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When the temperature got below zero we dressed for the weather, not style. Here is a sample of what I wore to walk a bit over half a mile on those cold mornings: First layer was a long -sleeved, long-legged suit of cotton/wool underwear. The seat had a buttoned flap for use when necessary. Over the long legs went cotton (lisle) stockings which were fastened above the knee with round elastic garters. A cotton slip was next, Then a dress or blouse and skirt which was what showed to others. This was my indoor outfit.

Outdoor clothing varied somewhat with the weather. We had semi- waterproof cloth overshoes which buckled over our shoes. A wool scarf tied around the coat collar and helped to keep our faces warm. Hats were usually stretchy knit. If it was especially cold and windy another wool scarf went around the knit cap. We were indeed "bundled up" and probably resembled actual bundles as we walked along the highway.

This was normal for us and we took it for granted as part of winter.

Seniorgal, where did you live? It sounds like the midwest.

These posts of yours are so enjoyable, Seniorgal! Please keep them coming!

I lived in Southern Minn., near Montgomery.

I love your stories. Keep them coming. As a six-year-old, I had to walk to school almost one mile in the morning, back home for lunch, which we called dinner , back at 1 and home again after school. In the winter I had a wool snowsuit coat and pants and my dress was tucked in the pants. Of course knit cap, mittens, and boots.

I too, love reading your posts. They remind me of things I’d hear when listening to my parent’s, aunt’s and uncles reminisce.

Me too, Lily. Girls also wore only skirts or dresses to school. Fun cramming skirtst into snow pants. Of course they got all wrinkled. Girls didn't wear pants anywhere in my youth (1940's).

So happy to *see* you here, Seniorgal!

I remember my mom putting so many layers on us we could barely move. None.of it was really water proof. Don't forget the bread bags in your boots

Seniorgal, I thought lamb fur ( shearling, mouton) was very popular in the old days. Have you seen kids wearing them in school? I am not talking about expensive mink, fox, beaver, coyote furs, shearling and mouton were common winter gears back then, right?

Seniorgal, I love hearing your recollections, My mom was from a North Dakotar farm and then grew up in Fargo, but she didn’t like to talk about it, other than the tall channels of snow they’d go through to get to the road, getting stuck at the high school after a dance because of a blizzard (and all the canoodling that went on!). But it does explain how she dressed us here in Illinois for winter outdoors!

Funny off story. I sent my pre-school little boy out in the back yard to play in the foot of snow and he came in without his coat which was never found!

Seniorgal, what a wonderful memory you have and thank you for telling us about your school days. Was your school very large?

How very descriptive and interesting! My mother would have been 4 in 1928. I have often wondered how my grandmother washed their clothing! Thank you for your stories.

I found this on weather.com:

https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/news/2013-12-16-vintage-winter-wear-cold-below-zero-coat-20131014

Do you remember the coldest temperature?

I grew up in NY and remember wearing a short skirt even in the winter while I waited at the bus stop to go school.

It was a huge deal when girls could wear pants to school! (Late 1960’s)

Seniorgal, do you remember these winter coats? No boots!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJA2HJjg3-s

Do you all remember these coats? :-) https://www.glamour.com/story/how-winter-coats-have-changed-from-the-1920s-to-now

Enjoyable story, as always :-) My mom was born in the 1930's. I remember her saying it was so unfair when she was a kid -- girls had to wear skirts and dresses even in the cold cold Winter, only boys could wear long pants to school. So I (a girl in the 60's) should quit complaining at all the layers she insisted we wear, and enjoy being warm all over!

The public high school I attended in the late 60's in NYC was not a neighborhood school. It was open to everyone in the city, but you had to pass an entrance exam to get in. It was the era of skirts for girls. Friends had to commute quite a ways to get there--bus, ferry, subway, walk. If your parents and the dean approved, you could wear pants during your travels and bring a skirt to change. Those girls wearing pants had to go into the school using a back door entrance and change in a designated bathroom BEFORE going to their locker or home room. When I was a senior, the rules changed, and we girls could wear slacks. Also, it was the era of separate gym classes for boys and girls. Does anybody remember those awful gym outfits we had to wear? I think my mother bought me mine in elementary school (very large, so that she would not have to replace it), and I wore it for years and years.

Seniorgal, I read this post when I came indoors after shoveling snow off my porch. It's still coming down, so I had the right atmosphere to enjoy your story! The buckles on your overshoes reminded me of the black rubber galoshes we sometimes wore over our shoes when I was growing up. I don't think I've heard the word "galoshes" in many years.

I was only allowed to wear skirts/dresses to school until I was in my mid-teens. In the 1960's. Then they ruled you could wear slacks underneath your skirt for warmth but had to take them off as soon as you got into the cloak room. I walked a mile in brutal mid-western cold. It was hateful with only stockings on your legs.

My Grandmother had what she called "Wooly Winns". They were snug, knit, ribbed wool undergarments that went from the waist to the knee. Like a pair of shorts. They were salmon colored. She wore them under dresses in the winter. She wanted to give me a pair but I refused. So uncomfortable and itchy.

I lived in a Minneapolis suburb until I was 8.5 years old and attended a neighborhood public school about a mile from our house. This was in the late 60s. All students walked to school year round and I do not remember school ever being cancelled due to either snow or cold. There were no buses for the elementary school. My family only had one car at the time that my dad took to work so mom driving us to school was not an option.

We would bundle up in multiple layers and snow boots and make the trek to and from school and unless the weather was extreme we would also have to bundle up again to go outside for recess.

Occasionally a neighbor up the street who substituted at the school would give us a ride.

At least it was flat land both directions!

Thank you for another wonderful story from your memories, Seniorgal. I hope you have more to share very soon.

Chisue, that's the way I remember being dressed in the wintertime, and the pants had to be removed when I got to school. I also remember having a snowsuit that I wore at home when I went out to play in the snow. It was a one-piece coverall that zipped up the front.

I loved wearing sweaters when I was a child and teenager in central Texas, but although I could sometimes wear them in the mornings in the winter, I usually had to carry them home. I never had any scarves either, but I would have liked to have worn those also. I remember seeing a lot of winter clothes that I wanted in the Spiegel catalog that my mother got from Chicago, but I never got to wear most of them, and the local stores did not carry them. I was lucky to get to wear sweaters, even if briefly.

Schools did close if it got cold because they did not have much in the way of heating. I never saw snow until I was eleven, and that was very exciting for me.