Not only the older people..I moved from school uniform to twin set straight skirt and nylons with suspender belt..when I started work.my aunt 17 years older wore almost the same..this was in 62/63 when denim was worn here by mostly by manual workers..very soon afterwards jeans started to be worn by boys..we also had full drindle skirts with layers of petticoats..young men wore suits..
Teenagers were an invention...when the Boomers started to earn money and were targeted by music/magazines/fashion outlets as an entity..
we used to call older kids..big boys and girls...meaning they were over 15/16..
But the older women wore hats to go go shopping...and pregnant women stayed home in the last weeks..just in case!!!
times change

that's not the half of it. Young pregnant women were dismissed from jobs just as soon as employers detected that they were pregnant. Not only that it was considered impolite to talk about pregnancy, and people would use other words to describe it..

Everyone wore hats, even children. During the president's inauguration this January, I saw Aretha Franklin wearing THE hat and i wondered why we don't wear hats anymore. I remember wearing a kerchief over my head in cold and rainy weather as a little girl. Now we see Muslim girls dressed like that and think they look foreign.

As far back as I could remember (i was born in 51) Teenagers were teenagers (according to one source the word was coined in 1938 - how old are you Mountain Ash?) but the behavior that we saw in teenagers in the 50's is what I'm seeing now in little girls. They are wearing makeup and stylish ultra feminine clothes. EEEK

And I look at photos of my grandmother at my age, and she was already wearing matronly clothing, even though she was healthy and in good shape.

When I was a kid from say baby to teenage, my mother, a slender gorgeous brunette wore cotton wrap around house dresses. Or plain dresses for going out and sensible shoes. It was as is she were 60 years old. She and my father divorced when she was 43 and my sisters and I dragged her out shopping, cleaned out her closet and had a bonfire. We got her into snazzy dresses, sexy shoes and pants suits. Plus she wore jeans around the house and blouses or tee shirts. Mom loves sweats when gardening or cleaning house, and at 89 looks young, and dresses so much younger that when she actually WAS YOUNG!!! Thats what happens when you listen to a jealous, controling man, like my father was...

Do enjoy that highway as much as possible on the bikes now. Take photos and videos of each other cycling. There will be less opportunity without getting run over by a car on any road.

Go as far as you can it, in peace on the bike..NOW!! Early morning is a good, cooler temperature time.

In fact, we're crossing our fingers that a proposal will be approved for a festival near end of this summer, to make a whole street route car-free for a whole day..this is about 15 kms. long..will be approved. Will allow another stretch of the waterfront and beach area for cyclists and pedestrians.

Jabber, yes, for your hubby, it's less effort to cycle vs. walking for geocaching. And one goes exploring farther in same amount of time.

Madaline
I was born May 1946
and yes the films we got from US showed plaid shirts and jeans but here in my area..rural scotland it took until mid sixties when a different culture emerged..Ground breaking plays called kitchen sink dramas opened up society.Look Back in Anger Cathy come home etc...
Remember the effect of WW2 were present in UK in a severe way and rationing of food until early fifies..The emergence of new towns since bombs had flattened many cities shifted society.Locally a new town was started and a mix of industry followed. as we Boomers started to earn and our Government swung from Conservative a new freedom started.More in London Brighton Liverpool etc..
but I was speaking from a personal stance..Home knitting was the norm and I longed for shop bought sweaters.But needlwork and the simple shift dress opened fashions door.Make do and mend was a motto during my childhood.

Magdaline
the pregnancy issue.Married women gave up jobs here on marriage.Unless in a family business.that could be shop or farm.Widows were prefered and all our dinner ladies were such women.when the new town was built factories had swing shifts and then openings occurred.which meant these women workd twice as hard.They did prosper and many couples then bought theie own home.At the time the right to buy a council built home became law..fine for those first tenents but sadly housing stock is depleted..
As well as not going out for the last weeks of gestation women whispered about "when they were better" as a girl I puzzeled about what illness they had and how they knew exactly when they would get "better"
Also worn were smocks over their clothes to hide their baby bump.I actually have similar tops this year but alas no baby bump

My mom and grandmom wore dresses everyday, plaid, cotton house dresses. Women seldom wore slacks back in the early 50s. Never saw grandma in slacks. Mom wore pantsuits toward the end of her
life; she died in '93. Gram died in '63. Sis wore jeans. She died
very young, the year and month Elvis passed.

Oh, Mountain Ash, how much things have changed! You're right, married women couldn't be teachers once upon a time!
I know my mother also pined for store bought; and when I was small I stated my preference for the dresses my grandmother made me, and she was amazed that I too didn't want store bought. It's simple, I had a choice, more or less, and she didn't. If they didn't sew it, they didn't get it.
I never wore anything except skirts and dresses until i graduated from Highschool. In college I wore jeans and that was the end of the dress era in my life.

The absolute good thing about my childhood was how none of we girls were competing in the fashion sense..unlike what I perceive with tinies now.We had blazers..a school badge worn with pride on the pocket a trench style coats.school ties/scarves.weekend for Sunday school good coat (passed down to cousins) home knitted gloves and pixie hoods.These were marvellous creations in fair isle knitting and how I wish I had kept one or at least the pattern.we all had tartan kilts..worn for several winters.the bodice was tucked and sown then let down as we grew.These were allowed in school as part of our uniform.
We were clean smart and warm in the Scottish winter..Learning to do dressmaking was a revelation and we older girls shared patterns.especially the drindle skirts..
There was that big day when the school uniform was redundant.My first job I wore a lab coat..and the sunday coat as my day coat.
then came the shift and out came the dressmaking tools.

Mountain Ash, it sounds like wonderful memories. I wore a school uniform too, but was teased because mine was different (homemade!)
and other kids teased even about what kind of socks you wore. We didn't have that many choices, white anklets, kneesocks...! but still the jealousy and torment was there. I remember it well, having been the butt of their jokes and jibes.
However, none of us were trying to look like sex goddesses, and there was no cleavage ANYWHERE except maybe at a swimming pool and that only some over endowed older woman..

Despite having 3 grandparents who were tailors, I never learned to sew!