Nebraska museum gives overalls their due, and check out Valentine’s brick-oven pizza | History

Overalls, the undisputed, down-home uniform of actual Cornhuskers, are lastly getting their due, not less than in a single small Nebraska city.

Denim overalls are the featured attraction at an exhibit by the Desk Rock Historic Society. There is a show of overalls worn by native farmers, artfully displayed on a garments line, and dozens of historic pictures of younger and previous people carrying the enduring employee’s apparel.

The exhibit comes because the Wall Avenue Journal, in a Could article, proclaimed that bib overalls are a part of a present vogue pattern. Even my 22-year-old daughter says they seem to be a “factor” proper now.

They’ve by no means gone out of favor, in keeping with Sharla Sitzman and Sherry Winkinhofer, two sisters who’re behind the “Overalls, the Excellent Selection” exhibit. Rosie the Riveter from World Warfare II, the enduring farmer in “American Gothic,” and even that loveable lug, Herbie Husker — who initially wore overalls — would are inclined to agree.

“In the event you come to the nation, there’s overalls in all places. It is not a vogue assertion. It is a very sensible piece of clothes that’s actually snug,” Sitzman stated.

She stated her late father, Bob Sitzman, who ran a sawmill in Desk Rock, hardly ever wore something however his overalls.

“We solely noticed dad in a go well with at weddings and funerals, and he all the time appeared uncomfortable,” Winkinhofer stated. So when he went to his maker, he was buried in a pair of overalls.

The historical past of overalls goes again to the 1700s, when writings talked about them as protecting clothes for slaves. By the Eighteen Nineties, they have been being mass produced by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis — who invented metal-riveted blue denims in 1873 — as important work garments for farmers and miners, in addition to railroad employees and loggers.

They have been known as “overalls” as a result of they have been initially designed to be worn “over” common clothes. The primary blue denims have been known as “waist overalls” as a result of that they had no bib.

Sitzman stated she was shocked to find that her household wasn’t the one one who had saved some pairs of overalls worn by their fathers and grandfathers.

Depend me amongst them. I saved a pair of my grandfather, Harry Hammel’s, previous overalls. That they had the cool, inexperienced stripe brand on one breast pocket: “Key Imperial, the Aristocrat of Overalls.” These overalls have been a literal toolbox product of blue denim, with loops for a hammer and pockets for pliers and screwdrivers. Grandpa’s pocket watch rode in his overalls, connected by a sequence to the bib.

The 2 sisters stated that the exhibit conjures up a number of reminiscences for guests, and plenty of previous tales. Gown shirts and bow ties have been typically worn with overalls on formal events; one native man, who’d been overserved on the native tavern, was propped up by his buddies utilizing the straps of his overalls, fixed over a garments line.

“It makes you smile,” Sitzman stated of the exhibit. “How typically does historical past make you smile?”

Open homes for the exhibit are scheduled on Sept. 5 and Sept. 26. The exhibit can be seen by appointment by calling the Desk Rock Museum at 402-839-3003.

Jerry Miller and his spouse, Mary, moved to Valentine in 2007 to minister to souls. However now his household can be filling stomachs at a restaurant/bulk meals grocery known as “The Outdated Mill.”

Home made pizzas baked in a brick oven are among the many specialties, and on a latest Wednesday night, a handful of individuals patiently waited for his or her pies at closing time. A favourite is the “jalapeno popper” pizza, piled excessive with cream cheese and peppers and topped with crumbled bacon. There’s additionally a Reuben pizza on the menu.

Native followers say it is the recent, and ample, elements that make the pizzas and sandwiches so good at The Outdated Mill. Jerry credit his secret recipes for the dough and sauce. He additionally makes particular sauces for the sandwiches, together with candy onion/poppy and chipotle sauces.

“We wish to say our pizza is the freshest. There is not any grease, and it is wholesome,” stated Mary Miller.

“Common is just not adequate,” Jerry stated of his pizzas. “Having God in your aspect clearly helps.”

Jerry, 56, is from the Amish space of Ohio and nonetheless preaches on the Door of Hope Church in Valentine. He stated that he and his spouse have been “known as” to this space of north-central Nebraska after doing mission work on the close by Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.

He initially paid the payments doing carpentry work, however as he acquired older and his hip required alternative, he and his household in 2014 opened a delicatessen/bulk grocery retailer — like those he was used to in Ohio — simply off Valentine’s Predominant Avenue.

Enterprise took off, particularly for deli sandwiches, necessitating a transfer to a bigger location on the primary drag. However a fireplace in 2018 destroyed that constructing, which used to deal with a steakhouse.

Miller stated he had typically been urged to start out his personal eatery by household and others who ate the pizzas he made on weekends. So after The Outdated Mill relocated to a former movie show in 2019, a large brick oven was included. You may watch your pizza being made and slid into the searing oven, similar to you might do on the unique Valentino’s pizza location in north Lincoln.

The Outdated Mill now requires 17 staff — 4 occasions as many as when it opened — to cater to a gentle stream of shoppers. They vary from vacationers looking for a sandwich lunch for a float down the Niobrara River, to cowboys, nonetheless carrying spurs and boots from a day within the saddle.

The enterprise has expanded, including baked items and breakfast. It additionally options regionally produced merchandise, together with jewellery produced by one daughter, Naomi Chellis, and scorching sauces made by one other daughter, Rachel Coles. A 3rd daughter, Rebekah Miller, is a mainstay on the pizza oven.

“We’re very family-oriented individuals,” Mary Miller stated. “God, household and recent meals are what’s essential to us.”