When Daddy Was A Boy Poem by Della Hodgson James

Of all the fashions I ever heard
Or those that could annoy,
Was how women wore their clothes
When daddy was a boy.
He said they wore their dresses, then
Just pinned around their middle,
And how they kept them there, to him
Was more or less a riddle.

He said they all wore shirtwaists, too
And sure, it was a cinch,
That not a button could be seen
But a pin most every inch.

He said they wore around their necks
Just yards and yards of ribbon,
All these things were pinned on, to
Cause daddy wasn[t' fibbin.

But the worst thing about it was
Lads had to be so careful,
When they went a courting-see
Cause pins stick something fearful.

They even pinned their hats on with
Long pins as sharp as daggers,
And men had to be real men
And not just common braggart's.

Cause when a maiden tossed her head
You had to be a dodging,
Imagine being in a crown
With every head a bobbing.

It made daddy think of longhorns
Out on the western plains,
If you run amuck of a tossing horn
You had to nurse the pain.