Joozers

Bib-over-all’s have been a staple in my life for as long as I can recall.  As the name implies, they’re designed to be worn over top of regular cloths to protect them from getting dirty and torn.

It’s rare now, to find someone wearing them as an ‘over-all,’ in a work environment. I certain don’t wear pants under my bibs anymore.

Back in the day however, and not all that long ago, they were worn like a daily work uniform and you could get them in any color you wanted, as long as it was blue. Meanwhile, the jeans that one wore under the over-all’s were called ‘Joozers.’

The memory of this probably would’ve never come to me if I hadn’t been reading Stephen King’s, ‘My Pretty Pony,’ last night. In this story about the measurement of time, he writes, “Grandpa was wearing the inevitable pair of blue-jeans beneath his overalls. ‘Jew-pants,’ he called them matter-of-factly — a term that all the farmers of Banning used. ‘”

As a kid, it never once occurred to me to think about where the word came from. But then, as an adult, I know that a German-Jew named Levi Strauss created a riveted work pant…