Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Life goes on......


Working steadily she had managed to clear 4 closets of their assorted junk. She had piles of report cards, band concert flyers and assorted birthday and anniversary cards her parents had saved over the years. The clothing had been dispatched to a large contractors garbage bag and was in the back of her car ready to be donated.


She just had one more closet to check out and then she could make her trip to the clothing bins and get rid of 50 years of stuff that neither she or her siblings wanted or needed. They all knew that this day would come and had dreaded it for their parents had been proverbial packrats, saving everything and anything, afraid to part with memories from the past. She just didn't understand the point in saving all this "stuff." Better to donate it and be done with it.


She decided to gear herself up with a cup of strong black coffee and sneak a cigarette. Memories of puffing away in front of her mother who was horrified by this first sign of rebellion spread through her brain. She'd been an obedient child and teenager, a wind-up child, who was wound up every morning and performed as expected.


Then she started college and picked up smoking, more for effect and to piss off her mother, trying to shake up the calm her mother always projected. When low on funds from her part time job she strategically placed an ad from the local paper advertising payment for blood donations and the next day found a 20 dollar bill in her wallet. She knew her mom had placed it there, not wanting her daughter to sell her blood for cash.


Coffee and smoke break over, she sighed and attacked that last closet. This had always been the forbidden closet, the one her mother kept under lock and key. She never understood what could have been so important that it had to be locked away, but knowing her mom for the mundane slightly overweight woman she was, it never crossed her mind to jimmy the lock and check things out.


She found the key for the closet in her mother's jewelry box, buried deep beneath her mother's costume jewelry. She inserted the key in the closet and opened the door. Inside she found garment bags filled with clothing that would have made Twiggy ooh and ahh with delight. Paisleys, brocades, silks, chiffons and crepes from the 1960s cut expertly to show off a beautiful young figure.


But of all the beautiful dresses contained in her mother's secret closet, she could not help but fall in love with the most stark of all. It was a 1960s Leon Haskin cream and black crepe cocktail dress. It was a simply cut cocktail dress, but oh the gorgeous shirred cream crepe at the bodice shoulder and lower dress was just delicious. Carefully she slipped the dress on for she had managed to keep her figure while her mother had not. The dress fit like a second skin and made the most of her curves. She wondered how her mother had found this fabulous dress and what occasion she had worn it for.


Unfortunately when she had asked her mother about her life before her marriage to her father, her mother had never offered more than a perfunctory "well now that's not important and what's important is the future."


So she never knew that her mother modeled for her living in Melbourne and had been the toast of the town for several years running. It was on a fashion shoot that her mother had met her father, a gofer for the fashion photographer handling the shoot. Their passion had ignited after just hours and in a matter of days they were wed. She left Melbourne for the simple life in Des Moines, Iowa where her husband went back to work at the family business making pork rinds after his photography career fizzled.


"Oh well", she thought, "Time to get down to business. I'll just keep this one dress since it would be a sin to waste it and donate the rest." And so the paisleys, brocades, chiffons and crepes went into the contractor garbage bag ready to be sent to the nearest thrift store.


Monday, September 16, 2013

Vintage Patterns Galore is now open for business!

We've been very busy working behind the scenes to set up our vintage pattern store


                                                 http://vintagepatternsgalore.com


We stock vintage Advance, Butterick, McCalls, Newspaper, New York Gold Seal, Simplicity and Vogue patterns for men, women and children. Our patterns range from the 1940s to the 1980s and beyond.

Over time we plan on adding a notions section for vintage buttons, zippers, and buckles of all kinds.  So make sure to check back often for all your vintage pattern and notion needs.




Sunday, June 16, 2013

Well, we just could not stay out of the vintage business. We tried really hard but it must be in our blood so we are now open on Etsy as Mod Mary's Vintage. Here are just a few of the items we have available for you!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Bank of America for god's sake have a heart!

 Bank of America for god's sake have a heart!!!  Please read the following blog and then share it with all your friends, families  and acquaintances.  Maybe if we apply enough pressure they will do the right thing.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/3730265/boa-have-a-heart-

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Born Too Late Vintage closed

On Sunday, February 10, 2013 Born Too Late Vintage, Born Too Late Vintage Patterns and Love Train Vintage closed.

While it's sad in a way, I've found that selling vintage clothing is no longer fun for me and has become a drain on the family finances.  So I decided to close up shop.

I'd just like to take a moment to say thank you to all my past customers, many of whom have become friends.

I'd also like to say thank you to a few people such as Dexterdoggie,  Chapeaunoir and Daniel from the eBay vintage board as well as the kind ladies and gentlemen from the Vintage Fashion Guild including but not limited to Jonathan Walford.  I learned to research vintage clothing and accessories while reading your helpful posts.  I also learned the value of doing one's own research rather than just expecting to be spoon fed answers.  Any research I did on my own is knowledge that I'll never lose because I had to work hard for it.

This also marks the end of this blog since it was intrinsically about playing dressup all day long with vintage.  I may yet start another blog about life in general and if so I'll post a link here.

So vintage community I thank you for the memories.  I also thank you for bringing me a special friendship with Chris Moore of Alley Cat Vintage.

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Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, United States
We are the owners of Mod Mary's Vintage on Etsy.