Down the road, around the bend, there’s an empty barn nearing its end.

Sagging roof, windows gaping, weathered wood, rusted hinges, swiftly aging.

(my adaptation of the first verse of a poem by Vance Oliphant)

For the last ten years my morning walk has taken me past a small park that allows the view of an old barn on private property. Having grown up on a farm with two huge barns ( at least they seemed huge to a young child) I feel that tug of nostalgia every time I see it through the woods. With permission of the owner I have been taking seasonal pictures every year, noting it’s slow deterioration. From those photos I have planned a series of seasonal art quilts to preserve it’s end of life story.

Work on the winter season neared completion before it came to me that “my” barn also served as a metaphor for year’s end and, indeed, the winter of our lives. As I collect, paint, dye, and print more fabrics and photos for the other seasons I also find new meaning to interpret the story, the history, the emotions that old barns, nearing their end hold for me.

As part of my decluttering goal I was reviewing my stack of vintage magazines from the early 1900’s. There was such informative value in them that it became very time consuming. I had to read the ads as well as the articles. I bought them for the fashions and quilt patterns so tried to remain focused on that. I found it interesting how very direct the articles were in expressing thoughts. It seems to me that today we might be a little more subtle in our psychological persuasion tactics to sell a fashion. Case in point was an article titled “The Penny Dreadfuls in Dress” by Mrs. Clara E. Simcox with a subtitle of “A word of Warning to the Uninitiated on the “What-Nots” of the Wardrobe”.

The year was 1909. The magazine was The Delineator. Mrs. Simcox starts with “Last summer I was unfortunate enough to be kept in town through an oppressively sultry July”…..”everyone who could, fled to the seashore or the mountains, and only those of us who belonged to the working classes were left like stokers in the heat-ridden city.” I guess that lets you know this is not going to be a pleasant article about the current fashion trends!

She goes on to talk about the sheep and goats of the social world and their choice of dress but how interesting it is for her as she comes in contact with “women who make a profession—perhaps it would be fairer to say a graceful accomplishment—of dressing exceptionally well.” Then she adds that she takes pride in knowing “that I have had some hand in it all and that my work has not been illy done.” 

And in the next paragraph: “you can wear a six-cent calico and appear well dressed, where you would instantly become cheap and third-class looking in a shoddy imitation of a thing you patently couldn’t afford. A color or material that not only attracts attention but demands it, should never be worn outside of one’s own intimate circle.. You can see why , of course. It is simply a question of good taste.”

And there you have it, the penny dreadfuls in dress !! (I still don’t know what that means)

Well, it was entertaining but I preferred the article on the next page with the title, “Pretty Gowns and Attractive Women at the First Garden Parties of the Season.”

By the way, my “garden party dress” is cut-off blue jeans, denim shirt and gardening gloves. Effective, if not impressive, Mrs. Simcox.