I don’t know exactly what they teach at this so called “Ding Dong School,” but I don’t like the way Red’s looking at me.
June 19, 2006 by Mary & Kimberly
I don’t know exactly what they teach at this so called “Ding Dong School,” but I don’t like the way Red’s looking at me.
I like the concept of the Child’s “Self-Help” apron. What does that Mean? It apparently enabled Child #1 to help herself to a killing spree for the missing child who’s apron is splattered on the floor….
I love a glass of milk with my apple after school snack.
Who exactly is “Miss Frances” and why should we want to have her approval?
God, I actually know the answer to the above rhetorical questions: Ding Dong School was a kid’s show in the waaaaay early days of TV, back when little girls actually sewed stuff and wore crap like this.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0211798/fullcredits
Miss Frances was actually Dr. Frances Horwich. I can see why she stuck to kindergarteners, with a name like that.
Just wait ’til Ms Red bends over to pick up her pencil…. Ack! Did I just write that?
hmm. I’m slightly disturbed by a ’self-help apron’ frankly.. I suppose it beats a self help book, you can use it to dry your tears of rage at being the one who lost out in the battle for ‘teacher’s pet’
Whoah. Is this where DvF got the idea for wrap dresses?
Under what ’school’ circumstances would a little girl NEED to be able to completely remove her dress…
I loved Miss Frances’ Ding Dong school…I even had a coloring book based on the show! I think this cute little dress was designed so that little girls could dress themselves, thus freeing up mom’s hands to care for her other kids…my mom had seven children, all 2 years apart, so I ‘m sure she appreciated clothing that allowed us to dress ourselves!
Back in the 50’s, things were very different than nowadays. Little girls didn’t dress like Brittney Spears…neither did big girls, come to think of it! LOL
and we wore slips under our dresses, something that young ladies nowadays seem to forget about wearing.
Judging by her naughty look Red isn’t wearing ANYTHING under hers, never mind a slip.
These girls seem to have misunderstood the instruction for “apron” as “dress,” which those things most certainly are not.
And it might be my feeble female spatial-perception-challenged brain, Mary Lou, but even as an adult, I find the ins and outs of that dress quite confusing. I don’t know if I would be able to assemble it properly.
I’d be afraid some smarty would unbutton me and all would be revealed…
Maybe the kindergarten kids of the ’50s were smarter too. My going to be second grade child hasn’t mastered shoe tying yet. But then agan, he has velcro. Which makes me wonder what the 1950s mothers would have made for their children if they had velcro.
Looks like Red is doing a little striptease. She’s on her final dress and soon will be in nothing but those red CFM shoes :-0
It just seems wrong that girls that age have outfits that easy to remove…gives a whole new dimmension to “easy access”
Normal girls would wear these things over their regular clothes; apparently Red and Blondie either didn’t hear that part of the instructions, or else they pawned all their other clothes for more library paste to eat.
The apple & milk looks like it’s about to slide right off of that mat, which might actually improve the color scheme of Blondie’s dress.
And Red’s shoes started out white; they turned their current color due to the huge blisters she got from wearing her shoes without her socks. (Ouch!)
And just what is causing those skirts to flare out like that? Hidden wires?
Hidden wires? Oh, my, no. It’s heavy starch, which Mom used when she ironed every one of those cotton outfits for her seven children, since there was no such thing as wrinkle-free anything in those days.
I loooooove the library paste memories!….That’s not a glass of milk…it’s a nice big glass of library paste…every school kid’s dream snack to enjoy all to one’s self after a hard day at school. The apple is for flushing down the toilet to clog it up and blaming it on blondie who looks so clueless.
CP: Under those great fifties dresses, we wore slips (full slips), undershirts (like modern day camisoles), panties (like granny panties), and crinolines so even if we managed to quickly remove the dress, there was still a whole lot of clothing to remove. The crinolines were petticoats that had yards and yards of tulle gathered onto a nylon waistband…I used to use mine to play “bride” with….the pastel colored petticoats were the bridesmaids…they could stand up by themselves, they were so full and bouffant, and the white petticoat went on my head for a veil! What an imagination I had! And I am definitely dating myself! Back in the days of Miss Frances, there were only three tv stations! Can you imagine?
