Bl4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 19,1984
BY SUZANNE KEENE
LOYSVILLE - Modeling an
tique hats and clothing, Millie
Bubash entertained Perry County
homemaker’s at their annual
Spring Homemaker’s Day on
Thursday, May 10.
An avid collector of antique
clothing, Millie owned a hat shop in
State College for 10 years and
draws on some of her experiences
with customers in her comic
presentations.
She explained that when she had
her shop, women would take up to
five hours to select a hat and then
would call their husbands in for
their approval. The pastor’s wife,
she said, was always one of her
better cusomers. She would choose
several hats before making the
customary call to her husband,
Millie explained.
“Invariably she would turn
around and select the ones he
didn’t select,” she recalled.
Strolling through the audience of
about 150 homemakers and
wearing a long black dress, a large
old-fashioned hat and a quantity of
costume jewelry, Millie had the
crowd laughing from the very
beginning of her presentation.
“I had a marvelous nose for
veils,” Millie explained, pulling a
black, lacy veil over her face and
tucking it under her nose.
Pennsylvania has a law, she
continued, that women can’t wear
veils, “because if you smoke, you’d
set yourself on fire.”
Rapidly changing hats
throughout her talk, Millie
modeled a large hat that nearly
covered her face. In the early
1900’s, she explained, women had
long hair and styled it in high,
puffy coiffures.
“They really didn’t have more
hair,” she continued. The ladies
puffed up thier hair with “rats” or
rolls of material which were often
infested with lice.
“If you didn’t have lice, you
weren’t with it,” she said, drawing
a roar of laughter from the crowd.
Women only washed their hair
for special occasions, so they
dipped their “rats” in kerosene to
keep the lice to a minimum, she
said.
“They were not dirty people.
Everyone smelled.” she explained.
Because people did not bathe
often, the ladies would tie sachets
on the bottoms of their hoop skirts
“to keep down the odors,” she said.
Displaying a long, but tiny dress,
Millie told the ladies that years
ago, mothers dressed their babies
in long, heavy clothing to keep the
baby warm. But the baby wasn’t
the only one who benefited from
BY ROBIN PHILLIPS
Staff Correspondent
LEESPORT Berks County
homemakers treated themselves
to a day out last week at their
annual spring Homemakers Day.
Held on Wednesday, May 9th at
the Berks County Agricultural
Center, the day provided
refreshing presentations on coping
with life and brightening up rooms
with flowers. Featured speakers
for the day were Ruth Hand,
retired extension home economist,
Judy Stoudt, home economist,
Eleanor Root, homemaker, and
John Steber, Ph.D. from Kutztown
State University.
Home economist, Ruth Hand,
pointed out to her audience, “never
go out with the same face you get
up with.” In her entertaining
discourse, she said that make-up
and cologne can make a woman
feel better about herself.
“If you can’t hide it, decorate
it,” she told the ladies.
Pointing out that old age is not
the “end of the world”, Hand
continued discussing the physical
and emotional changes in fife after
Perry County's Homemaker's D— features ant*
the extra length, she continued.
“You held the babies and you
kept your knees warm,” she ex
plained.
Millie recalled that at one time
she had an 1875 hat on display at
her State College shop, when a
woman tried it on and decided it
was the only hat for her. Not
wanting to tell the woman that she
was wearing an out-dated hat,
Millie told her the hat cost $lOO,
politely dissuading the customer
from her choice.
Pulling more clothing from her
boxes of goodies, Millie showed,
piece by piece, what a turn of the
century bride would have worn
under her wedding gown. The
bride, she explained, would start
with a plain white vest which took
the place of a modern brassiere
and top it with a lacy camisole. On
the bottom she would have worn a
pair of panties, pantaloons and a
lacy, white slip.
The actual wedding dress that
Millie showed, was a simple, but
pretty white dress, that the bride
complemented with flowers for her
hair, gloves and a lace purse.
Purses were beaded on only one
side, she explained, because the
women would attach them to their
belts and didn’t want the beads to
snag their dresses.
Of all the clothing styles Millie
showed, she said the most
beautiful of all were those of the
1930’5.
“They were very sophisticated
clothes,” she said.
And the women could wear those
sophisticated clothes well because
they had little feet and waistlines.
Back then, she reminded, “they
didn’t have Big Macs and pizzas.”
“You really feel different when
you’re in this kind of clothes,” she
said, striking a pose and batting
her eyes. “When we were young
and wore this stuff, we could really
flirt.”
Earlier in the day the
homemakers learned about color
analysis and wardrobe coor
dinating from Mrs. Marie
Morrison, a certified color con
sultant.
Mrs. Mary Grimes, a tailor,
teacher and clothing consultant,
spoke on ‘Fitting for a Finer
Finish.” Mrs. Grimes, a student of
Edna Bishop, assisted in the
development of techniques used in
the “Bishop Method of Clothing
Construction.”
The group also honored past
Extension home economists who
served in Perry County in
celebration of the 50th anniversary
of the National Association of
Extension Home Economists.
Berks County homemo
39. Forgetfullness is just an “in
formation overload”, Hand said.
Think of all the great things you
remember, not forget, she con
tinued.
Also discussing mastectomy,
living alone, and the death of a
spouse, Hand advised women to
live each minute as an
unrepeatable miracle. The gifts of
life are laughter, listening, hugs
and kisses, favors, cheerfulness,
considerations, and compliments.
Compliments, she told her
audience, are “the gold coins of
conversation.”
Judy Stoudt, extension home
economist, was on hand to
demonstrate how easily and
inexpensively a room can be
brightened with plants. Using
attractive bowls or baskets, and
filling them with potted flowers,
greens, or garden vegetables,
Stoudt made many attractive
centerpieces for the tables in the
auditorium.
Advising the ladies to keep a
coordinated look throughout the
house, Stoudt demonstrated fast
ways to make attractive cen-
Millie Bubash, State
nir >wn in her -
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In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Association of Extension Home
Economists, the group honored several past extension home economists from Perry
County and Mrs. Pat Smith, wife of the dean of agriculture at Penn State and the
daughter of a former Perry County home economist. From left to right are Elsie Tagg,
Janet Freeland, Ann Edgington, Pat Smith, Mary Ritzman and Geraldine Seipt.
kers hold Spring Homemaker's Day
terpieces for Mother’s Day,
weddings, and open houses.
If using cut flowers, she said, cut
them early in the morning or
evening and plunge the stems into
warm water immediately. Other
things Stoudt utilized for her
arrangements included small
garden utensils, seed packets, a
colander, broccoli stalks,
measuring spoons, and many other
handy items in a household.
Eleanor Root was on hand to
share the secret of how to get a
college degree and advance per
sonal goals without jeopardizing
the responsibilities of raising a
family. Root was the first person to
get an associate degree by com
pleting 19 out of 20 courses by
correspondence through Penn
State in 18 months. Currently
enrolled in Penn State, Root is now
working toward her bachelor’s
degree in elementary education.
A homemaker from Lancaster
County, Root's presentation was
entitled, “Bringing the Classroom
into the Kitchen." The American flag is presented to Rick Kauffman and Rod
The Berks County Extension Sutliff for the 4-H Community Center, by Carol Brightbill and
(Turn to Page Bi 6) Sandy Christman for the homemakers.
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