More about underwear

My Grandmother – Marie Koetting, Mother- Sue Morey and me Lisa in 1964.

Earlier this week I posted about lady’s underwear. Just in case you thought substantial amounts of underwear were a thing of the distant past I’d like to share a story about watching my Grandma Koetting get dressed. We were visiting just before my 12th birthday in the summer of 1976. For some reason I was hanging out in Grandma’s room talking to her in the still cool early morning while she was getting dressed for the day. She started with bra and underwear – white full coverage 1950s style. I wasn’t surprised by this, but then she added a girdle.

“The Ladies’ home journal (1948) (14764705874)” by Internet Archive Book Images – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Ladies%27_home_journal_(1948)_(14764705874).jpg#/media/File:The_Ladies%27_home_journal_(1948)_(14764705874).jpg

Grandma wasn’t fat, but she said she didn’t want to jiggle. Okay… at 11 I didn’t have enough body fat to even think about jiggling and I was a little worried about what might happen as I aged. Her girdle had garters for her hose. Garters and hose… in Milwaukee… in July. Aunt Mary told me that Grandma had been shocked when Jackie Kennedy went to mass in Palm Springs in the middle of summer with no hose. Well, that wasn’t happening with Grandma, so hose on and fastened to the bottom of the girdle. We aren’t talking sexy girdle, we’re talking Sears and Roebucks best.

Over all that went the slip. Now my eyes were really wide. In the 70’s people didn’t have air-conditioning. We hung out in the shade,  stood in front of fans, or ran in the sprinkler. Grandma was going to melt and be even smaller than her 5’4″ petite frame.

Over all that she finally put on a house dress. She laughed and said one day she was halfway down the stairs before she realized that she forgot her dress since she had already put so much on. She straightened her hair and went downstairs to cook breakfast for me and my four siblings. She looked great, but I vowed then and there that when I grew up I wasn’t going to wear that much underwear!