Air travel used to be so much more exciting. For perspective's sake, I can remember a time when folks used to dress up to get on an airplane. Sure, the tie I wore was a clip-on, but I was a pretty wee thing when this all came to pass. The 1960s. You may have heard of them. It's also quite possible that you were under the impression that that time was all about hippies and free love and that sort of thing. I am here to tell you that was not the case. It took a long time to unclench from the fifties. When I was born, the Beatles were just starting to make their way across the pond, creating scandal for wearing their hair over their ears. Mostly, anyway. My hair during those years was cropped much shorter than that. And when I went to school or church, I wore my Buster Browns and a shirt with a collar. T-shirts and dungarees were for roughhousing after the day's business had been completed.
Getting on an airplane was business. You might have swim trunks and flip flops packed away in your suitcase somewhere, but you were not by any means going to flaunt that look on board a passenger aircraft. Similarly, you weren't going to have your luggage anywhere nearby. It was safely stowed away in the compartment for which it was designed. You wouldn't need access to your laptop, unless by laptop you mean the tray table that would magically unfold in front of you to hold the coloring book you were allowed to carry on. And your phone? That was miles away at home where you would be missing calls because you were going somewhere on a plane for heaven's sake and who would want to be bothered with such trivialities when you're all dressed up and had somewhere to go?
And, if you were extremely luck and under the age of twelve, the captain might stroll through the cabin and drop a pair of plastic wings on you, just for promising to hold on tight. He wore a hat and had gold stripes on his sleeves. This guy was definitely not going to use autopilot.
This may have been where I took off, but it's definitely not where I landed.
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I've always wondered: what's a dungaree?
Wikipedia says:
Dungaree fabric (used in English since 1605–15, from the Marathi dongrī) is a historical term for an Indian coarse thick calico[1] cloth. The word is possibly derived from Dongri, a dockside village near Mumbai.[2] Cotton twill with indigo-dyed warp thread is now more commonly referred to as denim.[3]
In American English, the term is used for hard-wearing work trousers made from such fabric and in British English for bib overalls in various fabrics, either for casual or work use.[2] By 1891 Kipling was using the word to refer to a kind of garment (in the plural)[4] as well as a fabric.[5]
Dungaree vs. denim
Although dungaree now also refers to denim,[6] it is unclear whether traditional dungaree was a precursor to denim. In the late 17th century, most dungaree produced was either washed and bleached, or dyed after weaving.[1] Denim refers to cotton twill which may be warp dyed, undyed, or dyed after weaving. Denim may be 2x1 or 3x1 twill.[7] It is unclear what types of dungaree fabric were available traditionally.
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