What Dressing Up for Travel Once Meant, Why Calcium Matters for Bone Health and Beyond, and the Financial and Psychological Realities of Affluent Retirement

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There was a time when travel wasn’t just a way to get somewhere — it was an occasion. What you wore mattered, not for comfort alone, but for presentation. Dressing up for travel reflected shared expectations about public space, courtesy, and the significance of the journey itself.

Airports, train stations, and bus terminals were once places where people expected to be seen. Men wore jackets and pressed trousers; women chose dresses, gloves, or coordinated outfits. Even short trips called for careful grooming. Travel meant entering a shared public experience, and appearance was part of participating respectfully in it.

Outfits were planned with intention. Comfortable fabrics still mattered, but they were tailored and structured. Shoes were polished. Accessories were chosen carefully because luggage space was limited. People often wore their “best” coat or suit while traveling, knowing it would be noticed and remembered.

Dressing well was tied to behavior. When people dressed up, they tended to act with more patience and awareness. Seats were offered. Conversations were polite. Staff were addressed formally. Clothing reinforced the idea that travel was something to be handled with care and respect.

Dressing up also marked emotional moments. Departures and arrivals mattered — someone might be leaving for military service, a new job, or a long visit. What you wore acknowledged the importance of the moment. Photos taken during travel often show this care and pride.

As travel became more common and less ceremonial, many of the shared rituals that once gave journeys their weight quietly disappeared. Tickets no longer came from an agent at a counter who wished you a pleasant trip; they arrived by mail or, now, are shown as a code on a phone. Families no longer accompanied travelers all the way to the platform or gate to say goodbye — security changes and efficiency shortened those moments. Perhaps most importantly, travel stopped being rare. When trips became frequent and schedules tight, there was less reason to mark them as special. Dressing up, arriving early, lingering during departures — these rituals no longer fit a faster, more utilitarian system. What was gained was convenience. What was lost was the sense that a journey was something to prepare for, witness, and remember as its own distinct experience.

Even today, many people remember exactly what they wore on important trips. The clothing became part of the memory — proof that travel once carried a sense of occasion worth marking.

“The Whistle at Mile Marker 42”
From the life overview of Eleanor P., 92, Raton, New Mexico. Shared with permission.

Even before I bought my first watch, I could always tell the time by the train. The whistle cut through the high desert air every afternoon, right as the sun tipped past the cottonwoods near mile marker forty-two. My mother said it meant supper was coming, and my father said it meant work was done somewhere else.

We lived close enough that the windows rattled when the freight cars passed, but we were still far enough that the sound arrived softened, almost thoughtful. As a young girl, I’d stop whatever I was doing—shelling beans or braiding my sister’s hair—and listen until the last car had groaned past us. It felt like the world briefly checking in before moving on.

Years later, after my husband and I arrived in town, the trains were farther away. We could still hear them on clear nights. Their sound was faint and stretched thin by distance. Sometimes, I’d wake up and smile, even when I was still half-asleep, because the sound meant everything was always working as it should.

The tracks are quieter now, with different schedules and fewer trains running along them. But every once in a while, usually when I least expect it, a whistle reaches me just the same. And for a moment, I find myself standing still again, hands busy and heart listening, certain that some things always know where to find you.

***

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