All Wrapped Up : Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturday shows navy nurses in Alaska  "all wrappd  up" against the elements.

My first two images below  were taken during World War Two, in my home village of Earlston in the rural Scttish Borders,  and show muniton workers in their protective clothing.

 

 Photographs courtesy of the Auld Earlston Group

During World War Two, around 950,000 British women worked in munitions factories making weapons such as shells and bullets. Munitions work was often well-paid, but involved long hours.  Workers were also at serious risk from accidents with dangerous machinery or when working with high explosive material.  Some munitions workers dealt with  toxic chemicals every day. Those who handled sulphur were nicknamed ‘Canary Girls’, because their skin and hair turned yellow from contact with the chemical. [Source: My Learning.Org ].

 In  Earlston, women munition workers were employed at two sites.  One local resident recalled  there were two shifts working seven days a week involving dozens of women.  She was also sent to college at Portobello, Edinburgh to learn how to operate a lathe. 

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My Memories of being covered up against the elements:

I have no winter photographs of my 1950s childhood - cameras must have been reserved for summer.    I grew up in north-west England where winters were relatively mild, but this was the days before tights,  and girls then did not wear trousers. A Liberty bodice, skirt with short socks (short trousers for my brother), home knitted jumpers and pixie hoods, criss-crossed over my chest and tied at the back - this was the ritual dress for going out in winter.

Liberty bodices were a close fitting undergarment  worn by little girls over a vest in winter. They were made of a fleecy woollen fabric  and had little rubber buttons, apparently so they wuld pass through a mangle. I hated them! They could make you feel  sticky if the weather turned warm and the buttons were tricky to do up and undo.

Fast Forward Some Decades: 
1966 and the film Dr. Zhivago was the blockbuster film of the year, with Russian style fur hoods the  popular fashion item for winter.   Here I am in the red jacket wearing mine.

I was now in Scotland and our daughter was born in January,  so an unfortunate time for planning parties.  Still we aimed for the ritual birthday photograph over the yeas which had to  be out of doors (no flash).  

Not looking too happy here -

 

Below - wrapping up  against the blustery  May winds on the Isle of Iona

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Granddaughter well wrapped up for experiencing snow for the first time. 

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photographs

Click HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggers

have been keeping warm. 

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