And mom jeans. Were they really so bad? They were so comfortable! Gardening in tight skinny jeans is a pain

Sterling Silver is a very pretty rose, but I would guess that you don't live in Florida do you?

Yes, mom jeans are pretty bad. I think it's the tapered ankle and the pleats around the waist that make them so intolerable :) I do miss the big hair sometimes....

And scrunchies!

Kitty, good news, you can knit leg warmers and be in fashion again, just wear them with boots and they are boot warmers and very much in style

Nope, mom jeans are VERY comfortable, wish we elders could find them anymore! I did get some Liz Wear walking shorts with the waist I like on Etsey, just love them, so comfortable. They are bullet proof unlike the shorts made today.

My sweaters always covered the pleats.

The rose with the closest fragrance to Sterling Silver is Love Potion but really, it's not the same. Love Potion is much easier to grow.

I can truthfully say I have never worn a pair of jeans in my life. Horrid, horrid ubiquitous nasty things. The nearest I have ever come was a craze for Big Smith dungarees (in the 80s). I don't do shorts either (a crime against humanity).
I wear cotton drill drainpipes in summer and leathers in winter.....but might drag out my old gardening cords if feeling retro.

" I don't do shorts either (a crime against humanity)." - I wear shorts 10 months out of the year. I bet you would too if you lived in Florida. It is nearly impossible to go outside and garden in the heat and humidity of August without shorts, but of course that leaves your legs open to attack by fire ants and mosquitos.....

Love your patterns, Kitty! I have patterns back into the 20's that were my Grandmothers. It's fun to look at them. Mom had a huge collection too and I like to go back and remember what the outfits she made for us and herself out of them looked like.

Good jeans and shorts are a must for me! Never wore leg warmers even back when. I did have hip huggers and huge bell bottoms in the 70s and even bigger shoulder pads in the 80s, lol!

Right now I have been wearing my Eddie Bauer flannel lined jeans to garden in. Campanula, I love soft cords too, but sometime you must give flannel lined jeans a try. They are heaven in the cool mornings. The only pair of leather pants I ever owned was when I first started 8th grade. I begged my mom to drive me into Mexico for a pair. Mexico has the nicest leather items and the cost was far less. Besides, my mom loved to go to the local panaderia (bakery) and also shop for shoes. I got a burgundy pair of leather pants that were so soft. It was sad for me when they finally wore out. I saved some leather and made a little bag with beads. It was similar to a friend's mother's little 70's bag. She lived one block from Corona Del Mar beach and bought all her things locally or in San Francisco. I used to get beautiful hand me down Gunne Sax dresses from her that her daughter had outgrown.

Lets hear it - what do you love from the past?

Roses and anything else you loved

Hmmmm, let me think back. I spent the 70s in various afghani wedding dresses, complete with huge amounts of embroidery, collected from the overland hippie trail to India. In the 80s, I discovered North Africa and lived in a selection of djelabas (and aforementioned dungarees). 90s, I got a bit more serious and professional although social workers never had to dress up much - a brief interlude of home dressmaking coincided with owning many cotton shifts....and a long-running vintage trend, throughout my adult life has ensured I am never short of a selection of tea dresses from the 40s and 50s (which suit my tiny(ish) waist and much larger arse. By the time we got to the millenium, I was gardening full time and lived in my leather trousers (I have half a dozen pairs, including some red ones for riding my bike).
Not even jeans lined with mink could persuade me to wear any.....and it would probably take a lot more than fire ants and mozzies (we get em here too, which is why Deet is my constant companion) to reveal my pasty knees to the world. Although my standards are slack, I do still have some.

Passing 50 was a fashion revolution for me - all hair dying, make-up wearing, blow-drying, depilating went out of the window (not that I did much of that anyway) as I fully embraced my rapidly approaching crone status. I severed the final links to style when I handed the scissors to Mr.Camps and asked for a trim (thereby closing a chapter on hair ribbons - another long lasting fad).

I used to love to wear jeans, but not the heavy material like shown in the picture above. Cut-offs were great also.

Since I need more flexibility at my age, I've switched over to sports/exercise pants--kind of a cross between sweatpants and slacks. Elastic waste, material that gives. The Exercise pants are also quite stylish in design. That's about all I wear now in cooler weather.

In warm weather (and let me tell you, Kansas can get decidedly "warm"), I wear shorts most of the time--elastic waistbands and fuller cut, or the sports/exercise shorts which have all the virtues of the long pants except they are shorter.

I can easily BEND in those pants and shorts--essential for a garden!

You need to show us a pic of Sterling Silver. I have never been interested in it, but I know there are gardeners who adore it. Maybe I need to look at it more carefully. : )

Kate

I wore muu-muus at home in the summer because to me they were always so much more comfortable than pants or shorts. I still feel the same way but now it's sun dresses. Of course I get stuck on rose thorns a lot but that seems to happen no matter what I wear.

