Farmer styles
My father used to wear bib overalls, high-top work boots and a high-crowned straw hat as he drove his six-horse span pulling a cultivator.
Farmer garb has changed dramatically. Now you see denim pants, sports model walking shoes and a tractor cap.
As for a work shirt, my father used to wear the same one whatever the weather, rolling up the sleeves when the temperature climbed. Now many a farmer has a sufficient number of shirts that one or more can be in the wash and he can still rotate between long sleeves and short sleeves as the sun, or lack of it, dictates.
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You may think farmers couldn’t be bothered by the styles that come and go, but they’re just as affected by what their fellow farmers wear as any other group of our society.
A few young bucks will try urban dress and even nose rings but when it comes time to jockey a tractor, the garb becomes quite recognizable.
We went through many a fad over the years. Remember when you just had to have a blue and white striped engineer cap in order to operate a tractor? Some farmers still wear high-heeled cowboy boots even though they don’t have much to do with cattle. Most have found the flatter-heeled soft-soled walking shoes are better for climbing up and down machinery.
For a time the big fad was blue jeans; not the fancy signature kind, just ordinary jeans that got progressively thinner in the knees and seat until the family washerperson threw them out.
They say that clothes make the man. That may be true but the fellow who makes the clothes is the one who makes the money.
