You know you are getting old when:

[tonyb]

Perhaps the German tourists will keep it all alive. It still seems to be a big 'thing' for the Germans to experience the American West. On our trip a few years back to Death Valley it seemed at least half the RV's in the camp were German tourists in rental RV's. We planned to visit Little Big Horn on a trip to Montana as Sitting Bull was childhood hero of mine. We ended up driving by as I decided I didn't need to see that sliver of ignominious US history. But it struck me that approx 75 years had past since my youth and the actual battle and then another almost 75 years had past since I last played indians and cowboys. So that the days of my youth playing indians et al sit at the approximate half way point between the actual battle and my present life. Put in that context I had no other option than to realize...."sumbitch, I must be old"

I first visited what was then called the Custer Battlefield in 1969. I toured it again in 2000. A car trip in fall of 2019 took me right past it, but my travel companion and I decided against spending the 20 bucks (I think it was) for admission. But we bought postcards and refrigerator magnets at the trading post down by the highway. We overheard an older Indian fellow discussing Halloween decorations and firearms over his cell phone.

 

[belfastboy]

I first visited what was then called the Custer Battlefield in 1969. I toured it again in 2000. A car trip in fall of 2019 took me right past it, but my travel companion and I decided against spending the 20 bucks (I think it was) for admission. But we bought postcards and refrigerator magnets at the trading post down by the highway. We overheard an older Indian fellow discussing Halloween decorations and firearms over his cell phone.

I have read extensively about the American Plains Natives and in particular the battle of Little Big Horn. My permanent takeaway is continually referencing what is known as "Custer's Luck".......he was not necessarily a brilliant military man but many claim his reputation was built on luck,....not brilliant just lucky..............until the day he wasn't.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
The Peter Principle, eh?

I have Indian relatives by marriage who had a tradition of hosting at the family’s auto-wrecking yard a celebration on the anniversary of Custer’s demise. I don’t know if that tradition continues, seeing how I haven’t lived around there in more than half a century.

Have you read Larry McMurtry’s brief biography of Crazy Horse?

 

[belfastboy]

^^^^^^
The Peter Principle, eh?

I have Indian relatives by marriage who had a tradition of hosting at the family’s auto-wrecking yard a celebration on the anniversary of Custer’s demise. I don’t know if that tradition continues, seeing how I haven’t lived around there in more than half a century.

Have you read Larry McMurtry’s brief biography of Crazy Horse?

No, but I will check it out. I forget if it was Crazy Horse or Geronimo but I think Crazy Horse......he was a weird dude and the Crazy Horse moniker was legit. A great warrior but he made even his owns peeps very nervous. If I remember correctly they banned him from the tribe for a while......native pergatory as it were.

 

[tonyb]

McMurtry made clear that his treatment on the subject was short by necessity, seeing how little about the fellow’s life is verifiable. Even the whereabouts of his earthly remains is unclear.

 

[Edward]

I wish I was a full-time student! But the only way I can do the PhD is to take it one class at a time - and because I work at the university, my tuition is waived - which is another reason I can do it! So, I have the full-time day job which, thankfully, is very supportive of me going back to get my degree.

Definitely a big plus - it sure ain't cheap to study at that level. I believe the reckoned cost over here (tuition plus living expenses) is not about £50K, same as for an undergraduate degree. A supportive work environment is always a big bonus with these things.

I'm focusing on anti-Semitism, fascism, and nationalism in the Great Plains of America in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This is a very under-researched topic, so I'm excited to dive in. I'm also leaving myself open to doing something else related to the WW2 homefront, as that is my primary focus, and I know people start with a focus and then totally change. That's what I did for my master's degree - I originally wanted to do comparative studies of women in the American and French Revolutions, but then went in a different direction and ended up doing German POWs in Nebraska (which later became my first book).

I've supervised a fair few projects in my time that have evolved in different directions. The primary plan is definitely interesting - and, as you say, not only under-researched but not even much known about. Over here, even suggesting someone on the allied side could have been anti-Semitic is considered pretty much traitorous in some circles, which is a great shame given that it denies so much of the reality. I think we've reached a point where popular history can be reasonably objective on its analysis of the Axis, but less so the Allies.