Oh, clip-on earrings because I didn't get my ears pierced for the longest time, even though everyone I knew had theirs pierced.

I agree with campanula about the shorts. Never. Long, full linen shirts and skirts go nicely with crone, that is, mean old lady, status.

On the 80s, I was working in factories and the Mom jeans were just what I needed. Durable and with room to move, and seriously, a lot better than the ubiquitous polyester pants in colors not found in nature. Remember, the polyesters which showed and displayed every lump, bump, and detail of one's anatomy, not to mention underwear, to a fascinated public.

Well, I'm an old lady (mom, grandma), and I'm proud to say I wear full elastic waist jeans made by Chic (how "unchic" can you get!). I must have 15 pairs in more than one size to wear, depending how fat I am at any given time. I could never wear shorts because I crawl around my flower beds constantly in dirt and debris, on my knees. I do almost all my own digging, then get on my knees to work out all the clods and debris in my rotten soil. When I'm finished with that kind of job, I'm covered with dirt from head to toe. Must cover up for this. Also skin on knees would be toast if I wore shorts. I miss looser fitting t-shirts, and think the tight pants and tops that display every muffin top and "plumber's problem" are absolutely disgusting and totally unflattering. This blanket condemnation includes some members of my family (biting my tongue is second nature by now). Diane

What do I miss from the past? My figure! And wearing floaty summer dresses, and shoes that didn't need orthotics.

"What do I miss from the past? My figure! "

My figure comes and goes, so that's not my big issue. My problem is that my brain is totally convinced I am in my mid-30s and always gets me in trouble because it refuses to accept that I am working in an older body. My mid-60s older body totally disagrees, but doesn't really get a vote until I can't move because I hurt all over !

This weekend my brain convinced my older body I could do a project that should have been done in smaller bites. HA ! My older body got even today. It's the first rain day of the season and I had planned to catch up on the housework that I have been ignoring. My older body said, "Nope. Not a chance."

I did get a few things done inside, but not even close to the amount of stuff my younger brain thought I had to do today.

Ahhhhhhh .... I want that younger body back.

Smiles,
Lyn

I did get a few things done inside, but not even close to the amount of stuff my younger brain thought I had to do today.

That about sums it up, lyn -- unfortunately. : (

Kate

I've been living in Levi's 501 since I could first fit into them (size 28-28). Now I'm up to 32-30. New, with white shirts and silk scarves, slightly worn with any sort of top, grubby for the garden, cut-offs for the summer. But I confess, I've bought a few pairs of relaxed fit Levis recently. Comfort has become more important. I also like cords. And for the summer garden, scrub tops: cool, sturdy, and last forever. Also, Members Only jackets, good for all but the hottest summer and coldest winter. I do have something of a jacket fetish and I keep buying them, but then never wear them. I just grab my MO.

Great photos :)

Here is a link that might be useful: oÅrodki wczasowe Mazury

Yeah, I miss my younger body too. And my better metabolism and energy levels that kept me less fat. If I could just burn off that stupid middle roll that showed up when I hit 50, I'd feel a lot better!

I also miss my old sleeping habits. I used to be able to hit the sack around 11:00 and be up about 6:00 in the morning feeling fine. Heaven forbid I ever slept past 8:00 even on my days off. I would feel like half the day was wasted. Nowadays, I fall asleep at the computer in the evening around 8:30- 9:00 nodding in and out, missing half my tv shows and doing the bobble-head thing, while my husband is laffing at me and betting when I'm going to hit the monitor with my face (if he's not fast asleep on the lounge chair himself). I finally give in by around 10:30. Then, by the time I get all the nightly routines done and get in bed, I can't go to sleep. Of course part of it is the two female cats hanging out all over me getting their bedtime lovin's. Once I do fall asleep, getting up at 6:00 or so like I used to just doesn't get it. I need until at least 7:15, except on the 3 days when I work at my "real" job, I have to get up at 5:10 and then I'm a zombie. By the weekend when I get to my one day off (Sunday) I often will sleep in til nearly 10:00, which I would've NEVER done in the past, but just feels so dang good sometimes....

Also wish I had more energy and drive to get outside and do more in the garden. I'm lucky if I get all the watering done. And as far as wearing shorts goes.... NO WAY in h3ll are you ever gonna see me baring my legs! Even in 100+ temps, I'm in my stretch Lee Riders. Not gonna scare people with these fat ugly varicose-road-map-looking legs! And when I get home from work this time of yr, the shoes and bra come off and the sweats and slippers go on! Gotta be comfy!

OMG... I'm OLD....

