Those shagged off rigging clothes. WHY?

[akroadrunner]

O.K. fellows. Tell me why they 'shagged' them off. I'm thinking it may take a few posts for someone to come up with the REAL reason. Give it a shot. I'll wise you up later if someone doesn't come through.

 

[mitch504]

Huh?

I have no guess what you are talking about.

 

[akroadrunner]

O.K. You won't see a hem at the bottom of the pants leg. It's been cut off, and all frayed. Shagged off like we did our jeans in the late 60's early 70's. Often times you will notice the shirt sleeves shagged, too. Look at the old pics. Kind of look like the worn out clothes you see Shelby wearing in 'the swamp.' The rigging jeans we wore then, usually made it about halfway between the knee and ankle. Don't wear clothes like that when you're welding, unless you like to catch fire. Now tell me, 'WHY were they shagged?'

 

[BDFT]

So your leg didn't hang up on sticks and limbs on the sidehill. With the hem gone the pantleg will just rip when a limb goes up your leg.

 

[Jumbo]

O.K. You won't see a hem at the bottom of the pants leg. It's been cut off, and all frayed. Shagged off like we did our jeans in the late 60's early 70's. Often times you will notice the shirt sleeves shagged, too. Look at the old pics. Kind of look like the worn out clothes you see Shelby wearing in 'the swamp.' The rigging jeans we wore then, usually made it about halfway between the knee and ankle. Don't wear clothes like that when you're welding, unless you like to catch fire. Now tell me, 'WHY were they shagged?'

To quote the Weyerhaeuser Woods Safety book printed August of 1968:
Pants shall be stagged (not shagged) off to prevent hangups from brush and limbs. Pant length is recommended at about four inched below top of “corks”. Pants shall be supported with suspenders while working on the rigging crew or cutting crew. Shirts shall have long sleeves.

These were all requirements, not open for discussion. As for my personal choices; a zipper front hickory shirt, which would last about two months prior to adding a belly patch to repair rips and tears from flopping over logs and such. A pocket watch instead of a wristwatch so it did not get torn from your wrist and the ever ubiquitous White Ox gloves, Weyerhaeuser sold them by the dozen, four day per pair, sometimes less in the mud. Once they brought in “scab ox” and woods at Snoqualmie shut down for a day in protest. The purchasing agent was reprimanded for that. I still tie my work shoes, as I learned there, no loops in the knot and no matter what, they always untie easily. Buffalo were my favorite brand of corks, Currin and Greene having gone out of business earlier. Winter always included a knitted ear brassiere I knitted myself along with black wool underwear.

Getting home at night in the rain, you pile everything on the electric hot water tank, corks included and at 3 AM when you got up everything was dry albeit a little stiff. Grease the corks, pack a nosebag and off to work you go. We all had packsacks sewn by a cutter made from heavy canvas, which would hold your raingear, nosebag, gloves, and any incidentals you might wish. My packsack is all I have left from those years of lunch in the rain 1800 feet out at the backend hunched over a small fire. Every Friday night, I would lay all my clothes out on the concrete pad in front of the garage and hose them off then take them to a laundry mat to wash them, never was allowed to screw up the wash machine at home with mud after the first time.

Findley Hays has a grand dissertation in “Lies Logs and Loggers” about getting outfitted.

 

[akroadrunner]

