I remember having to roll up my blue jeans while I grew into them, but never as high as poor Whitey here. I bet they really gave him the business.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h276/boneheadjoe1957/beav-jeans.jpg

It's amazing how much dirt and other stuff would collect in them rolled up pants. I can remember uncuffing them at the end of a long day and seeing all that dirt dump out on my bedroom floor. My poor Mother. :-/

Wow, they look like a gang and Whitey is the leader. "The High Rollers"??

I've noticed that in early western movies, and some not so early western movies, it was common practice to fold up denim dungaree pant legs like that, adults and children alike.  I am suspecting that it simplified General Store inventory to carry a selection of waist sizes and the longest pant leg as was practical.  It's kind of like buying suit pants.  The difference is suit pants leg ends are unfinished and need to be hemmed.  Dungarees were already hemmed and could simply be folded up as seen here.  Sizing and hemming were optional.  And for kids, they could 'grow into them.'

What we need is a pic of Andy or Barney or other adult in dungarees to see if they folded their pant legs up like that.



When and where I grew up the therm "High Waders" was used.  Jeans were becoming a status symbol.  The 'best' were the Levi's with orange pocket tab.  Those who could afford them thought they had special status.  Folded up and rolled up were not fashionable.  They had to be properly hemmed to size.  Not so long as to be stepped upon by your heel, but not so short as to be able to see your socks.  Showing your socks was considered having 'high waders' or 'floods'.  This was not stylish and the kids wearing pants as such were ridiculed.  It got much worse if your WHITE socks showed, then you were a 'greaser'.


A properly hemmed pant leg was a bit higher in the front, just touching the top of your shoe.  The back was about half way down the back of the shoe, above the heel.

I bought 'boot cut' which had a modest flare.

We couldn't afford Levis, but I always had my jeans hemmed right.  When I went to buying my own Jeans, I went to JCPenney to get a pair of Levi's.  JCP had just come out with a line called "Plain Pockets"  No tab, no Levi's wingtip stitching on the back pockets, just plain.  They were much cheaper and I noticed... the early "Plain Pockets' jeans had the same copper rivets.  Some even had "Levi's" stamped on them.  It was Plain Pockets for me!   8-)

My granfathers brother always bought his overalls in the longest pant leg size available, then 'cuffed' the legs up to his knees! when asked why he did this, he said "they cost the same as the bibs with shorter legs, and look how much more denim I end up with!". I never understood his logic, because I never remember him hemming them and saving the extra material to patch older clothes with.

Same theory widder b. as up sizing your combo meal at the Mack Donalds.  You don't need it, but you do get more for your money.    Some people just cannot resist a good deal.

And, if he folds them up to his knees, he will have double thickness in the most highly worn area of bib overhauls.  Knees and shins.

Pierre wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 8:41am:

You don't need it, but you do get more for your money

Funny thing is, I have never smoked a cigarette but my gas station is now selling a gigarette rolling machine, a cast iron model with a bag of tobacco and a sack full of filter papers. I asked the price and was told $40 for the machine, $20 for the supplies that would create a carton and a half of cigs...I caught myself thinking about all the money I could save if I started rolling my on...until i remembered that I don't smoke! sometimes being conservative can work AGIN you!

I've got some blue jeans which aren't Levis, and since I'm short and have lost some weight since I bought them, I tried rolling them up. I guess the material isn't heavy enough because they won't stay rolled up. Since I only wear them indoors, I guess I'll simply cut them so I don't walk on them any more.

When we were in high school it was the style for us girls to roll our jeans up to just below the knees.  I've got lots of pictures of us wearing them that way--with saddle oxfords, of course.

I used to polish my saddle oxfords every night!  Put that white liquid polish on the white part, wait for it to dry.  Apply the paste black to the "saddle" and then take a matchstick and clean out the little "eyes" that went around the saddle.

After that, you had to shine the white part :-[

I don't know how I ever graduated from high school.  Sounds like I spent all my time shining my shoes.  Oh, and we wore white socks.  Cool!

widow bradshaw wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 2:37pm:

Pierre wrote on Sep 7th, 2011 at 8:41am: You don't need it, but you do get more for your money Funny thing is, I have never smoked a cigarette but my gas station is now selling a gigarette rolling machine, a cast iron model with a bag of tobacco and a sack full of filter papers. I asked the price and was told $40 for the machine, $20 for the supplies that would create a carton and a half of cigs...I caught myself thinking about all the money I could save if I started rolling my on...until i remembered that I don't smoke! sometimes being conservative can work AGIN you!

Not to bust your Mayberry bubble, but as I understand it these sorts of 'cigarette' rolling machines only include tobacco because they HAVE to.  Most folks what buy them, stuff the papers with other smoking products.

ya know what I'm sayin'?  ;)

Pierre wrote on Sep 8^th, 2011 at 8:51am:

widow bradshaw wrote on Sep 7th, 2011 at 2:37pm: Pierre wrote on Sep 7th, 2011 at 8:41am: You don't need it, but you do get more for your money Funny thing is, I have never smoked a cigarette but my gas station is now selling a gigarette rolling machine, a cast iron model with a bag of tobacco and a sack full of filter papers. I asked the price and was told $40 for the machine, $20 for the supplies that would create a carton and a half of cigs...I caught myself thinking about all the money I could save if I started rolling my on...until i remembered that I don't smoke! sometimes being conservative can work AGIN you! Not to bust your Mayberry bubble, but as I understand it these sorts of 'cigarette' rolling machines only include tobacco because they HAVE to.  Most folks what buy them, stuff the papers with other smoking products. ya know what I'm sayin'?  ;)

Actually, rolling machines and roll boxes can be and are sold separately, without any tobacco. I know because I have a roll box and sometimes roll a pipe tobacco cigarette. But only when I'm not in the mood for a pipe.

Pierre wrote on Sep 8^th, 2011 at 8:51am:

Most folks what buy them, stuff the papers with other smoking products. ya know what I'm sayin'?

Been up to the Becker farm at night? :-X

tiltjlp wrote on Sep 9^th, 2011 at 1:25pm:

when I'm not in the mood for a pipe

"you want your den to smell like a dog?" ;D

When I was a kid my uncle had a little machine on which he rolled his cigarettes--tobacco cigarettes, that is.  Trust me.
Nobody had ever heard of Mary Jane in those days!!

I used to play with it.  All I remember is that you put the tobacco in one place and the papers in another and then turned the little handle on the top and--voila!

He's the same uncle-in-law who read TRUE DETECTIVE MAGAZINE.  I was forbidden to look at them. So, of course, I checked them out every chance I got.

Pretty racey!  Seems like all the detectives' cases involved ladies who were falling out of their clothes.  Wonder why that was?

Thelscuz wrote on Sep 9^th, 2011 at 6:45pm:

Seems like all the detectives' cases involved ladies who were falling out of their clothes

   And tied to chairs.

widow bradshaw wrote on Sep 9^th, 2011 at 4:18pm:

tiltjlp wrote on Sep 9th, 2011 at 1:25pm: when I'm not in the mood for a pipe "you want your den to smell like a dog?" ;D

I prefer cats, so I guess my den would smell of hair balls.