Is It Naptime Yet

As a child getting dressed each Sunday for church, I knew three specific rules to Sabbath day apparel. My mother taught me these three rules and I knew that they were very important.

The first rule was you must always wear a slip under any dress or skirt.

I’ve never deviated from this rule. I wore slips when I was five and I’ll wear them till I die. I have vivid memories of seeing woman in lovely flowing dresses standing directly in front of the glass chapel doors as the afternoon light came in and I could outline every curve of their body. I thought why didn’t this smart woman wear a slip with an obviously see through fabric? It seemed so obvious that she needed one. I didn’t want that happening to me and so slips are a required piece of clothing if I’m wearing a dress, no matter how heavy the fabric is I wear a slip, and if it’s a light  fabric I may even wear two. My girls have never worn slips, but that’s more because I can’t find them for them and I make sure they wear shorts under their dresses, which at this age I think is much more necessary than a slip.

The second rule was you must always wear tights, nylons, or socks. Bare feet were not allowed.

One thing you must understand is my mother wears nylons everyday of her life.
Everyday.
Even if she’s wearing pants, even if she’s wearing jeans with tennis shoes, she wears nylons. As the youngest of four girls I saw nylons as a right of passage into my teenage years. I was no longer a child once I began wearing nylons so I embraced adolescence whole heart with the skin toned nylons that in my mind made me a young lady. As a twelve year old I felt so grown up wearing nylons and I wore them each Sunday until I got a little older and then had the desire to wear shoes that went in between my toes to church, not flip flops but they might has well have been, in which not wearing flip flips to church could also be added to my list, but I’ll just fit it in here because the mere requirement of something covering your feet or legs does not allow you to wear shoes that go between your toes. I’m not sure what age I abandoned this rule of always wearing nylons to church, but I was around 15 or 16. I do not wear nylons with shoes that show my toes but I must wear nylons with closed toed heels. So in one way it has stuck with me, in another way fashion won out since I rarely wear closed toed shoes except in the winter.

The last rule my mother enforced was one that I have never broken, at least until yesterday.

You must never wear denim to church.

Denim was seen as too casual of a clothing. Denim skirts or jumpers were not allowed and my mother would never buy us a jean skirt and never let us wear one to church. I know Andrea had/has a jean skirt, but I don’t remember if she ever wore it to church and she was in her 20’s when she bought it, so my mom couldn’t say much anyways. Denim is an everyday fabric, it’s not for the Sabbath day. That’s what’s been ingrained in me for many years and yesterday I broke that rule and I think I’m OK with it.

In an effort to change up my wardrobe a little I bought a denim looking skirt and wore it to church yesterday. I have never felt so casually dressed for church. After I put it on Jon made the comment that I was wearing denim to church, since he knows my mother’s rule and how I have followed it these 25 years, and I felt somewhat ashamed, but more because I have never approved of wearing denim to church, though I have let Lilah but it’s a dark, nice looking denim, and different for some reason. My skirt is more a regular skirt with denim printed fabric, so it’s not as casual as some denim skirts, but it’s still denim and while I like the skirt I felt very under dressed as a teacher yesterday. I will probably continue to wear the skirt to church just because it brings variety to my Sunday wardrobe and I’m not much of a skirt wearing kind of girl during the week.

I did wear my slip and closed toe shoes, but without any nylons, in which these are the first set of closed toe shoes that I do not wear nylons with also and I still have a hard time with it.

Old habits are just hard to break sometimes.

I must admit I want to do a poll on how many of you wear slips. I see it as a must, but I think the idea of wearing slips is fading.
When I was a senior in high school I went to Conference with the other youth and youth leaders in our ward and I had to buy a slip once I realized that I had forgotten it and the others girls thought I was silly for needing one so badly, but I just couldn’t wear my dress without one.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 10:06 am and is filed under Craziness, Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.