Your previous book sounds really interesting - did you take it into the post-war period? I find it fascinating how (and where) many German POWs chose to settle rather than return to Germany post-war. I do wonder how many of them found it was circumstantial, and for how many it might have been tied up in a rejection of the whole Nazi Fatherland project, or fear of being seen as lesser for not having escaped. I'm sure I remember reading some years ago about a young fellow in a Luftwaffe bomber crew who was only too glad to be taken pow in England because he didn't believe in Hitler's war. (Wish I could remember where!).

It would be interesting to compare the pow experience in different places. A number of those held in Ireland (neutral - at least a sort of "allied biased neutral"!) during WW2 - "the Emergency" as it's known there - stayed after the war. Not sure how many did in England. I can imagine it was easier to fit in somewhere where they hadn't been 'the enemy' in the same way. Perhaps in the US, although they had fought Germany, it might have been easier as it was a bit more removed (insofar as there was never quite the same threat of invasion as in Britain)?

Last month, when my cousin from Wisconsin and his husband were visiting, we went to the Buffalo Bill gravesite and museum, a fairly short drive from here. It occurred to me that Buffalo Bill, once among the most-celebrated people on the planet, may gradually be fading into obscurity.

William F. Cody was as responsible as anyone for perpetrating the romance (and myth) of the American Wild West. Hollywood picked up where he left off. Still, I doubt the average person under age 30 could tell you much about him.

The gravesite and museum still draws a crowd, on a hot day at the height of tourist season, anyway. But I wonder how much longer that will be.

I could be wrong, of course. There’s enough romance in that time and place for any number of retellings. There are African-American takes on it, and Asian-American accounts, and of course the Native American histories. And I see supermarkets still stock the magazines True West and Cowboys & Indians. The stores around here do, at any rate.

Westerns had gone completely out of fashion before Dances With Wolves revived, and to some extent revolutionised, the genre. It's true, though, kids playing cowboys and Indians and such has gone. It was big in the 70s I seem to remember; I think it was Christmas 1978 the big present I remember from Santa was a full on cowboy outfit and accoutrements. A real sign kids don't 'do' Western any more was Rango, the 2011 animated feature. Although Wikipedia would have it now that it was a major critical and commercial success (to be fair it did make a profit equal to about 40% over its budget, as I recall), I very clearly remember a lot of commentary at the time that a lot of audiences didn't really 'get' it because they weren't familiar with the Western tropes, which it spoofs beautifully. Deadwood is probably the last, big Western thing that was a hit... No, Westworld, right? Maybe it'll all cycle back round again in interest in a generation or two when the big anniversaries start to kick in again. I doubt I'll be here to see them, but in the wider scope of human history the 2060s-2090s aren't that far away, and pop culture loves a big, simple number like '200'.

Perhaps the German tourists will keep it all alive. It still seems to be a big 'thing' for the Germans to experience the American West. On our trip a few years back to Death Valley it seemed at least half the RV's in the camp were German tourists in rental RV's. We planned to visit Little Big Horn on a trip to Montana as Sitting Bull was childhood hero of mine. We ended up driving by as I decided I didn't need to see that sliver of ignominious US history. But it struck me that approx 75 years had past since my youth and the actual battle and then another almost 75 years had past since I last played indians and cowboys. So that the days of my youth playing indians et al sit at the approximate half way point between the actual battle and my present life. Put in that context I had no other option than to realize...."sumbitch, I must be old"

It's fair to say that one of the big, iconic myths of the USA across the world is The Cowboy. As long as there are American tourists visit Scotland looking for kilts, or come to London with thoughts of the queen and bowler hats, there will equally be tourists arriving in the US with images of cowboys and Indians and wanting to see the Old West.

I'd love to see South Dakota, myself - the Black Hills, Deadwood City... I was in a school production of Calamity Jane when I was sixteen (I played Doc Pierce the undertaken and had an entire page of dialogue! ). Somebody had a relative who been and brought in a brochure from Deadwood and I remember being absolutely fascinated by looking up the reality of the folks mentioned (rather than the musical's myths), and by the notion of them all as 'real' people. The real Calam clearly had a lot more in common with Hellcat Annie than Doris Day...

^^^^^^
The Peter Principle, eh?

I have Indian relatives by marriage who had a tradition of hosting at the family’s auto-wrecking yard a celebration on the anniversary of Custer’s demise. I don’t know if that tradition continues, seeing how I haven’t lived around there in more than half a century.

Have you read Larry McMurtry’s brief biography of Crazy Horse?

My wife's late grandfather's army nickname (conscripted into WW2) was Crazy Horse. I'm told he never exactly explained it, but we do know it dates from a few months he spent in Paris at the end of hostilities....