I'm not any sort of a knitter, but I remember 80's patterns with great fondness..my mother used to work a night shift, and she and all the other nurses would knit in between rounds. So all the family regularly got things made for them. Very useful for someone who spent most of the 80's in leggings and big baggy jumpers,

I'm with camps on the no jeans and no shorts thing- its either black cords or a sundress to garden in; although I have been known to wander out on a weekend morning to just look at the garden, still wearing my jammies and end up getting distracted into doing a spot of weeding and deadheading..

I love Sterling Silver in photos - didn't know it was hard to grow. Does disbudding promote branching/vegetative growth?

Banana clips from the 80s. Kept most of the hair back while the rest was curling-ironed and hair-sprayed to Kingdom Come! Oh, and my suede Peter Pan boots....

I was following Kim's advice to remove flowerbuds as soon as I see them so the small plant can put it's energy into growing. It works very well.

I've deadheaded roses in my hoop dresses while waiting for my sweetie to arrive.

I must confess that I LOVE wearing jeans & shorts. And I love how the jeans they make these days are MUCH more comfortable. Ok, another "true confession". Back in the 70's I loved my "smokin' hot" , emerald green, velvet bell bottoms--except on the Southern Oregon coast we didn't often call them bell bottoms-- the prefered name by us hippy chicks and dudes, was flares. There was a little bit of quilting on those flares.

I also must confess that I LOVED my blue Chevy Malibu automobile. I'm tellin' ya that baby was both cool & hot, hot, hot!!! A classy, female muscle car, as it were, hehe. I always loved beautiful cars. My daddy was a brilliant mechanic who taught me how to fix my own cars, and my brothers taught me as well. Also, the guys I dated taught me more mechanical skills. I sort of have a mechanical mind which was greatly appreciated by my Shopko Optical boss who let me layout, set up, order the materials, etc. for the 1st Shopko Optical Lab in Spokane, WA. Early on during my time there I figured out how to fix a very expensive optical lens cutting machine that all the Shopko labs in the U.S. were having a problem with. My boss got a big promotion and transfered to Chicago. Theeen, I started getting calls from Shopko Optical Labs all over!!! They had me explain to them how to fix their machines. Lol, I liked to wear leggings while runnin' that lab. They were very comfortable.

Dang this is fun talkin' about fashion and such. Thanks for starting this thread, Kitty!! It's been a blast having everyone sharing here.

Ok, I'm really staying on topic now. I adore so many of the photos of Sterling Silver that I've seen. Gorgeous!!!

Peace

This post was edited by dove_song on Fri, Nov 22, 13 at 16:16

Now that we brought up cars, maybe we'll get some of the guys to post. :)

When I was in school back in the 70âÂÂs, mom made most of my older sisterâÂÂs and my clothes. Unfortunately, those were mostly the same tops and dresses for each of usâ¦so I wore mine until I outgrew it and then had to wear my sisterâÂÂs identical hand me down until I outgrew it. I do vividly remember mom making for me, and only me, what I thought was the most wonderful outfit at the timeâ¦a jumpsuit made out of purple floral print corduroy. Trimming the jumpsuitâÂÂs huge flare legs and all the way around the long zipper in front wasâ¦orange rick-a-rack. How hideous does that soundâ¦but at the time I was sure it was the coolest thing ever.
Fast forward a bitâ¦my kids love to look at old photos from back when they were young in the early nineties. They laugh at the fact that in almost all of those photos, IâÂÂm wearing the fashion crime known as stirrup pants and my bangs are poofed up a mile high (my stick straight hair would not be âÂÂbigâ no matter how hard I tried, but I sure could tease and spray those bangs to stand up)

Lol, Kittie. Oh the men will be joining in. My dad was a very wise man. I recall one time when he told me to NEVER underestimate the ego of a man. I told him that women have powerful egos too. He adamantly told me that men's egos were bigger. I told him I thought women's egos were just as big. We ended that particular father/daughter talk with him kindly disagreeing with me. ;-)

Lol, Pat Bama. Orange rick-a-rack brings back fond memories. Orange was THE "it" color for a lot of things back then. :-)

Come on guys. We DO respect you. :-)

Plus we WANT to hear from you. :-)

Oops, double post.

This post was edited by dove_song on Fri, Nov 22, 13 at 17:25

Guess all of the talk about ladies fashions we gals talked about didn't interest them. Well, I've got some decluttering around the house to do....

Regarding Sterling Silver -- It is one of my two all-time favorite varieties (the other being Mr. Lincoln). I had a plant for 15+ years in my Sacramento garden. It is not appropriate for my current high altitude garden, but I remember it oh, so fondly for its beauty and fragrance. (Yes, I did spray it.)

Kay

I think I reverted to infancy and toddler time when food and comfort are the main concerns. I went from "show" to "go" in my older years.
Although I have never grown Sterling Silver, it is a beautiful rose!
Molly

Lol, Molly. I'm in my 2nd childhood now! And I too appreciate comfort and good food. All the best, dear! :-)