Prompt: Write about mothers and daughters or fathers and sons. We're all at least one of these.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
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January
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1 comment:
Mothers and daughters
First thing I see are mother with a daughter dressed in the same dress – mother daughter dresses they called them. Thankfully my mother, named May, never tried that on me.
She did have me model once in the Hamilton Department Store of New Haven’s annual fashion show. Apparently a sales person had seen us in the store and told my mother I was just the right age and size. Each child model would receive a $25 savings bond.
It must have been about 1948 or 9.
Hamilton’s was the Best and Co. of Connecticut - well made clothes in the style of Best’s even Brooks Brothers. If I could be in the show, all of my grandmother’s friends who lived in towns nearby would come to see me; they thought I was en route to being a real celebrity. Besides, they were all retired and played Canasta or Bridge with Nana several times a week so this would be something different.
I have a newspaper clipping of myself: I wore a peach colored coat trimmed with a bit of mink at the collar, double breasted and buttoned up to the neck. I wore a brown hat with a little feather and white gloves.
I can’t see the shoes in the photo but I am sure they were proper black patent leather with a strap over the instep. I so wanted those flat heeled pumps or ankle strap patents that some of the girls had, but no – these were age appropriate. Bleah.
Anyway, what I remember was that the fashion show was in the ice arena in New Haven –no ice, just a floor and a runway. There were about 5-7 child models and a bunch of real fashion models from New York. There was a rehearsal the day before.
I was a little nervous as we waited around, all dressed up, for the women to get themselves together. They seemed at ease –just another days’ work.
However, the show, for me was only part of the experience. I was flabbergasted to see that, right there before our eyes and the eyes of just about anyone who walked into that big cavernous hall, these models sat around with their hair in curlers, no makeup and some , with no clothes! Well, not really no clothes but a bra and maybe a half slip, one had a sweater slung over her shoulders and no bra. They talked, they smoked. It was a first for me -- a display of a work-life style that I didn’t know existed. I don’t think I told my mother. I knew that she would not have approved and I wouldn’t have wanted her to pull me out of the show.
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