Weren't Those The Days?

Sharon Bryant

The other day I was chatting with some old friends and we were talking about things that were in our lifetime when we were younger compared to things on the market today.

We discussed clothes, foods, music, etc.  One asked me, "What was the one thing you hated to wear when you were younger?"  I laughed and said, "A girdle."

I don't know what it was in the 60's about girdles.  It seemed everyone had one.  You could buy them with short legs, knee length, thigh length and even full body.  It always amazed me where that "spare roll" disappeared to when you wore one.  Suddenly a memory hit me and I started laughing.  And then I told my story.

It was 1967.  I was living in Norfolk, Virginia across the street from Little Creek Amphibious Base.  Day in and day out, life began a new routine for me as a new bride.  Get up, take hubby to the base, go to work, come home tired, fix supper, listen to the radio (we couldn't afford a TV in those days) then hit the sack.  It seemed all our friends did the same. 

Sometimes I'd sit and watch out the window and look at "The Purple Onion" doors and watch sailors get into fights and see how many got thrown into the water.  Drunk as skunks, I'd wonder WHY they spent their paychecks on Friday nights in a bar, and why they had to get so drunk.  I'd never been one to drink myself, so I always thought it was a waste of money not to mention what a fool so many made of themselves.

But......my time came.  Oh yes, I found out one night.

Hubby and his buddy got a 72 hour basket leave.  I got my work schedule rearranged, and the four of us headed for the other couple's home town......Niagara Falls, N.Y.  I'd like to forget how tough it was for four of us to be squashed into a small car.  I'd like to forget how long it took us to get there despite the fact we were tired when we headed north and missed a road a went one hundred miles out of our way.

And I'd like to forget what rum and coke did to me the first time I ever drank it.

We arrived in Niagara Falls in the late afternoon that day.  Hubby's buddy's aunt owned a motel and offered to let us stay there while we were in town.  We checked into the motel, went and got something to eat, then wondered what we were going to do with all our spare time.  Then the other couple ran into old friends and we were invited to a party that night.

I remember I wore a dress that looked like a sailor outfit.  Big white collar, gold braid along the edge, and I had cute heels that fit the dress perfectly.  Since hubby and his buddy were in their "blues" I decided the dress would be perfect.  I had packed my girdle in my bag when we left Norfolk.  At 21 years old, I wanted to make sure my little "spare tire" wouldn't show through the dress.

We started out in one bar.  Everyone had a drink, and I drank a Pepsi.  The kidding began of how I must be a prude not to drink.  Even hubby said, "Loosen up, try a rum and coke."

Soon I found myself sipping the first rum and coke I'd ever had.  It tasted good.  I liked it.  I wanted another.  After two, I was singing and toe tapping to the band that was playing.

After three rum and coke's, I was dizzy.  And after four, I needed to go to the bathroom.

Someone pointed to where the bathroom doors were, and I slowly headed towards it.  I just had trouble seeing the writing on the doors.....MEN....WOMEN.  My eyes were so blurry, and I really needed to get inside the door quickly, I pushed on a door and BINGO, I was in the bathroom.

I looked at the oddest toilets I'd ever seen.  Hanging on the wall by themselves, no doors, shaped like a "Scoop" of Frito's today, I wondered how you could use it.  There was nothing to sit on!  Now I'm sure had my vision been much better, I would have handled this situation a little better.

Suddenly I did see a door and I headed for it, closed it and sat down.  I had my thigh length girdle on.  To this day, I have no idea why I took that thing off all the way.  I peeled it from my body, and laid it on the floor next to me.  I did notice with my wonderful blurred hearing that I could hear rough coughs when a door opened.  I did notice that no one else was using the other door next to me.  But I sat there, dizzy, trying to get my focus back.

It was time to get back to the others at the table.

I then noticed my girdle on the floor.  I didn't even feel like putting it back on.  But I had not taken my purse into the bathroom with me and I didn't want to walk out of the bathroom with a girdle in my hands, so I decided to put it back on.

Since that day, I decided putting a girdle on while you are drunk is like putting a marshmallow into a piggy bank.  For the life of me, I could not get my legs in both the legs of the girdle.  I squeezed, I grunted, I tugged, I pulled, I sucked in my breath, and still it wouldn't go on right.  I finally got one leg in but getting my second leg in was a feat that I found impossible.  Yet, I did it!  I remember laughing wondering why I was having such a hard time.

When I stood up, my feet wouldn't work right.  I could barely get one foot in front of the other.  I walked out of that bathroom taking tiny baby steps.  I remember everyone at the table looking at me when I was working my way back.  And I'm very proud to say I only fell one time from the bathroom to the table. 

Everyone was laughing so I started laughing, not even knowing what I was laughing at.  Hubby took one look at me, and since he was flying high himself, roared.  I tried to walk faster but couldn't.  He then said, "What the HELL are you doing?"  I said, "What?"  He pointed towards the area between my knees and my ankles.  Everyone was looking.  I looked down and saw the white elastic which held my two legs.  I was not aware that I had squeezed both legs into one girdle leg.  No wonder I couldn't walk.  Then he told me I'd went into the men's bathroom instead of the women's.

Now I've NEVER been one to undress or expose my undies to anyone in public, but that was one time I bent down and took my clothes off.  Everyone started clapping and laughing and I got that white elastic contraption off my body and threw it into the air.

I sat down at the table and said, "Get me another one of those rum and coke's."

When we left the bar, I learned for the first time what it meant to "have the room spin."

I have never been so sick in my life as I was that night.  And I've never drank that much ever again in public.  I've never worn a girdle since that night either.

And I've always wondered why men don't talk to one another when they go into a bathroom.  All they do is cough.  We women say "Hi" or "How are ya?"  But men.....they just cough.

Weren't those the days?

Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

About Me:

 I am Sharon Bryant, 59 years old and reside in Alabama.

I lost my child in 1977 when he was five and I write
articles on bereavement often.

I am a chocolate/candy maker and also a wood crafter and knitter.

I am married to a wonderful man, and have two remaining children, a daughter 25,
Amy, and a second son, Randy, age 22.

My main goal in life is to help those who
have lost a child. My website is: www.angelsremembered.tk