 

[M Brown]

...when you yawn and pull a muscle.

 

[Turnip]

@Edward Eugenics is a key to understanding not only German racism but racism in vast parts of political deciders class and not too few societies in the entire Western Hemisphere of the outgoing 19th and beginning 20th century imo.
Like such streamings elsewhere too the early nationalsocialistic movement additionally had a clear esoteric edge, just think about the „Thule society“ some early time leading figures came from, like Rudolf Heß for example, whom Goebbels called a Gesundbeter and Grasfresser…, that is unfortunately still attractive for not too few.

 

[tonyb]

…

Westerns had gone completely out of fashion before Dances With Wolves revived, and to some extent revolutionised, the genre. It's true, though, kids playing cowboys and Indians and such has gone. It was big in the 70s I seem to remember; I think it was Christmas 1978 the big present I remember from Santa was a full on cowboy outfit and accoutrements. A real sign kids don't 'do' Western any more was Rango, the 2011 animated feature. Although Wikipedia would have it now that it was a major critical and commercial success (to be fair it did make a profit equal to about 40% over its budget, as I recall), I very clearly remember a lot of commentary at the time that a lot of audiences didn't really 'get' it because they weren't familiar with the Western tropes, which it spoofs beautifully. Deadwood is probably the last, big Western thing that was a hit... No, Westworld, right? Maybe it'll all cycle back round again in interest in a generation or two when the big anniversaries start to kick in again. I doubt I'll be here to see them, but in the wider scope of human history the 2060s-2090s aren't that far away, and pop culture loves a big, simple number like '200'.




It's fair to say that one of the big, iconic myths of the USA across the world is The Cowboy. As long as there are American tourists visit Scotland looking for kilts, or come to London with thoughts of the queen and bowler hats, there will equally be tourists arriving in the US with images of cowboys and Indians and wanting to see the Old West.

I'd love to see South Dakota, myself - the Black Hills, Deadwood City... I was in a school production of Calamity Jane when I was sixteen (I played Doc Pierce the undertaken and had an entire page of dialogue! ). Somebody had a relative who been and brought in a brochure from Deadwood and I remember being absolutely fascinated by looking up the reality of the folks mentioned (rather than the musical's myths), and by the notion of them all as 'real' people. The real Calam clearly had a lot more in common with Hellcat Annie than Doris Day...



My wife's late grandfather's army nickname (conscripted into WW2) was Crazy Horse. I'm told he never exactly explained it, but we do know it dates from a few months he spent in Paris at the end of hostilities....

“What’s this ‘we’ sh*t, masked man?”

— Tonto, to the Lone Ranger, as they are being surrounded by Indians out for blood.

“The Taming of the West,” “How the West was Won,” etc., etc. That was the steady diet fed us post-War kids, and not just in popular entertainments. Our schools positively celebrated Western expansion. It was all but a religious doctrine. Manifest Destiny, and all that. Take a minute to look up John Wayne’s take on that matter (and others) as published in a 1971 Playboy magazine interview. Jaw-droppingly racist, and a perspective certainly not unique to him.

Still, though, there remains a romance in the wide-open spaces, the spectacular scenery, and the young (pale faced) history out here in the American West. It was pure luck that my European ancestors made their way to the “New World” (another construction grounded in white supremacy). It wasn’t so lucky for those of darker hues.

But those of us of the Caucasian persuasion ain’t going back to Europe. (Doubt they’d have us anyway.) Most African-Americans’ families have been in America longer that most white folks’s. The resistance to acknowledging that remains strong, though. Witness the reaction to The 1619 Project. Witness the ongoing, and often successful, appeals to thinly veiled (when it’s veiled at all) racism.

I’ll always remember an incident circa 1972, when I was working at Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport, when a planeload of Japanese students were retrieving their luggage at the baggage claim and had taken note of a Ford Ranchero (a sedan with a pickup bed where the back seats and trunk would otherwise have been) parked on the drive right outside the doors. The youngsters took turns having their photos taken with the thing.

By the way, tourists from overseas ain’t likely to see many cowboy hats and pointy-toed boots at LGA or ORD or SFO, but you don’t have to travel far from DFW or DEN or ABQ to find folks so attired.

 

[belfastboy]

Definitely a big plus - it sure ain't cheap to study at that level. I believe the reckoned cost over here (tuition plus living expenses) is not about £50K, same as for an undergraduate degree. A supportive work environment is always a big bonus with these things.



