LEGENDARY COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 2-25-17

Sewing

A strange issue to go into regarding history is sewing. Even though it is one of the oldest achievements of man, it has become a lost art with the advent of our “throw-away” society. Prehistoric animal bones have been found and determined to have been used to sew animal hides together for clothing. The animal hide would have a hole punched in it and animal sinew would hold the two pieces together. The same principle is used today but a needle with an eye in it would secure the two pieces of fabric together.

I worked at Ralph and Gaskill on the Plaza in downtown Salisbury for six years and even though I didn’t advance any further than the basic rudimentary skills I had learned during the two years I was at the seminary, I did acquire a deep admiration for the professional tailor. Make no mistake about it, Sarah and Bernice were as good as it gets. And Gaskill’s did all the tailoring for no charge, Can you imagine that now? See if you can get anyone to even know how to raise or lower a collar on a suit coat or sport coat, much less shorten it. Tricky stuff and not for the inexperienced. Did you know it is easier to put cuffs on a pair of pants that to make them plain bottoms?

I really took the haberdashery business to heart and learned every technical aspect of the business. Alas, it was explained to me that there was no monetary future there because it was wholly owned by Mr. Gaskill and the less he paid me, the more he got to keep, and the more he kept made him a more successful businessman. So, I just finally utilized my hard earned Accounting Degree and departed the job of my dreams. At least I got to dress real nice with the manager’s discount. I really made out when I went buying in New York. I got the very latest at 40% of what it would hit the store marked.

Sewing is something they should teach in High School –boys and girls. The simple things such as sewing on a button that has popped off is never addressed in school and I’m not sure many kids learn that skill at home. A hundred years ago the sewing chores were generally relegated to the woman of the house. The house was her domain and keeping things sewn up would have been her responsibility. Just as the man of the house didn’t know how to sew, she probably didn’t know how to shoe a horse. Times were different.

Then the women went into the factories during WWII and learned to make money and become more independent.

A hundred years ago they had “feed sack” dresses, curtains, table clothes, sheets, pillow cases, aprons and dish towels that were made out of the colorful material 167 lb. bags of feed that came in to the distributors. They had several patterns in every shipment and the wife would instruct her husband to bring home a certain number of bags with a certain pattern. This probably entailed moving hundreds of pounds of feed, but he did it.

The people who sew today seem to find that satisfaction of accomplishment. To start with just a piece of cloth and some thread and end up with a beautiful garment. If we don’t teach them now, it will be another skill/art form that will fade away with the horse.