the nation of a railroad canteen still reflecting its World War II heritage. The train canteens were an American experience talked about and remembered at home and abroad.

This Old Bungalow House

I've written blogs about different items in my house, but I've never discussed what type of house I live in. Our house was built in 1926, so what type of houses were built back then?

It is a bungalow- a one and one-half story house with a low pitched roof - very popular in 1920s. The term bungalow originated in India as a dwelling of any size, but when bungalows came to the Unites States they were generally small homes like ours.

Ours was built out of brick so it is holding up very well for its age. In fact, when we moved in, all the windows were the original rope and pulley type. They're squeaky, but the ropes and pulleys still work. Since we've moved in, we've started replacing the old windows for warmth in the winter.

A bungalow usually had the living space on the ground floor and a full basement. It was common for them to have gables built in the roof to expand the upper floor and have access to light and fresh air. The upstairs areas were used for attic space. Most also had large porches on the front of the house, often enclosed to make sun rooms.

Ours was built with all the modern amenities of the time - electricity and plumbing. Of course, each room had only one ceiling light in the center, with a switch on the wall, and one electrical outlet, whether you needed it or not. Guess people back then didn't like a lot of light in a room. Not too convenient for modern usage, though. Both of our bedrooms still only have the single outlet in each room. Makes life interesting sometimes.


Our kitchen has the original electrical outlet from when it was constructed. The configuration of it is very interesting, so I'll attach a picture. When we first moved in we were skeptical that it would still be hooked to the power supply, but it was.

The upstairs bedroom and bathroom were added many years after the home was constructed. Because of the low-pitch of the roof, it's difficult to walk around in most of the room except for the middle peak of the ceiling. At least there are more plugs up there to use.

The low-pitch of the roof-line make the stairs very interesting to go up and down. The clearance space at one point is only four feet high. No gable was placed in the roof over the stairs to make it more usable. That might be one thing we change in the years ahead.

Thank goodness our children are all grown and married. With only two people in the house, we don't use the upstairs much at all. It's a guest suite when the grandchildren come to visit us. They like having their own little "castle" upstairs since you have to climb the steps almost like going up into a turret.

We love our bungalow even is if it is rather small. The historical woodwork and built in cabinets far outweigh what it might lack in size.