I've supervised a fair few projects in my time that have evolved in different directions. The primary plan is definitely interesting - and, as you say, not only under-researched but not even much known about. Over here, even suggesting someone on the allied side could have been anti-Semitic is considered pretty much traitorous in some circles, which is a great shame given that it denies so much of the reality. I think we've reached a point where popular history can be reasonably objective on its analysis of the Axis, but less so the Allies.

Your previous book sounds really interesting - did you take it into the post-war period? I find it fascinating how (and where) many German POWs chose to settle rather than return to Germany post-war. I do wonder how many of them found it was circumstantial, and for how many it might have been tied up in a rejection of the whole Nazi Fatherland project, or fear of being seen as lesser for not having escaped. I'm sure I remember reading some years ago about a young fellow in a Luftwaffe bomber crew who was only too glad to be taken pow in England because he didn't believe in Hitler's war. (Wish I could remember where!).

It would be interesting to compare the pow experience in different places. A number of those held in Ireland (neutral - at least a sort of "allied biased neutral"!) during WW2 - "the Emergency" as it's known there - stayed after the war. Not sure how many did in England. I can imagine it was easier to fit in somewhere where they hadn't been 'the enemy' in the same way. Perhaps in the US, although they had fought Germany, it might have been easier as it was a bit more removed (insofar as there was never quite the same threat of invasion as in Britain)?



Westerns had gone completely out of fashion before Dances With Wolves revived, and to some extent revolutionised, the genre. It's true, though, kids playing cowboys and Indians and such has gone. It was big in the 70s I seem to remember; I think it was Christmas 1978 the big present I remember from Santa was a full on cowboy outfit and accoutrements. A real sign kids don't 'do' Western any more was Rango, the 2011 animated feature. Although Wikipedia would have it now that it was a major critical and commercial success (to be fair it did make a profit equal to about 40% over its budget, as I recall), I very clearly remember a lot of commentary at the time that a lot of audiences didn't really 'get' it because they weren't familiar with the Western tropes, which it spoofs beautifully. Deadwood is probably the last, big Western thing that was a hit... No, Westworld, right? Maybe it'll all cycle back round again in interest in a generation or two when the big anniversaries start to kick in again. I doubt I'll be here to see them, but in the wider scope of human history the 2060s-2090s aren't that far away, and pop culture loves a big, simple number like '200'.




It's fair to say that one of the big, iconic myths of the USA across the world is The Cowboy. As long as there are American tourists visit Scotland looking for kilts, or come to London with thoughts of the queen and bowler hats, there will equally be tourists arriving in the US with images of cowboys and Indians and wanting to see the Old West.

I'd love to see South Dakota, myself - the Black Hills, Deadwood City... I was in a school production of Calamity Jane when I was sixteen (I played Doc Pierce the undertaken and had an entire page of dialogue! ). Somebody had a relative who been and brought in a brochure from Deadwood and I remember being absolutely fascinated by looking up the reality of the folks mentioned (rather than the musical's myths), and by the notion of them all as 'real' people. The real Calam clearly had a lot more in common with Hellcat Annie than Doris Day...



My wife's late grandfather's army nickname (conscripted into WW2) was Crazy Horse. I'm told he never exactly explained it, but we do know it dates from a few months he spent in Paris at the end of hostilities....

My wife and I own a motorhome and we spent 2-4 months each year for 6 years (pre Covid) touring the US west. We have visited every state on the left hand side of our well worn large format Rand McNally Road Atlas except for Kansas and Nebraska. Tornado warnings diverted us back to the relative safety of New Mexico so we skipped those two states. The US west is a revelation . Its incredible beauty, the wonderful warm, friendly folks and the absolute wide open spaces that still exist in so many of the states. My thrill was getting to within 30' of a bull bison that stood as tall as me at the withers. Incredible beast.

 

[tonyb]

… We have visited every state on the left hand side of our well worn large format Rand McNally Road Atlas except for Kansas and Nebraska. Tornado warnings diverted us back to the relative safety of New Mexico so we skipped those two states. … My thrill was getting to within 30' of a bull bison that stood as tall as me at the withers. Incredible beast.

Have you seen the new Nebraska Tourism ad campaign? The slogan is “Nebraska. Honestly, it’s not for everyone.”

I lived in Lawrence, Kansas for a couple years in my childhood. Got an aunt (she’s still kickin’, last I heard) and cousins living there still. Some Kansans would argue, convincingly, that Lawrence is hardly representative of the state overall. The blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup.

