GRANNY’S VIEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXX, Issue 20165, 20 July 1935, Page 20

GRANNY’S VIEWS

“HIKERS,” 1905 AND 1935 “Near Canungra, in Australia, on a recent Sunday, an Englishwoman, who is now a grandmother, was driving with some of her descendants when they met a party of hikers from Brisbane, mostly girls in the shortest of shorts and the skimpiest of sleeveless shirts,” states a writer in the “Australian Worker.” “I 'suppose they call that rational dress,’ she said, ‘but I doubt if they get over any more ground than I did in my young days when touring the Highlands of Scotland, in Wales, or on the Continent. The clothing of myself and my girl friends then was a combination garment for underwear, lightweight bloomers, a strong skirt, a blouse, woollen stockings, and light leather boots. We were always ready for a tramp of from twelve to twenty miles, and in town when time was available we did not ride on buses or trams. Our walking skirts were fairly short, and we never wore anything tight round the neck. We kept to the happy medium, too, between meagreness and fat; we were not proudly emancipated as so many girls now are. “We were just healthy, active, and happy; we did not try to walk in shoes with high wooden pegs for heels and perishable silk stockings as girls do now except when they are engaging in athletics. The other day in Brisbane I saw a group of girls dressed ready for horseback in wellcut modem riding costume, which really, except when the breeches are skin-tight, is sensible and an improvement on the costume associated formerely with the now obsolete sidesaddle; but they had sealing-wax scarlet lips of the worst lipstick make, and the hair of two of them was drastically bleached to make them ashblondes, and sizzled by electricity to make them curly. Of course, every decade of every generation has its fashion crazes, but the nicest girls have always liked nice clothes and cleanliness, and have avoided extremes.’ “ ‘Amen,’ said the driver.”