Hand-me-downs

[Judith Crabb]

Do any readers recall Blyton characters having, or stories dealing with, hand-me-down clothing - I'm thinking more within family groups rather than acts of charity toward characters on lower socio-economic groups like Tassie in 'The Castle of Adventure'?

[pete9012S]

Had a good think Judith, but seem to have drawn a blank.

I was sure Jack from The Secret Island had hand-me-downs, but they are just described as 'old clothes that were thrown outside in a box' when his Grandfather left.

Also, I thought The Put-Em -Rights would have some examples, but it just contains acts of charity regarding clothes and giving baby clothes etc..

[Hannah]

Regarding Jack it's said at the end of the book:

Jack felt queer in his. It was the first time in his life he had ever had anything new of his own to wear, for he had always gone about in somebody’s old things before!

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's difficult to think of examples. Fenella wears Carol's old bathing suit in Come to the Circus! but that's clearly included to make a point about the developing relationship between Fenella and Auntie Lou.

[pete9012S]

Brilliant find Hannah!

[Debbie]

In the main books there aren't as much opportunities for hand me downs because often they're either boy/girl siblings, or they're so close in age that they may not be able to do that. My girls were the same height from about age 11 and 8yo with three years between them.

For example Famous Five: Julian could have handed them down to Dick, but equally well, with only a year between them, they might have been in the same sized clothes.

I think also though that in the times they were written, it was so normal to have hand me downs that it just wouldn't have merited a mention. I can think of more times when the children were delighted to get new clothes, which I suspect at that time was much rarer, especially new shop bought clothes.
Hand me downs were far more common going not just down a family, but also passed on from family to family. But (from when I used to get those) they felt like new to me because for once my sister hadn't worn them first.

With Fenella it was possibly also to make a point that unsentimental Auntie Lou had felt sentimental enough to keep Carole's bathing costume, to show how strong her feelings towards her were, as well as the melting of the hardness towards Fenella.

[Judith Crabb]

Thank you all so much. You've given me some good lines of thought. I was thinking along the lines that hand-me-downs may be more a lower class than an upper class tradition (and therefore Blyton's central characters who tend to be middle-class would have their out-grown clothes given to charity rather than younger siblings), but in the old days it is quite true that clothes were relatively much more expensive and not treated as the throw-aways they are today. Yes, hand-me downs were taken for granted, but I thought that the resentment some children felt about not getting brand-new clothes may have surfaced in a Blyton short story. The example from 'The Secret Island' is exactly what I am after.
(I never 'grew into' the over-large clothes my thrifty mother bought new, either, thinking I'd grow into them and they'd last longer - they wore out before ever they fitted.)
There's no doubt about it - the forums are a terrific service for those addicted to delving in to the minutiae of the past, and especially the Blytonesque.
Thanks again.

[GloomyGraham]

Wasn't Aunt Susan horrified when Snubby bought (and wore) some second-hand clothes in 'Ragamuffin'?

Nobody seemed to be upset when Jo was given cast-off clothes in the FF books though.

Fatty seemed to love them to help his collection of disguises though they almost always seemed to be smelly.

[Hannah]

Miss Pepper (not Aunt Susan) was shocked at Snubby's shopping but I'm not sure if that was mainly because the things were used - how they looked might have been the more important reason.

“Well, now, there’s that pair of long trousers,” said old Mrs. Jones, pointing to a most dilapidated pair, hanging on a hook. “Clean they are, though dirty they look, for I washed them myself. And there’s this jersey, red and yellow, gay it is, and not badly worn.”
...
“And you shall have a cap too—a good one. See the big peak!”
...
What the others had said was nothing to what Miss Pepper said! She insisted that he should go straight back to the caravan and take off “those terrible clothes, especially that cap,” and wait till she came with clean ones.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Buying "dilapidated" second-hand clothes from a shop, as Snubby did, isn't quite the same as wearing hand-me-downs from family and friends. Snubby possibly wore some of Roger's cast-offs, though as a middle-class boy I expect he would have had new clothes if Roger's old ones looked too worn. (I hasten to add that I quite happily wear clothes from charity shops myself!)

I don't remember the circumstances in which Jo was given cast-offs. However, if they were provided by Aunt Fanny or Joan they would have been washed and may well have been in a better state than her old clothes.

I can't see Fatty's parents being too fond of his smelly coats, etc. They seemed to turn a blind eye to what went on in his shed - though as they heard about each mystery after it happened they must have known that Fatty had the ability to don a disguise at the drop of a smelly, ragged hat!

[GloomyGraham]

I still would have turned my nose up at anything that wasn't brand new lol. Luckily as the eldest child, I didn't have any older siblings to inherit old clothes from.

I too quite happily wore second-hand stuff from 'op shops' (as we call them) particularly when doing a bit of stage work in my 20s.

[Debbie]

In Noel Streatfeild stories hand-me-downs are often part of the stories, but it's the badly fitted/obviously mended is the issue rather than them being hand-me-downs. The children often are aware of looking like the poor relation because of how the clothes are, not by the fact they are secondhand.

There is joy at new clothes, being new to them (eg in "A Vicarage Family", her autobiography, her family makes a big thing of getting her a new dress for her confirmation. It's clear that a new dress was very much an exception rather than the rule - although Vicky decides to be as awkward as possible over it!)

Clothes rationing finished in 1949, but shops were still fairly restricted in what they sold, and I suspect children's clothes, as they grew out of them, would have been relatively high on the remake/repair etc. I have a 1950s sewing book which is dedicated to making new clothes out of old, and a lot of them are children's. How to get a child's dungarees out of two pairs of trousers type ideas.
In the 80s, our local WRVS used to do a clothes swap, where you could go with your old children's clothes and give them in and then you'd be entitled to choose from their selection for a small price, I think about 10p an item. They'd been going since WWII, and I think only finished doing that in the early 90s.I remember going there a few times and getting stuff. I also remember dm not being particularly pleased when I found myself something I thought was lovely at a jumble sale and wore it with great delight. Again it wasn't because it was secondhand, but because it fitted badly and had a rubbed patch on the back (but was very comfortable and I loved it) rather than the mere fact it was second hand-as the majority of my clothes were.

[GloomyGraham]

That's a good point about clothes rationing Debbie. I think you were only entitled to buy one coat per year.

Of course Enid pretty much ignored any type of rationing in her books.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

That's a good point about clothes rationing Debbie. I think you were only entitled to buy one coat per year.

I think that "entitled" is the wrong word.

To buy something on ration, you had to have both cash AND ration points/coupons to spend as you wished. I think that a new coat would have used up all of your ration points for the year!

I also seem to recall that many people even sent Princess Elizabeth (QE2) spare points for her wedding dress in 1947.

Hello Magazine wrote

Eleven coupons were needed for a dress, and adults were initially given 66 points for one year – which shrank to just 24 coupons in 1946. It is reported that the government allowed the Queen 200 extra ration coupons for her wedding dress, which was created two years after the war ended.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A coat should last several years anyway, even for a growing child (you just buy it big to start with!)