History of fashion and hurt

My grandmother was born in deep woods Texas in the late 1890′s.  They were dirt poor subsistence farmers and didn’t have a lot of clothes to spare when everything was hand sewn.  One of the major social events of the time, in the summer, was an “All Day Meeting and Dinner on the Grounds” on a Sunday.  They would meet on the church grounds – a grassy wooded area by the church for whole day of preaching, praying, singing hymns, and socializing, including a picnic lunch. (It was much cooler outside than in the closed up church.)  It was also a prime occasion for courting, near the family and in full view, but a little away, talking quietly.

Young single women of the time were expected to wear long white gowns for socializing. Menstrual protection consisted of a hand sewn bundle of rags, and the only restroom facility was a multi-hole outhouse, the only running water a nearby stream.  You see the problem.

Two of her sisters were wild and reckless with their health and would dredge up ice cold water from the very bottom of the well to pour over themselves right before dressing to leave.  This shocked their bodies into temporarily stop or slow down the flow, but it only helped so much.  Apparently a maneuver that young women learned early was how to gracefully sink down onto the grass, spreading their long white skirts around them so that they are bleeding directly onto the grass, and not onto their dress.