A Change of Dress is as Good as a Nap

A change of dress is as good as a nap... Yet countless women - farm women especially - never put on a fresh dress after dinner unless company is expected or they are going to town. 

So said the Exeter Times, 100 years ago today; a weekly newspaper read by your ancestors and relatives in Huron County and Middlesex County...

Woman's Sphere column in the Exeter Times, 18 November 1920, page 2.

This is just one example of the advice that was doled out to your rural relatives, a century ago. It wasn't enough that a woman had been cooking and baking all day, not to mention sweeping, scrubbing and scouring the house, tending to at least some of the livestock, and caring for at least half a dozen children. It seems that after all that, she was also expected to look attractive for her husband when he came through the door at the end of the day.

What about her husband? Did he change into a fresh pair of overalls when he returned from the fields or did he sit down to dinner smelling of the barnyard? The newspaper article neglects to inform us about whether or not he freshened up his appearance. Someone should have written a similar column for the men, advising them that "a change of dress is as good as a nap."