Hats, Furs and Gloves

Semo campus c 1966Remember the day when women wore furs, white gloves and hats? These women were captured on the SEMO campus sometime around 1966. I have no idea who they are or where they were heading.

I’m also confused by what the woman behind them is dragging on a leash. Maybe it’s a fur collar that got away.

How to stay up to date

I posted the following note last night and had several people tell me the link didn’t work. I reported the problem to Kid Matt. He gave me his usual verbal shrug over the telephone that conveys, “So?” then he went on to fix it like he always does. He gave me some long explanation about having to refill the throckmartin tank because the hamsters had eaten all the koala berries, or something like that. Anyway, it’s fixed.

I used to be able to post links to new stories on Facebook, but FB has changed the way it delivers status info to your timeline. If you “liked” a page in the past, you would get updates delivered to you. Now, FB is playing games to force folks like me to pay to “boost” our posts. If we don’t pay, only about 10% of my readers receive status reports.

Here’s an easy and free way to stay up to date on my new posts: sign up for the blog’s email notification service. It’s free, you get only one notice a day and I promise not to spam you. It’s as easy as clicking on THIS LINK or the “Manage Subscriptions” link at the top left of the page.

I don’t need Facebook when I have loyal readers.

Putting a Lid on It

Hat display unknown storeThere are plenty of hat selections for the well-dressed man in this photo from March 1957. Picking out the right head covering must have been a family affair.

Unfortunately, I don’t know who the people are nor in which store it was taken. None of the signs on the wall give a clue.

Was it taken here?

Midnight Madness 1964 14Based on the HATS sign, it looks like it was taken at the same store that is in Frame 13 of a Midnight Madness sale I shot in 1964.

Ideas?

When Men Wore Hats

1934 Girardot Page 125I’ve worn baseball caps, cowboy hats, firefighter helmets, bike helmets and riot helmets, but I never had a traditional hat like this dandy in the 1934 Girardot is sporting.

My first thought in seeing the ad for Bohnsack’s – “A Clothing Store for Men and Boys” – was that the man with the hat and mustache was Clark Gable. It might have been Gable, but he didn’t REALLY become famous until Gone with the Wind, which hit the screen in 1939, long after the yearbook was published.

Bohnsack’s had become Sherman Ladies Fashions by 1968, and that address was listed as William Brothers’ Curtis Mathis TV, Linens and Gifts in the 1979 City Directory.

Other businesses on the page

  • Lueders Studio survived well into the 1990s, based on family photos we had taken there.
  • Suedekum & Sons has returned to its original roots as Meyer Supply company, but it’s still in the same place and it’s been serving the community for more than a century.
  • Finney’s Drug Store was still listed in the 1979 City Directory, but Google’s Street View shows it as an empty storefront today.