Shirt Tail Story
Title
Shirt Tail Story
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP22174
Date
1935
Description
Cary Grayson records a story from a Red Cross worker of using men’s shirt tails to make aprons for working girls in the Red Cross. She asked Grayson if he could get one of Woodrow Wilson’s shirt tails for this purpose.
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
Shirt tail story
“Back in the days of the War, I was asked to join in a scheme to try to help the Red Cross.“
A lady wrote me a letter - a lady from a Western State, and said “Out here we are working for the Red Croxss, and we are conserving and saving, and we have decided that in time of war men could get along out here with at least half of their shirt-tails, and we could use the other half to make aprons for the working girls in the Red Cross.“
She said, “We have had pretty good success, but two weeks from now we are planning to have a bazaar, and we are going to make, at that time, aprons for the working girls in the Red Cross from prominent men’s shirt-tails.”
“She also said, ‘I want you to use any influence you might have with President Wilson to get one of his shirt-tails to make an apron for that bazaar.“
Then she added a postscript to the letter. She said ‘If you could note any particular functions that the wearer of the shirt-tail attended, it would help us out.”
“And to get that shirt tail was my first Red Cross mission.”
“Back in the days of the War, I was asked to join in a scheme to try to help the Red Cross.“
A lady wrote me a letter - a lady from a Western State, and said “Out here we are working for the Red Croxss, and we are conserving and saving, and we have decided that in time of war men could get along out here with at least half of their shirt-tails, and we could use the other half to make aprons for the working girls in the Red Cross.“
She said, “We have had pretty good success, but two weeks from now we are planning to have a bazaar, and we are going to make, at that time, aprons for the working girls in the Red Cross from prominent men’s shirt-tails.”
“She also said, ‘I want you to use any influence you might have with President Wilson to get one of his shirt-tails to make an apron for that bazaar.“
Then she added a postscript to the letter. She said ‘If you could note any particular functions that the wearer of the shirt-tail attended, it would help us out.”
“And to get that shirt tail was my first Red Cross mission.”
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Shirt Tail Story,” 1935, WWP22174, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.