Nothing like standing next to the wood stove after a day setting chokers in the rain. The safety issue was secondary, although a good reason to get rid of the hem. There was an earlier reason the clothes were shagged like that.
I found a pair of corks at my Dad's that some long gone ex-employee had left behind. No one knew who they belonged to. They fit me so I claimed them. The leather was much thinner than contemporary boots. They had the replaceable caulks. I wore out the caulks so many times, I had to resole the boots. Had them done in spring heels. Continued to replace the caulks several more times until the uppers finally gave out. I wore those boots for YEARS. Don't know the brand, but they were the best. Usually wore West Coast. 18 months seemed about average for a pair of boots to last.
I remember stripping naked and washing myself with GASOLINE in the garage, after some particularly nasty repair jobs on equipment. That copper clad gear grease for the open gears was almost impossible to remove. I quit the gasoline bathing after a guy blew himself out of his garage doing the same thing. Seems he set off a static spark.
Uniroyal Super Rainster rain gear was the only brand I bought. And Yes, White Ox gloves by the dozen.
Still have my last 2 Tin Hats. One is painted orange and yellow, with my nickname 'smoke' on the front, and quite bent up. The other still aluminum.
Tell me Boys, another reason to "SHAG" them.

 

[gologit]

What's the big mystery? We stagged off our pants so they wouldn't snag on stuff. I never heard it called "shagged" either. Since they quit making 'Frisco Jeans a lot of the guys wear Bailey's, Prison Blues, Key, or Carhart...anything roomy with lots of pockets. If we're on brushy ground or poison oak a long sleeve shirt is good. It's hot around here in the summer so a lot of guys just wear short sleeves.

I didn't know there was some kind of "secret" reason why we dress like we do. Everybody has a different reason for what they wear but it comes down to this...You wear what works best for you.

 

[akroadrunner]

Well, according to the fellows that were already 'old timers' when I started logging, it was the same reason the mountain men had the fringe on their buckskins. They weren't doing it for the looks. Nope. Your clothes will dry faster. Get wet. The sun comes out. If your buddy is wearing regular clothing, and your are stagged or shagged, you say tomato. Guess who will be dry first. In fact, I worked with guys on the Olympic Peninsula in the 60's and early 70's that would cut loose the outside edge of the seams on the side if the leg for that very reason. Left a fuzzy edge on the outside of the leg. Not snagging on the brush was secondary, but still a VERY good reason to do it.

 

[Jumbo]

Well, according to the fellows that were already 'old timers' when I started logging, it was the same reason the mountain men had the fringe on their buckskins. They weren't doing it for the looks. Nope. Your clothes will dry faster. Get wet. The sun comes out. If your buddy is wearing regular clothing, and your are stagged or shagged, you say tomato. Guess who will be dry first. In fact, I worked with guys on the Olympic Peninsula in the 60's and early 70's that would cut loose the outside edge of the seams on the side if the leg for that very reason. Left a fuzzy edge on the outside of the leg. Not snagging on the brush was secondary, but still a VERY good reason to do it.

Okay, I am going to bite on this one, and I may sound very stupid for doing it. From my Grandfather who started in the woods for Schafer Brothers in 1915 as a second faller never made any mention other than safety, my uncle who worked for St. Ole out of Kapowsin in the ‘40s says the same thing. My dad who started for North Bend Timber in ’46 chasing on a swing tree, the same….

Again, I may be wrong, but this sounds like a chokerman’s test and somebody was pulling someone’s leg.

I know I passed mine when I was sent to the landing for a sack of choker holes, I came back quietly with a sack of loggers 2 all capped and fused with which I shot about 6 choker holes at once scaring the bejesus out of the rigging crew. At 16, I had already been around the block once…

However, I have been wrong so many times; I am amazed when I am right…

 

[BDFT]

I've never heard anything about drying you out faster. It rains, you get wet. You dry out when you dry out. Its just going to rain again anyway. Loggers **** and moan whether its wet or dry. You gotta complain about something. I always hated the bugs more than being wet. We used to use duct tape and tape our pants to our boots to keep the mosquitoes and no-see-ums off our legs on some settings.

 

[akroadrunner]

Don't forget the BEES. We used to collect honey from the honey bees, but sure hated the rest of them. Hornets, Wasps, Yellow Jackets. Some settings we ran into several hives a day. Others, nary a one. Saw a hollow log come into a shingle mill once that was FULL of crickets. Millions of them. Made a slimy mess in the conveyors.

