SusieQ#1 reminded me of something: I had the privilege of going to Italy when the mission was still new. I got there after the original MP had been sent home for being a slacker, and Hartman Rector filled in for a couple months until the new MP came along. We wore cool clothes. White shirts, of course, but with Rector as a model, we wore nice light-colored suits and slick shoes, which was very affordable during a time when our $100 budget paid our rent, food, utilities, and still put a lot of money in our pockets for clothes and stuff.

My favorite was a natural linen suit, almost white. It was cool in the summer and very stylish. In the winter I began wearing caps with the snapped bill, and it set off a cap phase among the elders. The mission "matron" (MP's wife) always thought that my colorful ties and my caps were cool. It just wouldn't fly now. And on my way home, I put on a nice colored dress shirt I found in a store in Milan, and no one batted an eye.

When I got off my mission, a friend was surprised when we were having a slide show of our missions. He had gone to Germany, and not only had to wear gray or black suits, but their MP made them also wear old-style fedoras. They looked so dorkish, like little kids in big people's clothes. Fedoras had long since been out of fashion, even in Germany.

If you went on a mission back in the 1960s (or, God forbid, in the 1950s), what did you get to wear or have to wear? Apparently there used to be a lot of lattitude.

//comment ended up in the wrong place//



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2013 09:46AM by cludgie.

But I was in Europe in the early 80's. By that time in Portugal it was dark suits and conservative ties only. We were allowed to go without our jackets in the summer and even wear short sleeve shirts but the rule was we had to match. Could not mix short and log sleeves in a companionship. On Sundays we had to wear the jackets all day.

Hats? forget about it.

Mission was 1960, we wore levis, cowboy boots, white shirt and tie and often a black stetson hat. Yea, we lived on the Navajo Indian reservation. It was so cool...

I don't qualify as I'm too young and never went on a mission, but Cludgie, I have to say, you sound like one hep cat. :) I find it interesting that the missions in your story seemed to reflect the local cultures - light and breezy, relaxed in Italy, while stern and efficient in Germany.

Yeah, that's me, all right: Hep. Yessir, I'm one hep cat.

At least as far as the mission goes, I have pictures to prove what I'm saying. The best indicator is one that shows my whole district (sans me, for I was taking the picture) while we were taking a bus to see a movie on D-day. (Yes, it was still "diversion day," and we certainly diverted.) A few of us were wearing snap-bill, English style caps, and even though we were bundled up because it was winter, we looked so much better than today's average missionary.

Why does the church have to be downright dickish now? I would wager that it is because in my day, there were conversions to do. We baptised people--Italians, no less. I was a bit of a slug, so only baptised 10. Several others I knew were into the 20s. One guy who spent most of his time in Sicily baptised 32. Italians! It is now a country in which nobody baptises anyone who is not an illegal alien from Senegal. Or maybe Nigeria.

Today's missionaries go out for what? Not conversions. They go out to withstand the hazing of their MP and the church, the LDS church hoping that this will cause more of them to stay.

End of rant.

c

Back in my day we hadn't invented clothes yet. You young whipper-snappers are spoiled with yer new fangled threads. Try living through a winter naked, you entitled brats.

Naked?

You were lucky.

We had to wear lice infested sack cloth with a barbed wire collar that our mission president would yank on anytime we didn't baptize that week.

And if we went two weeks without a baptism, he would make us sleep at the bottom of the mission home's septic tank for a couple of days.

But you try telling that to the kids of today?

They won't believe you!

cludgie Wrote:
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> SusieQ#1 reminded me of something: I had the



I love reading your story of the general "lattitude" in different missions.
Italy is known for men wearing very nice attire! The one time I was in Europe in the late 70's I could spot an Italian man immediately!

