The Sentiemental Garment Show

 

Our Life Enrichment Director is really good at listening to our suggestions for cultural or fun events to put on our calendar and one I suggested happened this past week. It was called The Sentimental Garment Show. The idea was for people to bring a garment or a photo of yourself wearing the garment to the activities room for a presentation that explains why it’s sentimental to you. At first I thought the idea was a bust because no one signed up for it the first week it was added to our sign-up apt---yes, another reason it helps to be computer literate in continuum care facilities---so I started talking the idea up at the lunch table, explaining the kinds of things people could bring. It worked and we ended up with twenty-two people bringing items and many of them brought more than one garment.

One of the most interesting garments was a simple, white linen ‘under dress’ that was 100 years old and belonged to the grandmother of my 92 year old upstairs neighbor. Another woman had a jacket from the Olympics. She had been on a ski patrol most of her adult life and when the Olympics were in Salt Lake City the committee invited her to work at it, grooming trails. She said they were provided workers with an entire wardrobe that even included underwear in the Olympic colors and with the three ring logo imprinted on everything. A christening gown was made by another resident and she had a photo album with the twelve babies who wore it. Four wedding dresses appeared---one in a preservation box and the others three on hangers and displayed by a woman who’d been married three times. (She gets teased a lot about having three husbands and is good nature-ed about it.) Two quilts made from shirts of husband’s who’d died (one since moving here) were in the show and I could have brought one of those as well, but didn’t. A ratty old bathrobe was brought down with an explanation that it was the owners go-to comfort robe when she was feeling under the weather. I tried to get some of the guys to bring down one of their ratty old tee shirts that their wives claim they won’t let them throw out but I struck out.

A wonderful wool, winter cape was made by the mother of one of our residents. The workmanship was to die for as was the workmanship on a velvet bridesmaid dress and a ring bear’s outfit made by the mother of another resident. A knitted baby dress was presented and a baby’s quilt and a photograph of a baby’s bassinet with a skirt that was made out of a wedding dress.  Another couple brought a king sized quilt they said was sentimental to them for no other reason than that fact that she made it…somewhat out of place in a garment show but if you knew our Life Enrichment Director you’d understand why she rolls with whatever anyone wants to do. There were two hippy, Flower Child dresses and one of them was mine.

The write-up on my entry read: “If you look closely at the fabric in this dress you’ll see the date 1776 scattered in the print. I made this “Hippie Dress” for our Bicentennial in 1976 and I wore it nearly every weekend through that summer. You may remember that cities and small towns across our nation held patriotic celebrations of all descriptions that entire year and my husband and I went to nearly all of those within driving distance. The photo of me wearing this dress was taken after I signed a copy of the Declaration of Independence that’s in a time capsule in some forgotten town. I was wearing this dress when church bells rang in synchronization across the nation on the Fourth and I wore this dress when I stood along a parade route in a tiny town where half its citizens were in the parade while the other half watched. Celebrating the Bicentennial became a cultural phenomenon that included everything from serving red, white and blue foods at family picnics to building UFO landing pads in several cities as an invitation for space aliens to come help us celebrate. When I downsized to move to Clark I sold off a massive collection of Bicentennial Souvenirs but I couldn’t part with this dress and the nostalgic memories attached to it.”     

Changing topics: Another resident suggested a lecture given by her granddaughter who is a Major in the Air Force and works as a dentist for the military. I go to every lecture, even if I think they’ll be boring or ‘hokey’ and I was surprised at how professional this woman’s presentation was and how interesting the life of a woman career officer was. Duh, I hadn’t realized recruitment was part of her job. Only once was I disappointed in a resident-inspired activity. One couple living here has a granddaughter who sings for the local opera house and while she’s well known and respected around the community the room she sang in here was just too small and about busted my eardrums. I’m not fond of that genre of music to begin with but others who like it had the same complaint, so I won’t be in attendants if she’s invited back again this Christmas. Another family has a daughter and son-in-law who run a dude ranch out west and when they come visit family around Christmas they lead a sing-a-long at are fireplace that make us want to have ‘smores. With all the holiday doings going on around here I might have to add an extra post or two in to the line up.

Until Next Wednesday. ©