Of all the fashions I ever heard <br />Or those that could annoy, <br />Was how women wore their clothes <br />When daddy was a boy. <br />He said they wore their dresses, then <br />Just pinned around their middle, <br />And how they kept them there, to him <br />Was more or less a riddle. <br /> <br />He said they all wore shirtwaists, too <br />And sure, it was a cinch, <br />That not a button could be seen <br />But a pin most every inch. <br /> <br />He said they wore around their necks <br />Just yards and yards of ribbon, <br />All these things were pinned on, to <br />Cause daddy wasn[t' fibbin. <br /> <br />But the worst thing about it was <br />Lads had to be so careful, <br />When they went a courting-see <br />Cause pins stick something fearful. <br /> <br />They even pinned their hats on with <br />Long pins as sharp as daggers, <br />And men had to be real men <br />And not just common braggart's. <br /> <br />Cause when a maiden tossed her head <br />You had to be a dodging, <br />Imagine being in a crown <br />With every head a bobbing. <br /> <br />It made daddy think of longhorns <br />Out on the western plains, <br />If you run amuck of a tossing horn <br />You had to nurse the pain.<br /><br />Della Hodgson James<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-daddy-was-a-boy/
