Dresses!

(Write about someone who returns as an adult to a place they last visited as a child.)

** I will exercise a bit of poetic license here as the child is really eighteen!

When thinking of a place last visited as a child, with the innocent eyes of youth, my mind came up with a place in time not some gps coordinates.  What an unusual subject you might say or think but I take what comes into my mind like fielding a fly ball in left field.  The thoughts come, I reach out and grab them,  as simple as that.

I decided not to write about a physical place but rather about a place in my development,  things that were of my youth but even today remain vivid in my mind.   I still do not understand why certain things have so much significance, why they are nailed firmly in place and will always remain,  only perhaps that I was so young and riding the crest of the wave at that place in my life.  Not since then has any material thing given me so much understanding of who I am, or was, and how I came to be me.   This place seems golden! Near perfect!   

~~~~~

I have never been into fashion or fussed much about clothing,  comfort has always been the driver for me and so it made me smile when I started thinking about revisiting some of the moments of my early life and I remember that place in my life partly but clearly because of what I was wearing.  The importance, in my mind, to be as good as I could be,  to look good and act good, to be successful.   Somehow my clothing was something I could control and I dearly loved seeing admiring approval.  Maybe some of you will understand if you have had some favorite dress,  sport jacket or shirt that just made you feel great!

And so it was this morning when the idea was born that I began to think about these special dresses!   My “knock em dead” dresses!    What had become of them?   I have no clue,  but they have been gone for years and years now, I have no special or favorite thing now,  I just have stopped trying to impress I guess.

I had a blue and white polished cotton dress with a cowl neckline that always made me feel like it was made for me and so when I wore it to the office I stood straighter and felt like I was ready to meet the challenges of my very first real job.   I must have had more than two dozen other dresses for the office but can bring none of them to mind.    

A black eyelet sheath dress that I wore for evenings out made me feel good but reserved,  not sure why as it had bare shoulders and a scoop neck.  But I felt so dressy that my decorum must match the dress.   This dress often went to outings in the Loop with the Young Professionals, a social group of like minded stuffy and self important young people.

A very similar white lace sheath had a very opposite effect,  worn in the semi darkness of a place called The Embassy, where we went to dance,  the white seemed to glow in the ballroom lights and it inspired me to forget feeling awkward and just dance.   I was wearing this dress the first time I met my husband.

A yellow full skirt dress with skinny spaghetti straps also was a fun dress for a night out.   It could tell you about a great night in Biloxi,  Mississippi when my friends and I found ourselves in a local watering hole greatly out numbered by male patrons and  after a day in the sun,  the yellow dress and a new suntan....well.  It was a great night or the dress was lucky. 

A pink nylon dress with a loose skirt but not a full skirt could also tell of a few nights off to dance.  It was perfect as the dress seemed to be moving one step behind where I was moving and the skirt and bodice seemed to move independently making it very graceful and showy in a dance setting.  It was this dress I was wearing when H and I won third place in a Cha Cha contest.   Laughing.   It’s ok....go ahead and laugh...we laughed that night too as couple after couple were tapped and removed from the floor...fifty couples became twenty,  then ten,  we just kept dancing...yes laughing.....such a fun night.....I owe that night and this great memory to that dress!   No question!

As I sit here writing I remember the 3” high heels 👠 that went with all these dresses.   How did I ever manage all of that?  I remember the last thing you checked before going out....were your seams straight?   That will date me but one or two of you may understand.

And finally,  H attributes a dress I wore on a nice night out to dinner in a posh Chicago restaurant as the night he decided to ....as he puts it....lock this up before it gets away....Summer and a white dress with roses across the bodice,  he thought it quite daring,   I did not,  but then he was in love....more laughing...   And so,  a dress again figures strongly into my life.   

I have no idea how to end this funny yet somehow endearing story of a place in my life that stands alone  but once again it has given me much pleasure to write it.   Memories are such good things if they reflect carefree happy times, even childhood memories.   Sometimes,  especially when you are dealing with something not happy or carefree,  memories or examining events of a simpler time can make your day!   As one deals  with the  circumstances of today’s world, it feels  lovely to see the world again through those youthful optimistic eyes.  Today a different perspective,  I’ve lost the zest, I think optimism is for others and I very rarely wear a dress!

This visit made me want to get up and dance that Cha Cha!  Yes, I still remember how!