They were easier to do than metal zippers that got stuck in the fabric.
Edina: not only did we have dresses like that, I had summer tops that criss-crossed and buttoned much like that pattern…somehow we figured them out.
Trying to figure out how those dresses cross-buttoned (yeah, I managed to figure it out) I had a strange thought. This is totally off-topic, but what the hell, the threads dying-out anyway.
Anyway, I HATE using public toilets. Maybe it’s an only-child thing (never had to share the bathroom) but pooping in a public restroom — only if nessasary.
So I’m fininshing up, and somebody comes in to use the urinal, so I’ll have to wait for him to finish before I’ll leave.
He finishes, flushes — rustle of cloth. More rustling of cloth. Clink of metal, a snap, a button, more cloth rustling, clanking of a buckle, yet another snap. more cloth rustle and a final zipper Ziiiiip!. I’m wondering what kind of weird German SM bondage gear this guy had on…
Anyway, just thought I’d share.
I’m old enough to remember Miss Frances. And the starched dresses and petticoats were what every little girl of the 50’s wore. You see, we were not allowed to wear pants to school ,or anywhere else, except to play outdoors! It made for some pretty chilly walks to and from school!!! That was in the days when there were three separate wardrobes for everyone. There was the every day wardrobe for school. Next was play clothes for afterschool and on Saturdays. Finally, you wore your Sunday Best to church and for very special occasions. Somewhere in the intervening years it all got muddled together into one wardrobe. Now kids are wearing what we wore as play clothes to school, weekends, and for Sunday Best! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the comfort of casual clothes as much as anyone. I just have a hard time dealing with people attending weddings and funerals in jeans with tears in them. I guess that really does show my age!
lolita who?
I just found this site (via dress a day) and was wandering through when I found the picture of this pattern. Oh the flood of nostalgia from that! I too watched the show as a little girl, and remember my grandmother buying the pattern. She made me a couple of the dresses and they were great in the summer heat of Oklahoma. Someone even cut my hair like blondie’s. I liked it because I could get dressed myself. I even still have the patten, much tattered because I made the dresses for my sisters who were ten years younger than me. I will even be making them for the new grandaughter that’s due any day now!!
A friend of mine and his new bride just moved to Korea to teach English at – I am not making this up – the Ding Ding Dang School. I wonder if those demented little aprons are the staff uniform??
why do people take this stuff seriously? Really, we dont care that you insist on torturing your grandchildren by making them these dresses. Or how your mother tortured you by making you wear crinoline. It’s funny, we’re not asking for nostalgia
Wow, Monica, did someone pee in your oatmeal? O_o Part of the fun of this site is that it brings back memories for many people of clothes they once wore, toys they used to play with, shows they used to watch, or decorative items they had around the home way-back-when. I enjoy reading these stories. Without them, the whole site would be nothing but “OMG that is teh funny lololol!!1!” If that’s all you want to read, then skip over the posts that offend you…or else learn not to be so easily offended.
Btw, I actually think these dresses are kind of cute, and I can see why Ruth would make them for her young granddaughters. That’s not to say that I don’t find Red’s over-the-shoulder come-hither look a little disturbing on a kindergartener, however. I’m thinking the artist should have reconsidered that part. ¬_¬
Being a 90’s child I never owned anything this adorable as a child. I definitely wish I had this pattern and could adapt it to my obviously larger frame! It’s quite cute. I don’t understand how the cross buttoning works though >_<
anyone care to elaborate?
OKAY! They are adorable…as a seamstress I say…let’s take some flair out of that skirt, open up the armholes a bit and get going…super cute layered over jeans and a tee…could be a beach coverup…
My mother never let me wear pants. Pants were for boys so I was kept in full-skirted dresses and slips all the time. Aprons were for helping mother with the dishes and worn to protect my dresses. We girls simply did not have the freedom of choice regarding clothes that young girls have today. Was it better for us? Well, at least we learned to be little ladies rather than look like minature streetwalkers. My daughters like wearing dresses for which I for one, am grateful.
Judi
A youtube video of “Ding Dong School”