Hard to tell from a black and white picture but I would guess the jeans are dirty as heck. Clothes dont mean much to an appalachian, so wearing the same few clothes over and over was a normal thing. As long as they were clean really was the only thing that mattered. Most familys did have one good outfit for church and special occasions.
As someone mentioned, this feller had the unfortunate luck of being a coal miner. So you can only imagine how filthy his clothes were, even if all he did was sit outside and bust up rocks all day versus being inside the mine. Could also be this picture was taken before he left for work that morning.
He could have also been doing office work. I'd think he'd be wearing overalls if he were actually doing the mining. He'd still get dirty from the dust, but he wouldn't look covered head to toe.
Hard to tell from a black and white picture but I would guess the jeans are dirty as heck. Clothes dont mean much to an appalachian, so wearing the same few clothes over and over was a normal thing. As long as they were clean really was the only thing that mattered. Most familys did have one good outfit for church and special occasions.
As someone mentioned, this feller had the unfortunate luck of being a coal miner. So you can only imagine how filthy his clothes were, even if all he did was sit outside and bust up rocks all day versus being inside the mine. Could also be this picture was taken before he left for work that morning.
He could have also been doing office work. I'd think he'd be wearing overalls if he were actually doing the mining. He'd still get dirty from the dust, but he wouldn't look covered head to toe.