I came upon a bison one misty morning in Yellowstone Park in August of 1970. We weren’t quite sure what it was, in that early morning light and through that fog, until we drew near. Through my eyes the beast appeared as long and tall as our VW microbus.

 

[belfastboy]

Have you seen the new Nebraska Tourism ad campaign? The slogan is “Nebraska. Honestly, it’s not for everyone.”

I lived in Lawrence, Kansas for a couple years in my childhood. Got an aunt (she’s still kickin’, last I heard) and cousins living there still. Some Kansans would argue, convincingly, that Lawrence is hardly representative of the state overall. The blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup.

I came upon a bison one misty morning in Yellowstone Park in August of 1970. We weren’t quite sure what it was, in that early morning light and through that fog, until we drew near. Through my eyes the beast appeared as long and tall as our VW microbus.

I am sorry we missed Nebraska as there are parts quite pretty I have read. Kansas I am decidedly neutral. But we were in central Texas during storm season and it scared the crap out of my wife.....biblical in force and frequency: dodging tornado warnings, baseball sized hail, thunder and lightning that shook our big motorhome and lasted for 7 hours one night and 3 hours the next. My wife declared it was time to get the hell out. Love Montana and the Dakotas but oh those winters!

 

[tonyb]

I’m not normally a big fan of the flatlands, but there can be a beauty in the seeming desolation.

We drove through the Texas panhandle on our way to and from the Big D three summers back.

The area of southeast Colorado, the western Oklahoma panhandle, a corner of New Mexico and the Texas panhandle that had been part of the Dust Bowl is worth a visit. The effects of what happened down that way linger still. There’s very little out there that could in any way be called touristy, which makes it all the better in my book.

 

[BobHufford]

Dorothy: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"
Toto: "Good!"

(I was required to quote that being a Missourian)

My mother-in-law loved eastern Kansas. She spent time there as a child while her Dad was working as a civilian contractor at Naval Air Base Olathe (Gardner). We did quite a few craft shows around that part of the country in the 1980s / 1990s. Lots of nice small towns (laid out in perfect grids of course) with brick streets and still full of Mom & Pop businesses. Hope they have been able to retain that charm. I need to spend some time over that way again.

 

[tonyb]

Dorothy: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"
Toto: "Good!"

(I was required to quote that being a Missourian)

My mother-in-law loved eastern Kansas. She spent time there as a child while her Dad was working as a civilian contractor at Naval Air Base Olathe (Gardner). We did quite a few craft shows around that part of the country in the 1980s / 1990s. Lots of nice small towns (laid out in perfect grids of course) with brick streets and still full of Mom & Pop businesses. Hope they have been able to retain that charm. I need to spend some time over that way again.

I’ve long speculated that digital technologies could be the salvation of those charming little settlements out in the middle of nowhere. A person can buy just about anything online now, can read any book or periodical or see any movie from the comfort of her home, just about anywhere in this fair land that home might be. And many people find, especially as they age, that they prefer the quieter, less-crowded, and more affordable lifestyle found in those little towns. The people we bought this house from went to some small burg in Nebraska for just that reason.

 

[tonyb]

As long as we’re making jokes at the expense of the states in the heartland …

Q: Why is it so windy in North Dakota?
A: Because Montana sucks and Minnesota blows.

(But Montana doesn’t really suck. It’s among my favorite places. And I have relatives in Minnesota. My Dear Old Ma was born there. Land o’ sky blue waters, and all that. But it does kinda blow.)

 

[Fifty150]

I'm sitting here stitching a loose button. Caught it just in time. Loose. Broken thread. But it didn't fall off. Then the button would have gotten lost. It's a union suit. Yes. I wear underwear from the 1800's.

 

[Turnip]

Saw an interesting feature about Pennhurst State School And Hospital recently, glad I’m an old sack meanwhile.

 

[Edward]

Still, though, there remains a romance in the wide-open spaces, the spectacular scenery, and the young (pale faced) history out here in the American West. It was pure luck that my European ancestors made their way to the “New World” (another construction grounded in white supremacy). It wasn’t so lucky for those of darker hues.

Indeed so. One of the things that does fascinate me is how, as an Irishman, I could have been an American... There are various strands to my family line across Europe, but my understanding is that we were all in Ireland (and not all planters, either, though I'm sure like a lot of people I probably do have a bit of that in me somewhere) before the Great Hunger. It's not unthinkable given the rate of emigration from then on that I could have as easily ended up an American.

