How You Look and Dress—Copyright, 1949

I was fortunate enough to be a student at/in Forney High School when Mrs. Rea Thomas was the Librarian; she was the “keeper” of a vast number of books and a tremendous “vertical file,” filled with all sorts of goodies. And when I returned to my home town to teach in 1973, she was still there at the “door to the books,” keeping watch so that no one defiled or removed a book and so that no one left without finding what he/she needed to complete a project or to prepare for an evening of literary perusal.

Every once-in-awhile, this former excellent English teacher (She taught me 9th Grade Grammar/Mechanics and Literature.) would say, “Don, I think this book has outlived its usefulness in our library; would you like to add it to your classroom bookshelf?” My answer was always, “Certainly, and thank you very much for thinking of me!” (I always felt sure I still was her favorite!) One afternoon, she offered me the book, named in the headline of this article.

It was a textbook for a class that nearly, if not all, girls in high school took before graduating, and some took it more than one year. It was called “Home Economics” or “Home Ec.” for short. Later on, my wife, Vivian Hood Themer, earned a Home Economics Degree from TWU in Denton and for a few years taught a course called “Home and Family Living,” which was an off-shoot of the old Homemaking Classes.

Now, let me share some “jewels from past“ photos from Jackrabbit Annuals and from a “Homemaking” textbook, called How You Look and Dress.