TKAM and Sunday Best

(from p. 134 in To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Next morning she began earlier than usual, to 'go over our clothes....' She had put so much starch in my dress it came up like a tent when I sat down..."

IDK if this is a southern thing or not, but OH MY GOODNESS reading that reminded me of my Sunday clothes when I was little. Not so much the starch part (thankfully!), but definitely the "Sunday best" way of dressing that the preparations for always began the night before.

Bath ✔️

Hair in pink sponge rollers ✔️

Fancy dress ironed ✔️

Tell me I am not aging myself by admitting this. 😆

What some of our members shared

"Oh, Grandmother was big into starching things. Lol. The dresses we wore for Easter were made out of scratchy stuff like tule. Loved dressing up in them, but they sure were scratchy. Lol"

"Not so much starch in our 'Sunday' clothes. But in Natchez, every spring, was the annual tourist event 'The Pilgrimage', which started on the first weekend of March and ran through the first weekend of April. It involved the antebellum homes being open for tours as well as the 'Tableau' at night. I cannot tell you how much starch (old-fashioned cooked starch) my mother's housekeeper went through in that month keeping my sisters and I 'presentable'. Think multilayered organdy dresses over hoop skirts with at least one starched petticoat for each of the 3 of us. Starched to perfection every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. And it itched like crazy!"

"We always dressed up for Sunday School and church! In very dressy clothing- I think that way back when I was little, clothing was made out of more stiff cottons and not so much carefree, no-iron stuff. But I will admit - when I was a teen and had moved to Spokane and gone back for a visit to Alabama, I was the first 'youth' to wear jeans to church! Sunday NIGHT, of course, but still!"