May 15th, 2008

I’ve had a rough couple of days, but things turned around a bit after I received an email from one of the readers of How The West Was Worn. Thank you Mr. Warshaw, for your much appreciated comments. It lifted my spirits more than you know. Here’s what he had to say. “I finished How the West was Worn yesterday. You’ve done it again! That book is totally fascinating. Reading about what the people wore back then, from hats to footwear to perfume, gave such a better insight into what life was like back in the Old West. One really never gives much thought to that until you described how people dressed by necessity rather than by style, and how it created a style of its own. I had always wondered whether cowboys’ pants were supposed to be tucked into the boots or worn over the boots, because in the movies and on TV you see both. Your book explained that it depended on where the cowboy lived or was from. I also never considered how much of a woman’s time was spent making or mending clothes. Between that and cooking and child care, a woman back then really had no spare time at all as if living in the frontier didn’t make life difficult enough!” All it takes is a kind word. Now of days they are few and far between.