Well! I must say I am appalled! These girls look nice in this photo, and that is the last time you see them dressed for the entire series of Texas Ranch House on PBS! I don't know why I should be appalled or even surprised. I have yet to see a single "Travel Back in Time and Live the Life of a Victorian, Pioneer, Rancher, WWII Blitz, Colonial Family" where the ladies kept their CLOTHING ON.
What is WRONG with the producers/writers/historians of these otherwise entertaining and interesting television spectacles? They obviously choose the participants carefully. They obviously train them well in all things historical: appropriate bathroom techniques, how to boil water and fix a fire from scratch, how to plant a garden and cook decent meals from meager supplies. And yet they leave out the entire subject of how to dress correctly without being mistaken for a prostitute!
The Cooke Family, very nice and likeable for the most part, would probably prefer to be nibbled to death by ducks than stand around on their front porch in 2006 in the Bras and panties with their hair disheveled. I can no doubt guarantee they would never sit down to dinner in their underpants! And yet they travel back to 1867 when there was a stricter code of conduct for gentlemen and ladies and proceed to run around in their skivvies!
Mrs. Cooke manages to keep her clothes on, but she can only be bothered to put her hair into a chignon when the wild Comanche Indians show up! Which would have been the one time you could perhaps be excused for flying around with your hair down as you ran for your life! Otherwise--even when it is the 4th of July Party or the United States Army Patrol shows up-- she just stands on the porch with her hair sloppily braided and tied with a rag.
And she doesn't have the sense to tell her daughters, "We've got company coming, girls, run inside and button yourself into your basques!" Let's just suppose that this slack and slovenly attitude towards appearance and decorum is observed when the ladies are alone at home, but even in the most rude establishment, when a gentleman arrived, they would have gotten dressed pronto! Even in today's world, don't most people put on nice clothing for company, or to sit down to dinner?
There is no way they would sit down to dinner with fully dressed, spur-wearing, chap-wearing, kerchief-wearing cowhands in their Chemise and CORSETS!
YES I AM SCREAMING! CORSETS ARE NOT OUTER APPAREL!
I just cannot get over this glaring oversight when you are showcasing a period correct piece like this. They won't even let these people have access to FRUIT, mind you! Fruit was rare and expensive and not a part of the every day diet of Texans in 1867. They can go on and on about that detail of historical trivia, use up 10 minutes of air time showing these folks smelling a bucket of apples as their ricket ridden gums salivate from depravity, but just completely ignore the fact that the Rancher's Daughters line up in their underpinnings for the entire unit of Buffalo Soldiers to ogle and leer at, and then sit down to dinner with them in the same state of undress.
I won't even go into the fact that these people long to go back in time for this experience, have to be interviewed, processed and selected for the opportunity. But the moment they get the job, they throw all that away and spend the rest of the time doing exactly as they please for their own comfort and history be damned!
Much of the plot for the later part of this series is about the feminist mindset of the female participants, and the demands of the maid-of-all-work to become a ranch hand like the boys. The wife of the Rancher thinks she is running a factory and she is the executive director of her husband, and cannot seem to grasp the idea that she could be having a different experience entirely if she'd just mind her own business! It's no wonder they despise her down at the bunk house.
It's rather sad, really. I mean, she could be spending the time with her daughters, attending to their grooming. (snark snark) I really miss the opportunity to see this 1867 experience done well and done with interest. I miss seeing it done without all the whining and sniveling. Cannot they pick people who want to throw themselves into the experience whole-heartedly and leave their 21st century idiosyncrasies at home?
Well, thank you for letting me vent! As a person who dresses in 1860's period clothing on a regular basis and finds it both comfortable and not unsuitable for most work and most weather, I fail to see the need to throw propriety to the winds and run around mostly undressed. I could stay home and just wear a crop-top and jeans if I wanted to do that.
My point is: Why sign up for the experience if you don't intend to have the experience?
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