Clothes – 52 Weeks of Personal History & Genealogy, Week 24

Stylin' in an outfit made by my mother 

I grew up during the 1970s which pretty much speaks for itself clothing-wise. All I can say is thank goodness my clothes did not look much like those the grown-ups chose to wear. I'm sure I had lots of polyester, double-knit scary stuff, but please do not hold me responsible.

Of course, much of what I wore as a really little girl I know about only because I've seen the pictures. My mother, my grandmother, and my mamaw all sewed for me when I was young. And if you sew, you know that sewing for little girls is much fun than sewing for little boys. On top of this I was my mother's first born child, the first granddaughter on my dad's side and the first grandchild on my mother's. The sewing machines were plenty busy! Consequently, when I was about five, between what was bought, sewn, or handed down to me, I could wear a completely different outfit everyday of the month.

This anecdote probably explains why, while I am no fashionista, I am continually frustrated by my tiny paycheck and my BIG desire for new clothes. I have a passage from the Gospel of Thomas posted in my closet in which Jesus says "Do not worry from morning to evening, and from evening to morning, about what you are to wear." Usually, this saying helps me reconcile my wish for clothes with an insignificant budget and an aspiration to have fewer possessions and I end up feeling quite virtuous about having a small wardrobe. But some mornings when a favorite item is in the laundry or I hate everything I own the burning desire to spruce up and enlarge my wardrobe overwhelms me. Then it quickly becomes apparent that my virtuous resolve is a thin veneer held on by old, yellowed scotch tape. I think to myself, "Seriously, Jesus was a man, what did he know about clothes? In fact, he probably would have LIKED the fashions of 1970s." Luckily, these weak mornings do not happen very often.