Union Suit Fans!

As promised last week, I'm featuring the first of those individuals who initially responded to my blog, Union Suit Fan, by email or through comments to my various postings back in 2016. So over the next little, I'll post about these union suit fans whom I've met through this blog and have gotten to know quite well. It's doubtful we'll ever meet in person but we know each other through emails, stories and photos right down to our underwear!

In my last posting, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if anyone would bother to read a blog with long underwear as the primary topic, especially the kind which so many consider “old-fashion.” But, I gave it a go and not long after I initiated such, I received the following email:

Dear Chris,

Rich of Buffalo, NY

Just wanted to say Hello and to Thank You for your Union Suit Blog. I also wear union suits and enjoy hearing stories and seeing pictures of other guys wearing them. I hope you keep up with your blog, especially now that the fall is on the way. Can winter be far behind?

I usually start out in late October with my short sleeve light weight suits, and work my way into the long sleeve ones. I have a good collection with even several Athletic Union Suits.

I live in Buffalo New York, so this is good long handle country.

Drop me a line when you can.  Best Wishes, Rich

Hey Rich:

Your email just dropped into my in-box but I see it was dated Sept. 9th. Sorry just getting back to you. It's great to hear from you as another Union Suit wearer. And I am happy you enjoy the blog. There are a lot of us guys who prefer comfortable, one-piece underwear so I'll keep the torch burning. I've been wearing union suits since early October and will continue to probably the first week or two in June. I also wear them during the summer when camping in the mountains.

Send me any articles or photos and I will place in my blog using only first name and home town. Keep in touch...Chris

From that point, Rich and I began corresponding by email, with my learning much more about him over the years. Here are just a few excerpts from our dozens of emails over the years:

Chris: ….My dad got me into wearing a union suit when I was a teenager and they have always been my favorite kind of underwear. I didn't like them at first and put up quite an argument with him about wearing them. He won that argument but soon I agreed with him about their comfort and warmth.....Rich

Rich: Did you get teased at school when wearing your Union Suits? In Idaho, many boys like me wore union suits and others, two piece long johns. We had friendly rivalry changing clothes in the boys' locker room at school after gym because most all of us wore long underwear, most of the school year. On cold days we wore our gym clothes over our long underwear. Looking back we must have been a sight! ...Chris

Chris, No I never got teased for wearing a Union Suit. I went to an all boys school and there were still a lot of boys who wore long underwear of one sort or another. More two piece but several wore union suits. Our gym was in a separate building from our locker room and we'd have to run outside to the other building. One time I remember twins who were in our class both wore gym clothes with their union suits underneath. 

I do remember one of my best friends asking me why I wore "button-down-underwear" like his dad. That's the only time I remember it being called "button-down-underwear" which is a good name for them....Best wishes, Rich

Rich: "Button-down-underwear" is a good name for Union Suits! I like that and might try to work it in to a future post. I wonder where your friend came up with that terminology. When he asked you why you wore "button down underwear.” did you tell him your daddy made you?! ...Chris

To this day, I love the term “button-down-underwear” when describing Union Suits. You may remember me using this reference fairly often when posting about union suits. Well, that came from Rich's email and from then on that's what we both called our union suits. Rich began telling me more about his personal history, such as his time in the Vietnam War and what he did after returning home to Buffalo. The man is a true patriot! His emails were so interesting, I asked him to write down those days for a “Guest Contributor” posting to my blog. I repeat it below in the event you missed it or you are new to Union Suit Fan:

My Story: Tailor Made 

       Rich of Buffalo, New York, Contributor

Whatever happened to low dollar, affordable union suits? I can remember paying five and six dollars for union suits back in the late 1960's and early 1970's. So many department stores sold them then. There was a store right around the corner from where I lived that sold a variety of long underwear. I purchased several union suits there over the years. They came in boxes of six union suits or so, each wrapped individually.

There was a tailor shop I remember fondly in downtown Buffalo, New York which I happened to notice one cold day while waiting nearby for a bus. I looked in the window and decided to go in and warm up. The shop was owned by an elderly man and his wife. He tailored custom suits and his wife did alterations. I wanted to know if by chance he sold union suits so I asked. The owner was not especially friendly at first. Maybe he thought I was just joking about my willingness to buy one. It turned out though that he did sell the one-piece, button-down underwear I was seeking.

I told him I wore union suits often but didn't happen to have one on that day. His whole demeanor changed when I convinced him that I intended to buy one. 

He placed one of his legs up on a chair and raised his pant leg to the knee to show me that he wore union suits as well. No doubt he came from the old country and probably wore union suits summer and winter all his life. Turns out we were fellow union suit wearers! Not too surprising as this was Buffalo, New York after all.

The tailor's stock had to be really old because the long underwear he showed me came in boxes but was not in shrink wrap. I picked a union suit that I figured might fit me. He looked at me surprised when I informed him that I planned not only to buy one but that I wanted to wear it home that very day. I told him that I frequently rode buses around town as I had that day. It would be a long, frigid wait at the bus stop when I left his shop and I did not intend on freezing. I asked where I might try on the underwear.

He wanted to know if I had ever been measured for a union suit. At the time I was a young man of twenty-two just out of the service. Although I had been wearing union suits for years, I didn't know a thing about being sized for long underwear.

So at his instruction, I undressed down to my underwear and he measured me right there in his shop. He meticulously measured my waist, chest, inseam, and trunk. This tailor must have measured countless men and boys over the decades. So measuring me for a union suit was second nature to him. He jotted down my measurements, did some figuring, and then recommended just the right size. He placed the union suit that I had chosen back on the table and handed me a better fitting one. He directed me to a private room where I could put it on. 

As I was buttoning up the union suit he walked in and asked “how does it fit? 

"Perfectly!" I intoned happily.

With me standing there in my new long underwear, he looked me up and down and pronounced, "You'll be good and warm now!"

"Yes, I will," I agreed as I pulled on my pants.

After I finish getting dressed, I paid him and turned to leave. I waved goodbye to the gentleman tailor and his wife as I walked out the door toward the bus stop. He not only warmed my body that day but my heart as well. What a kind old gentleman he turned out to be.

Several times I returned to his tailor shop. I purchased a new union suit or two every year. One day I returned intent on buying another union suit but the shop was empty. Had he retired, sold out, died? I never found out. And so it goes in life.

My time there and the long underwear I purchased from him are now just a memory. I never did buy a tailored custom suit from him. I don't even remember now what underwear brand the union suits were but they were made very well. I'll never forget that early experience and my affection for that old man who himself wore union suits and every now and then sold one or two to me and perhaps other well-measured men.

Thanks to my very good friend and true Union Suit Fan, Rich, for contributing his early experience.... Chris

Thanks Rich for being a part of my life these past years. May you continue to be in good health and enjoying wearing our favorite "button-down" underwear! ….Your pal, Chris