A Good Run for Stockings by Dorothy Rosby

I recently stumbled across an essay written by a man who was nostalgic about pantyhose. Not that he missed wearing them. He wondered why the ladies in his life no longer do. He asked women he knew and got a lot of reasons, including cost, comfort, changing fashion and that odd swishing sound they make when you walk in them.

More interesting than his essay was the passionate response to it. Some men even criticized women for being slovenly and women responded that if men missed pantyhose so much, they should just go ahead and wear them themselves.

Who knew people could get so worked up about nylons? The only thing that bothers me about their decline is that it took a man pointing it out for me to even notice. I seldom wear dresses anymore because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten chillier. Sometimes it’s June before I give up my long johns and those look terrible with a skirt.

Of course, there was a time when I wore dresses and nylons with them. And as I recall, they do have some advantages, the main one being they keep your bare legs from sticking to your car seat on a hot day.

I decided to investigate because I’m naturally curious and also because I’m always looking for ways to get out of doing actual work. So I went to the great encyclopedia in the sky, the internet, where I learned that nylon stockings made their debut at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Women loved them, and when they went on sale the following year, they sold like toilet paper during a pandemic.

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