But those of us of the Caucasian persuasion ain’t going back to Europe. (Doubt they’d have us anyway.) Most African-Americans’ families have been in America longer that most white folks’s. The resistance to acknowledging that remains strong, though. Witness the reaction to The 1619 Project. Witness the ongoing, and often successful, appeals to thinly veiled (when it’s veiled at all) racism.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of that, sadly (and, of course, growing up in Northern Ireland we have had our own peculiar versions as well). In terms of no return to Europe, I believe recognition of the white American was in large part behind the evolution of terminology from 'Native American' to 'First Nation'.

I’ll always remember an incident circa 1972, when I was working at Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport, when a planeload of Japanese students were retrieving their luggage at the baggage claim and had taken note of a Ford Ranchero (a sedan with a pickup bed where the back seats and trunk would otherwise have been) parked on the drive right outside the doors. The youngsters took turns having their photos taken with the thing.

Oh, yes. One of the first things I loved to do when I started going to Beijing was compare the Chinese food I grew up with with the 'real' Chinese food. Northern Ireland had a fairly strong Chinese immigration (to the point where, by the 90s, 'Chinese' was the third biggest "ethnic identity" in NI, after the obvious two...) from the sixties onwards, and I grew up with a lot of Chinese food there. 'Indian' food didn't take off in NI until really the mid 90s, so for all my formative years, going for a Chinese was the equivalent of going for a curry to the English.

Turns out 'our' take on Chinese food was (mostly) fairly accurate. Once I'd done that, though, the big fascination became Chinese takes on Western food. Not Western franchises - the likes of McDonalds or whatever - but a Chinese- run 'Western Restaurant'. It's fascinating. I've had burgers that were right but just off enough that you could imagine someone went on holiday, had one, then came home and described it to a chef who'd never seen one. Lovely food, but all these slight variations based on local tastes and availability. Then there's the difference in food culture. In China, it's not unusual to order your meal and dessert all at once, and for the dessert to arrive first. The food culture there does not traditional distinguish courses or sweet and savoury in the way we do, so you can get these variations.

Every year, Covid being the exception, we host a visit from some of the Chinese students. They get taken out for dinner on at least one night, and its fascinating. These are quite wealthy kids, but for many it's still their first visit to the UK if not out of China. It's fascinating to watch them work together as a group quite naturally to select a range of stuff to try, then they split it all up so they all have some of whatever. Of course, that's the normal approach with group dining in their culture. It's all these little quirks and differences that make travel fun.

By the way, tourists from overseas ain’t likely to see many cowboy hats and pointy-toed boots at LGA or ORD or SFO, but you don’t have to travel far from DFW or DEN or ABQ to find folks so attired.

In truth, I'd always assumed it was a stereotype until I saw bits and pieces about parts of the US where things like cowboy boots are still worn regularly and for practical reasons. Not unlike when I was in Guilin in the south of China in 2008, and actually saw people wearing those conical straw hats while working the paddy fields (in my innocence I had assumed they were like the bowler hat in England... ).

Funny, I'm noticing Western wear a lot more currently as I've developed a bit of a pull towards some of the tamer, less flowery bits. Despite being as European as I am (something I feel very keenly when visiting the US), I'm very aware of just how much of 'my' pop culture is US popular culture. I think that's much more so in the internet age, too, than perhaps ever before, despite the ubiquity of Hollywood and Nashville/Memphis' outputs worldwide.

I'm sitting here stitching a loose button. Caught it just in time. Loose. Broken thread. But it didn't fall off. Then the button would have gotten lost. It's a union suit. Yes. I wear underwear from the 1800's.

Where do you pick it up? I've been scouring Amazon and elsewhere for a decent union suit that doesn't cost the earth to import. I can find some, but invariably they either don't have a proper bum-flap, or it's zipped or velcroed on rather than buttoned. I'd love one for the Winter that's very much the traditional, old West style - red, with a buttoned-up bumflap so I don't have to strip off to have a poo. Any steer on that?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm sitting here stitching a loose button. Caught it just in time. Loose. Broken thread. But it didn't fall off. Then the button would have gotten lost. It's a union suit. Yes. I wear underwear from the 1800's.

Memories of my grandfather on a cold winter morning, sitting in the kitchen with his suspenders down around his waist, the top button of his union suit open, and his feet in the oven.