Feed sack prom dresses

By Howard E. Cummins

columnist

During the war years, when young people danced to the tune of “In The Mood” by Glenn Miller and danced the “Jitterbug” to the tune of Harry James, life on the home front was doing its best to retain as much normalcy as possible. Dances and ball games kept up as usual, but on a different level, instilling in every citizen, young and old, a mutual sense of togetherness as the reason for survival.
This remembrance of those years is focused on one particular event, a prom held at East Stone High School and my sister, Blanch Cummins, and her close friend, Eva Jean Goins. They had always enjoyed the attention because of their names, especially after the principal of the school had made an amusing introduction in an assembly by saying “This is the first time we will have a Goins and a Cummins graduating the same year.”

The usual plans for making the prom as normal as possible took more imagination than days before the war but neither Blanch or Eva Jean had really made definite plans until the day of this special event. Every female friend had made a point of asking what they would be wearing, giving details about their own plans and dresses. But the cost of a special dress just for one dance was a really big issue, and neither girl had been able to resolve this dilemma.

It wasn’t until the morning of the prom when the thunderbolt of an idea finally hit the two friends at the same time when Blanch said to Eva Jean: “We are going to that prom tonight if we have to wear feed sacks!”

Both girls knew that their mothers had kept every feed bag after they were empty. Their mothers had washed and starched the colorful fabrics and put them in the clothes closet awaiting a second life as a towel, curtain, apron or whatever use was needed.

The girls gathered feed sacks from each house and piled them on a bedroom floor. There were pink and blue violets, yellow, purple designs, orange and green tulip designs, red roses, yellow sun flowers, and stark black and white designs.

They both had taken Home Economic and were familiar with the rudiments of using a Singer Sewing Machine. Their mothers were summoned, aunts were called , available men were commandeered to run errands to the store for thread, needles, satin ribbons and buttons. The house became a madhouse of activity with everyone pitching in with advice, finger food, soft drinks, and even a barking dog to muffle all the human clatter.

The finished dresses were pressed and readjusted, and following a session of hair styling and makeup, and a fast meal from a local cafe they were off to the gym in Eva Jean’s pick up truck. The dance was in full swing when they made their grand entrance in their amazing feed sack creations. As memory serves, they turned out quite beautiful, and the notoriety of their creations brought both Blanch and Eva Jean great pleasure. They danced the night away with two young male friends who were not yet old enough to join the armed service, and all thoughts of the present war were quickly forgotten.

Blanch and Eva Jean were the life of the party, proudly wearing their feed sack prom dresses, that certainly cost almost nothing but their time and energy to create. It’s amazing to me to see that you can now go on-line and see feed sack/gunny sack dresses offered for sale for hundreds of dollars.