StoryPeople Forum - StoryPeople Forum

linda gail · Messages: 1082

PATCHWORK GENERATIONS
A green and black plaid dress
Topped by an I'm ugly frown
Framed by horn-rimmed glasses, pigtails

A lovely white sailor shirt mamma made
Joseph Day ran into my back with the yellow sunshine just painted

Pink, orange hip hugger bell bottoms
Homemade too but cooler

Pink knit dress wth baby doll sleeves
Pocohantas ponytails
Grandma says hot pink's my color.

Denim bell bottoms,
Hem wraps around my waist twice Butterfly patch on the butt keeps them wearable a little longer

Denim jump suit he bought
Topped with my trademark red silk scarf
Pink eyelet maid of honor dress
Learns he's a cheater
I don't remember what party dress I wore when I got the call about the bullet he just put to his head

It was light brown button up he wore
On a blind date
Red plaid flannel for the river
Grandad saw through it
I loved the shirt
Black striped bikini
Warmed to sand
Not the pool

Who remembers the color of violence and shame
From brute force but too many little white pills almost erased all. Should have known the day he told you not to wear the too short dress to meet his parents.

Green with white trim
He wore until he could no longer
And it needed to be burned

High heels, pants suits, dresses
So tight one day I bought a maternity dress during lunch and wore back to the newsroom

Red suit dress, yellow, navy suit with gold button. White dress with big blue dots, navy sweater. Herring bone hire me to be a banker suit, never worn before job began.

Shimmery burnt orange jacket to dedication. Yellow gauze, spilled olive oil at fundraiser.

Billy knows I love red. Black is classic, skinny, easy to decorate with brights.

Grandma lives to make quilts from scraps
My quilts live in my head
-lhb 2007

Believe.

rich · Messages: 510 Location: Boulder, CO

Extraordinary, Linda.

Welcome.

Thanks for honoring us with this heart opening.

namasté

rich · Messages: 510 Location: Boulder, CO

I hadn't thought of clothing as such a powerful memory trigger...but clearly it IS. I'm betting Story People will love this opening to YOU and share some of their own as well.

andvari · Messages: 807 Location: a cave in a foggy clear

beautiful linda...

And rich, you are right, actually I have a box of sacred clothes, shirts mostly, a bluejean jacket I bought with my first real paycheck... I remember when I moved out of a consuming relationship, I was working for the housing authority, made so little money after my child support, that I actually qualified for housing... no kidding, I was making $246.oo every two weeks... lol

I picked up furniture from stuff people left behind, but couldn't afford decorations, so I took my clothes, sacred shirts with stories behind all of them and thumb tacked them to the walls... funny how the poorest times bring back the richest memories.

A

Do you know what happened to the man who got everything he ever wanted? Willie Wonka

The child is in me still... and sometimes not so still --Fred Rogers--

Nothing-- Nothing's better than when two Completely Empowered people come together with Love on their minds.

mish · Messages: 961 Location: Southern California

amazing linda.
i read it several times, will read again tomorrow.
what an incredible introduction.

thank you so much for sharing that piece of yourself.
and now i'm thinking about clothes, and how to write them.

peace,
michele

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us....E.M.Forster

linda gail · Messages: 1082

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm so glad I found ya'll. A guy recently told me that women come away from events and can tell you what people were wearing, and men can't do that. Also, when I was a small child I lived across the road from my Grandmother who had 9 children (8 daughters). I have many memories of the women in the family sitting in the living room around a quilt rack. It's a wooden thing that hangs from the ceiling, taking up most of the room. They made beautiful quilts. My mom is a wonderful seamstress and made most of our clothes. I can still look at quilts they made and find that black and green dress and those floweredy bell bottoms that I wore in elementary school. I can't sew with thread, but love to with words.

Believe.

anntinasia · 05/10/2008 15:42:01 Subject: Re: my life in clothes

Hi Linda.....Welcome!
Lovely poem.....Clothes are like the air we breathe. we need them for living.....no wonder we have stories about them and you have told one so
eloquently!
I will def have to tell a story about clothes ..later....must make my son a pie for his BD!
SO GREAT TO HAVE YOU HERE!!!! Sassy has recently been the front runner with her stories....don't miss them.....seems like we all go in spurts for stories and poems.....is a good thing....
Tina

Anntinasia

"Sometimes life calls for an unexpected hat!"

"Everything you can imagine is real."
~Pablo Picasso~

hecticeclectic · 05/10/2008 16:01:37 Subject: Re: my life in clothes

linda gail wrote:

I can't sew with thread, but love to with words.

Howdy Linda...what a great job you do sewing...welcome!
i can look at any pair of my pants or shirts and remember "when".

uh, T, did you save any pie for us?