In our area, in Portland, Oregon, they wore dark suits, white shirts, and conservative ties which was not that unusual. It was common office attire for many businesses. They wore a general men's hat. I forget the name of the style, but every man had one. OR at least a driving cap.But they all looked "spiffy" - "well turned out" .. as we would say! This was right after McKay started the conservative statement in clothing especially for men at church and missionaries.

Interestingly, it is still worn in some businesses, however, the cost is high: expensive suits, expensive white shirts, expensive conservative ties - could easily go over $1200 for an outfit! I've seen that worn by cops: investigators, and financial advisers! I guess if you are going to invest your $ with financial services, they need to look like they are "well heeled"!


Now days, it's gone to such extremes about hair and clothing that is's ridiculous. I understand there is a certain requirement for those officiating in a meeting to be properly dressed, but really!
Thanks to GBH who had a quirk about pierced ears and tattoos, it's even in the BYU Honor Code.. ARGH!!

My husband and I were living in BYU student married housing when it was unacceptable for women to wear pants on campus and no amplified music was allowed. Well, that was not hard: it was the time of: Peter, Paul and Mary. However, they soon decided to allow amplified music as the students just went off campus for dances, etc. and they couldn't have that!!
I did sneak into the BYU library with pants, boots, and a long coat to pick up my husband. Nobody noticed. I was not going to play their silly games! IT was COLD!!

We are talking the 20th century here, right?

The usual - dark suit, white shirt, plain tie. Went to Canada, so it was all covered up with snow mobile boots, long coat the went past the knees, a scarf that wrapped around just under your nose and a ski cap. All that showed was a little slit for your eyes and a small portion of your pants. MP would tell us when we could remove our coats when the weather got hot.

I just recalled a returned missionary telling us they had to wear heavy boots, woolen sweaters and head gear,etc. as they were in extremely cold climate with no vehicles.South American mountains, I think.

OOPS clicked in the wrong place. ...again!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2013 02:48PM by SusieQ#1.

My SIL was in your mission at that time, I think! You also covered Elsace, right? Old Citroën 2CV days? SIL drove a moped.

This was all before he and I met. I never did a mission, as I joined at age 21. He had a lot of interesting stories about his stay there. It was very rigorous, and he lost a lot of weight, though.

conservative suit. Mine were mostly brown. White shirt. tie

Mine was quite a bit later - late 80's, but yours sounds pretty fabulous! I had to wear very dowdy skirt combos, the elders were in the whole dark suit/white shirt thing. A couple of the cooler elders wore Doc's though. One of them only lasted 3 weeks. Wish I'd had that much sense.

I think I might qualify as being old. Older than a lot on the board, so here goes:

Japan, 1989-1991.

They told us NO red ties (Yakuza connection I was told) and no garish print ties. So I wore red and bright paisley ties as often as I could.

They told us; no double breasted suits, so I had 3.

They told us only notched lapels, so I took one notched and my others were peaked. (hey, shut up - it was the 80's!)

I never wore a suit on a daily basis. I wore a suit to church on some Sundays and to "Zone Conference" types of things. I wore trousers and that damned white shirt + tie on a daily basis. I wore loafers (it was Japan, and a lace up shoe just didn't make any sense. Why in the name of god, they told us to get those sh!tty rockport lace ups shoes is beyond me) some of mine had tassels others were penny loafers. I was light in them either way.

Also, just to gay it up a bit, I wore a coordinating pocket square behind my gd name tag.

When I stepped off that airplane after 2 years, I had a crisp double breasted peaked lapel suit, pink paisley tie and shiny perfect loafers. I refused to come home looking like those beat up hard working mishies with their sh!tty shoes.

I'm not that old, but I had the opposite experience. New Zealand 80-82, the usual dark suits and my idiot first MP only allowed solid colored ties. Solid dark brown with a brown suit, solid dark blue with a blue suit - that was it. That's what I was told to bring and I did, but I also took a fairly conservative gray tie with a pattern. The day that mission president went home I broke out the patterned tie - I was such a rebel. Other guys bought new ties shortly after that.