I know, I know…..this weeks’ Fun Monday assignment involved shoes, but the one-hour photo lab at Walmart was on the fritz this weekend so I didn’t get my shoe film developed. So you’ll have to settle for my dress story. The shoes will come later.
My mom made pretty much every evening gown I wore from elementary school all the way up until I was married for the first time at age 24. I had to have at least one ‘formal’ every year for my music recitals beginning when I was 9 years old. However, when I was a junior in high school, we got some catalog in the mail. I can’t remember if it was Sears, Montgomery Wards or Spiegel….anyway, we got this catalog and it had a dress in it that I had to have. It was navy with white polka dots, spaghetti straps and a little bolero-style jacket. For some reason, my sixteen year old self fell in love with this dress and I somehow talked my parents into buying it for me to wear to my junior/senior banquet. (We didn’t have a prom at my school until my senior year.)
Now segue forward to the fall of my senior year when senior portraits are taken. My class was not a particularly close group of people, especially the girls. It wasn’t that we actively disliked each other, we just didn’t get along real well as an entire group. We had this debate over what to wear for our senior portraits. Some of the girls wanted us to all wear the same dress in our pictures. Some of the girls wanted us to wear those feather shoulder wrap thingees….stoles, I guess you’d call them. Seems like there were a couple other suggestions, but when we voted the majority of the girls wanted us to all wear the same dress in our senior portraits. Then we had to nominate a few dress choices to vote on. I wanted to wear the navy dress with the white polka dots so I nominated my dress. Another girl wanted to wear yellow, another wanted to wear green, a pink floral print was nominated. Needless to say, we never could narrow the choice down to one dress so in the end we decided to use all the dresses that had been nominated. Two other girls in the class wanted to wear my navy dress in their portraits and I reluctantly agreed to share. I say reluctantly because I liked being individualistic, independent, not a follower of the crowd and I really wanted to be the only person wearing the navy dress. But I was also nice and I let the other two girls borrow my dress for their senior pictures.
Okay, here are two portraits taken from the yearbook. Notice a difference even though we are wearing the same dress? We both wore the same size, but I was….shall we say more blessed than the other young lady. She had to pin the jacket edges together because….well, the dress just didn’t fit her properly. She and the other girl who borrowed my dress insisted that I pin the jacket together, too, but I refused to do it. After all, I thought, why hide my blessings under a jacket?
I guess this dress was rather shocking for 1975-76, but it is tame by today’s standards. I wish I could still get into it, but I’ve become a bit too round over the past 31 years.
Now if you simply must see some shoes, head on over to Robin’s for the list of Fun Monday participants who actually did their assignment correctly!!
Random shots from my life….places I’ve lived……places I’ve visited…..things I’ve seen…….
….from the balcony of my apartment in Roanoke, Virginia, November 1989
….from the side of the street in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, July 1983
…from the sidewalk across the street, Macy’s, New York City, November 1980
…..from the side of the highway, Vermont, October 1988
It’s somewhat ironic that I just posted the lyrics and a link for the lovely song “Slow Down” while my life has suddenly burst into hyper-drive. I have two membership-by-audition-only choral ensembles that are being asked to perform for so many community events that I was actually concerned about wearing my students out. They have assured me that they can handle the pace! Last Saturday we performed for the local community college 25th anniversary celebration in an outdoor venue. It was a lovely, windy day and both groups put on an excellent show even though music pages were turning on their own in the breeze and some of the girls kept having to pull their hair out of their mouths. This Saturday another group of senior high students who plan to audition for all region honors choir are traveling two hours for an intensive workshop on the audition music. The first Saturday in October brings another outdoor performance for my auditioned ensembles. This event will be held at our airport and I was told the kids will be singing from the back of a flatbed truck. Interesting, eh?!! I’ve already told the girls that secure hair is a must. The following Saturday is the big senior high all region honors choir auditions event. After that, we actually have a free weekend…..as of now. The last Saturday in October is junior high all region honors choir auditions day. Hey…..I thought teachers were supposed to have weekends off. Where did I hear that?!! November brings the culmination of all the all region auditions when students who made the honors choir meet from across the region and work up a concert in half a day’s time. The concert is presented in the late afternoon hours and is truly a treat for the ears. November also means intense rehearsals in preparation for the Christmas season rush. We already have the first two weeks in December booked solid. Amazing how what seems to be a wide expanse of time actually boils down to very little time at all.
