This weekend April 17, 2011 I participated in a Project Appleseed Rifle event. My son Michael (17), Annie (16) and me the mom (58). Why we went?  It was a chance to study about American heritage and the skills that brought the country to where it is today and to learn about marksmanship.  The marksmanship training was [...]

After many years of driving a large luxury SUV I decided it was time for a new car. My kids are also at the age that they need a car to learn in. The Navigator is just too big for them to drive. When I went to a gas station I could never fill up [...]

In the 16th century, drawers became a common term for both men’s and women’s underpants. Made of linen, the items were no-frills and looked more or less interchangeable (this being well before Victoria ever had a secret; decorative lace trim started appearing on the garments only in the middle of the 19th century). Most likely, [...]

Once upon a time, ladies stored their essentials in a little waist sack tied under their clothing (sort of an early ancestor of the fanny pack) and accessible through slits in their skirts. Around 1800, thinner, silkier fabrics and slimmer cuts came into vogue, and women could no longer hide the bulging sacks around their midsections. [...]

The term pump first popped up in 1550 in England, where male servants sported the style. It is said that the noise they made while wearing the loose-fitting shoes resembled the sound of a water pump. The word sneaker entered the language in the 1870s; the rubber soles made the shoes quiet and therefore “sneaky.” [...]

Bored Palm Beach socialite Lilly Pulitzer opened a juice stand in 1959 to pass the time, but she found one drawback: The citrus concoctions discolored her clothes. She instructed her dressmaker to create a uniform that would camouflage the bright stains, and the “Lilly” design — sleeveless cotton shifts in vibrant prints — was born. [...]

Not quite: The most widely held theory is that the single-strapped footwear was named for a character in “Buster Brown,” a children’s comic strip that was popular in the early 1900s. Mary Jane was either Buster Brown’s sweetheart or sister, depending on which source you consult.

In 1977 University of Vermont student Lisa Lindahl was running 30 miles a week — and her bra wasn’t holding up. With the help of two classmates, Lindahl sewed together two jock straps and — presto! — the sports bra was born. The coeds founded the company Jogbra a year later, garnering eternal gratitude from exercise-loving women [...]