Thursday, March 22, 2012

Treasure Chest Thursday: Mom's Baby Booties 1924


A Sweet Heirloom!

Booties worn by my mother, Janet Runyan, when she was an infant

These booties still have a hint of blue. I wonder if my grandparents thought she was going to be a boy? No..apparently not! According to an article I found on children's clothing at Smithsonian.com, it wasn't until the 1940s that today's color dictate was established. Before that, pink was considered an appropriate color for boys and little girls wore blue! 

"The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

It's a great article! You can read it here: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?


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8 comments:

  1. Well, isn't that an interesting tidbit of history?? Thanks.

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    1. Well..it's certainly new news to me. Until I noticed the blue color in these and got to thinking that, back then, they didn't have a whole array of booties to match each outfit like they do today, so wouldn't they want the one pair they did have to be "right"? Why would they have blue booties for my mother? That's when I decided to Google it. What a surprise!

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  2. That IS interesting! I wonder if that's why my grandmother was always sewing my grandfather PINK shirts???

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    1. And I STILL have a problem seeing a man in pink! We, specifically us baby boomers, have really been conditioned to think pink is feminine only. But back then....well, who knew?

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  3. Simply charming and the color aspect is interesting. I'm wondering too, if you wore these booties as well, any idea?

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    1. No Barbara, even though I was the only daughter, I'm fairly certain my mother was the only one to ever wear them. I don't even think she had them in her possession until after my grandmother died. I don't recall ever seeing them until mom gave me all the family albums and these were in a zip-lock bag stuck inside one of them. She had marked them and made holes at the top of the bag so they would attach to two rings of the three ring binder they were in.

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  4. My daughter's second-grade teacher said that she always thought there was "something" about my daughter, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Then she realized that she always seemed to wear pink.

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  5. How precious! This is a great treasure,Lisa! Thank you for sharing!

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