Peace, Jo

Look up at the sky. Ask yourself, "Has the sheep eaten the flower or not?" And you'll see how everything changes.
And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important!
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, THE LITTLE PRINCE

sassyangelac · Messages: 1071 Location: Running On The Middle Path

The day I met Him I was wearing black running shorts, a black sports bra and a white hat. I wore them to every race for a year, thinking they brought me luck.

elle · Messages: 770

some of the most memorable clothing for me didn't belong to me. my best friend's mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. she loved christmas, and always had christmas sweaters each year.

each of the daughters picked a sweater, and i took their respective choices and made it into a pillow for them. each christmas i get invited to their houses and get to see the pillows again.

it means a lot to each of us. some years they trade pillows, spreading the enjoyment around.

rich · Messages: 510 Location: Boulder, CO

what a beautiful story, L

mish · Messages: 961 Location: Southern California

that's lovely elle...

it's interesting, after tom died, my neighbor told me that when i was ready and was able to go thru his clothes, to save some specific/favorite items, and she'd make me a quilt .

it's been a while, and i have a bag full of clothes that i saved, after giving the rest away. she hasn't offered again, and i can't seem to remind her of her offer, tho i wish i could.

i suppose i should, but so many people offer so much, and sometimes just don't come thru...you get used to it.
anyway..that's an aside...

i think it's so cool you did that for the daughters, and i am sure those pillows are so well loved.

you know, maybe i'll just do some pillows for myself.

peace,
mish

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us....E.M.Forster

Scarlett651 · Messages: 1828 Location: the porch

Oh Linda....that's wonderful!! thank you!
very powerful images!
~~~~~
makes me think of all those Easter dresses
favorite jeans in highschool
my first 'grown-up' dress (for the 5th grade band concert)
Christmas plaids
homemade eyelet and lace prom dresses
....back when they were PROM dresses---not cocktail dresses!
I've always been of the opinion if you cannot legally BUY a cocktail, you should not be WEARING a cocktail dress!

'Course....all that make me think of...
my first pair of heels (for my cousin's wedding)
favorite white leather softsole Minnetonka moccasin boots (that i'd still have if mom hadn't finally tossed 'em out when i wasn't looking!)
the anaconda stove-pipe boots (i wore 'til the scales started falling off!!)

We are not human beings making a spiritual journey...we are spiritual beings making a human journey.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
*******
"He lived happily ever after."
Willie Wonka

mame · Messages: 1297 Location: Colorado (aka:Paradise)

Hmmm, I'm thinking of...

The adorable pink hat with little white flowers that I wore on Easter Sunday when I was 6. (On my recent visit to Dad's house I found that his housekeeper had unearthed it and worked it into the guest room decor, so I brought it home with me.) I actually have to admit to having quite the hat collection at my house.

A pair of elegant purple suede high heels with accordian pleat suede bows that I wore in my late twenties until one Sunday after wearing them to church, I left them at a friend's beachhouse where he'd had a bunch of us over for lunch. Of course I'd brought a change of beach clothes and shoes. For some reason his plan to return them included putting them in his gym bag where one of them got coated in baby oil and was now a different color from it's mate. I loved them so much, I kept them for...oh, 15 years...thinking I was going to do something to make them match. They didn't really fit comfortably anymore either, so I finally ditched them last year.

A portion of my fall wardrobe, things that are now too big and probably look frumpy on me, but at the present I can't afford anything new, even from the thrift store, so I put them on and feel sad, (even though it's a good problem to have clothes that are too big), cuz I know that I really should get rid of them: Hot Pink Velvet sweat pants. A couple of lovely patterned burnout velvet shirts from Coldwater Creek...One in shades of burgundy, purple, black and pink, the other in shades of blue and green and dark teel and black. My jeans jacket. A tailored green military jacket. 2 faux suede jackets in different styles: one is periwinkle blue and the other is turquoise. (The turquoise one I absolutely won't let go of.) A velvet pullover with a V-neck and a pattern of red roses with black background. Are you getting that I like touchy-feely fabrics?

The changing of the seasons also means having to put away all the cute summer shoes. With less weight to support, my feet are able to handle a little more in that department, so I did go a little crazy buying sandles a few months ago. Mostly the shoes that keep feet warm aren't so cute, but I did liberate a pair of black nubuck booties I've had for at least a dozen years and hardly ever wore. They are now the heighth of fashion and worked well for the pirate costume I put together for a party last friday.

I just got DirectTV recently, never having had cable in my life. You would never guess that the show I've gotten most addicted to, is...Clean House on Style, where a team of designers/handymen descend upon a painfully cluttered house and make them sell a ton of stuff in a yard sale. They take the funds earned and match it up to $1K and use that to add design and refurbish the house.

~~Mame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts, and
no one to thank" ~ Christina Rossetti

linda gail · Messages: 1082

Mish - let your friend know you have the items left for your quilt. Creative types often make offers but don't push it because they don't want to push their talent on you. I bet she'll be delighted if you take her up on it.

Everyone: I'm loving your clothes memories. Keep them coming, please. I don't really know what brought patchwork generations out of me (it came after some tearful journalling). I do remember thinking about how everyone remembers what we were doing when monumental occassions occurred like when Kennedy died, when Reagan was shot, we heard about 9/11 etc., and I was thinking of what I was wearing when I remember some major moments in my life. Mine is chronological, starting with kindergarten. It was a strong memory trigger.

Believe.