# Traditional USA costume **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 21, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795 "2009-04-21T00:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/21 "2009-04-21T11:52:48Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > By the way, I suppose I need something with a historical base. How is the “surfer culture” NOT historical? Surfing goes back centuries in Hawaii, and there was a sort of “golden age” on the west coast in the 1960’s with significant impacts on US culture with TV shows, popular, music, fashion, etc. Sure, we aren’t used to thinking of something within a lot of people’s current lifetimes as “historical” but I think the argument could be made. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/22 "2009-04-21T12:00:34Z")
Ask your kids what they’d like to be and see if you can do it. They have to wear it after all. It should be something they’d be able to get into character for. ---
**Author:** ![Floppy\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@Floppy\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floppy_Joe)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/23 "2009-04-21T18:55:39Z")
> [@Civil\_Guy](#): > > Do the girl up as a surfer chick (works for Hawaii and California), and the boy up as a forty-niner miner. Paint some of the nuggets silver and some gold, and you’ve covered both the California Gold Rush (maybe the Klondike Gold Rush as well) and also Nevada’s Virginia City silver boom. Or probably don’t try so hard to cover so many things here. You can’t, there’s too much here. If you’ve got enough kids, you could do all of that, PLUS with a camera and tripod, you could turn it all into a Hollywood movie set. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/24 "2009-04-21T19:04:07Z")
If you want to represent California, you could dress them up as Mexicans. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/25 "2009-04-21T19:23:29Z")
I vote for either surfers or forty-niners. I live in the middle of gold rush country, and all the festivals are going on right now. Girls generally wear pioneer-type clothes, and the miner-type guys just wear jeans and red flannel shirts–the filthier, the better. Jeans were invented here, so it’s accurate. Just give him a shovel and a pan and a very old hat, and you’re golden. Oh, and Alaska had a gold rush too, so you can count that in as well! ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/26 "2009-04-21T21:08:16Z")
Well, it seems to me that Hollywood has really had a worldwide cultural impact. I’m not saying that’s agood thing, but it’s hardly debateable. Sooooo maybe the girl in a long dress with costume jewelry and an “Oscar”? and the boy in a traditional Hawaian or Alakan native costume. . . The trouble is that you need more than two. . . you can cover the West coast and Alaska with a Pacific Coast Native American costume and a forty-niner, but then Hawaii is completely out of the picture. Maybe a ship’s captain of the period when Hawaii was first becoming a trade stop instead of the forty-niner? The ship’s captain would have been moving between hawaii, Seattle and Juneau I think . . . or maybe make him a whaler? One really captivating story to represent is the sled-dog team that carried diptheria serum from Anchorage to Nome 1925 I think? [1925 serum run to Nome - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1925_serum_run_to_Nome) ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/27 "2009-04-22T19:52:28Z")
lumberjacks would work too, jeans, flannel shirts, work boots ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/28 "2009-04-23T04:15:03Z")
I’d go with the prospector look. It’s relatively easy to create. It’s historical. And it covers several states in the west (you can accessorize with a lei if you want to include Hawaii). ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/29 "2009-04-23T16:16:48Z")
Now, can I stretch your generosity and ask if you know any online source for photos of that time (westward settlers, prospectors)? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/30 "2009-04-23T16:38:34Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > If you want to represent California, you could dress them up as Mexicans. I don’t know if this is a cynical statement or just a statement of the fact that California was originally part of Mexico (and before that, a colony of Spain)–though the colonial occupation went up to only San Francisco. There’s a reason why the Russian River is called the “Russian River.” (Hint: the Russians were there.) “Tradition” is one of the hardest things to define in California. (After all, our governor is Austrian.) ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/31 "2009-04-23T18:24:51Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > Now, can I stretch your generosity and ask if you know any online source for photos of that time (westward settlers, prospectors)? Prospectors are generally depicted wearing typical “western” clothing, but carrying a pick-axe and/or a pan for panning gold, and having a pack mule. 🙂 Settler women are usually depicted in long shirt-waist dresses, with bonnets and aprons. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/32 "2009-04-23T18:27:07Z")
I was going to suggest a T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap, but I see I’ve been beaten to it. 😃 Going as a surfer sounds like an excellent suggestion. I supposed you should feel lucky the kids weren’t assigned Iraq. From a Robot Chicken sketch: Linus, Lucy, and Charlie Brown from “Peanuts” are shown. Lucy: I love Geography Week! I got Italy. Linus: I got France. Charlie Brown: I got Iraq. (Pronounced like “a rock”) ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/33 "2009-04-23T19:15:07Z")
Total cruise wear. California, Alaska and Hawaii have that in common. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795/34 "2009-04-23T20:01:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Now, can I stretch your generosity and ask if you know any online source for photos of that time (westward settlers, prospectors)? Miner images: [here](http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-oldwest/GoldMiner.jpg) [here](http://www.inkart.com/images/lineart/old_Missouri_Lead_miner.gif) [here](http://home.att.net/%7ELazyMiner/images/miner.gif) [here](http://www.filebuzz.com/software_screenshot/full/gold_miner_special_edition-48331.jpg) [here](http://i.pbase.com/v3/36/275736/1/49813309.delonega_9892_consolidated_mine_miner_mike.jpg) [here](http://www.lukespence.com/chi-omega/miner-imgs/miner01.gif) [here](http://www.joyfullstrings.com/images/MinersDream.jpg) [here](http://www.enetis.net/%7Ejstrain/Gold%20Miner.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-usa-costume/493795.md?page=1)