 

[mitch504]

I used to own a 00 Frick circle mill. When the mill was running my normal position was catching the boards off the headsaw, so that I could grade and sort them. We were a small specialty mill, and mostly cut cypress for the outdoor furniture market, but would do custom sawing for anyone. One day I was sawing a couple of cedar logs that had lain in somebody's backyard for 20 years. As the log came by me, I caught the first board after it had been slabbed and held it against the log to keep it from breaking at the end. When the old log had stopped right in front of me, I lowered the log, and found a hollow about 10" in diameter and 8' long, packed completely full of BEES! As the bees poured out around my waist like water, I was able to see they had been packed in so tightly that you could see where the saw had gone through, cutting some of them in half. My father, who was watching from the other side of the headsaw, swears to this day I hurdled a half-loaded flatbed behind me without touching it! The only thing that kept this from being a real bad day, was that the temps were in the 20s. I looked back around the trailer and could see thousands of bees crawling around slowly. I cut the engine off, and sent everybody home for the weekend. When we came back Monday, they were gone.

 

[akroadrunner]

Went to our local High School track to do some clean up work prepping for Borough Meets. After reading of BEES this morning, I may have been a little jumpy. I was getting barn stormed. Probably looked a sight flapping my arms around like I was trying to 'take off.' Finally slowed down enough to get a look at these BEES. It was just mosquitos. Big ones though.

 

[Choker man]

I remember reading something from some people from below the 49 th parallel saying that the mosquitos were so large that some rookie ground crews fueled these flying critters.

 

[Redwood Climber]

I always stagged off my pants. I can't tell you how many pair of pants got sewed up or thrown away because moving through the brush at speed (which my employers always required) my pants would catch on a limb..........and rip. I also stagged off my long sleeve hickory shirts just below the elbow. They would also rip on that occational limb or stob as you flew by. My pants were always 2-3 sizes larger than me for several reasons. 1-at 130-150 lbs you have to look hard to find 30" waist, so I went with 32 or 33, 2-with your pants looser the sawdust would work its way down & out faster. For my watch I would buy the cheapest one I could find, remove the band and sew it under my suspenders up in the chest area. I never had to remove my gloves, and didn't have to search for that thing when it came off my wrist........

 

[akroadrunner]

Yeah, I never looked at the inseam length when buying them. They were getting cut about mid calf anyway. The larger waist size allows the squirrels, snakes, salamanders, bugs and other critters to make a more hasty exit from your pants. Never wore a watch logging, unless I was running yarder. Only then so I knew when to give the rigging crew one long and a short.

 

[forester]

Never worked on rigging crews much but the pant hems getting caught and safety makes sense...used to go through Carhart pants every 2-3 weeks just from fraying out the bottom of the pants on snags and what not.

Shirt sleves (especially t-shirts) however being cut off were always a sign someone forgot toilet paper...also tops of socks.

 

[Hallback]

Funny as I was just having a discussion with someone about this last week. They too wordered why they were stagged off.

 

[akroadrunner]

Never worked on rigging crews much but the pant hems getting caught and safety makes sense...used to go through Carhart pants every 2-3 weeks just from fraying out the bottom of the pants on snags and what not.

Shirt sleves (especially t-shirts) however being cut off were always a sign someone forgot toilet paper...also tops of socks.

Who packs T.P? The first to go is the shirt pocket flap. Then the pocket. Then start shortening the sleeves.

 

[Jumbo]

Who packs T.P? The first to go is the shirt pocket flap. Then the pocket. Then start shortening the sleeves.

I did, used blue paper shop towels, rugged enough to ride around in your hip pocket for weeks and still be usable. Of course, taking time off to need it was another question, we never had time allowed unless you were sick; just don't eat so much. I did know of a hooker and a second loader that were missing thumbs due to trying to trim a shirt tail with an ax for wiping tools. That was good enough for me to carry store bought wiping material.