In all times and in all places, a teacher’s salary has required fiscal discipline. When I was working, my tastes had inclined toward books, not clothing. I could have afforded more now, but for me the acquisition of a new dress had always been less an amusing indulgence than a depressing chore. When I began teaching, women’s clothing was made to measure, tightly fitted around unbending corsets that wordlessly proclaimed: This is decidedly not a loose woman. The styles of that era celebrated an ampleness I did not possess, though Mumma did her best for me. “Oh, Agnes,” she’d sigh, gathering ankle-length skirts into high fabric waistbands to hint at shapely hips I did not have. “What am I going to do with you?” she’d mutter as she created abundantly pleated bodices to enhance what nature had begrudged. It was unrewarding work for her, and I hated every moment.
Then the war came on, and suddenly it was patriotic to conserve fabric more nobly used to clothe our boys in uniform. Skirts crept toward the knees. Pleats disappeared. Hats became smaller, with none of the elaborate wire structure that earlier millinery had required and armament factories now requisitioned. Mumma was scandalized by the new styles and would have none of them. I simply waited the war out, wearing what I had, but Lillie enjoyed the changes. She had a real knack for fashion. A professor’s wife couldn’t be extravagant, but my sister could toss an old piano shawl around her shoulders and look chic. When I tried that, I looked like a pile of rough-dried laundry pulled straight off the clothesline, and …