My mother was always very interested in clothes and fashion for herself and for me. She told me when I was five or six years old she bought me a navy blue dress with a red, white and blue pleated bib front with three quarter length sleeves. (Bernice do you see a photo of me wearing that dress ?) She bought it for $2.25 at Braverman's Dry Goods store in Dorchester.
Here I am, five years old, wearing the dress on my fifth birthday. Shirley told me she made me a cake. This picture was taken in our one bedroom apartment at 92 American Legion Highway.
Then there was a 'kiddie shop', "...in those days they called them 'kiddie shops..." She bought me a navy blue coat and matching hat made out of a silky material for $15.00 at Richard's Kiddie Shop on Blue Hill Avenue near the G + G delicatessen. She also mentioned getting me a sleeveless dress with wide red and white stripes. She told me Loretta Leppo used to buy her daughter Jan's clothes there, at Richard's. I will never forget Loretta Leppo, married to a bookie (didn't know it at the time) and very glamorous. She had silver blonde hair that was in style due to Jean Harlow. I remember my mother dyed her hair platinum or silver blonde.........my reaction and everyone else's was we all liked her better with black hair......she was so disappointed......but all it did was make her look older, not prettier. She told me a woman at a bus stop on Morton Street said "....such a shame, a girl so young with gray hair..."
In January, 1953 we moved to 92 American Legion Highway, just down the street from the Hecht House. Shirley told me Boby would not offer her any furniture or household items for the new one bedroom apartment. I think she said her friends Marian and Mel Brenner helped her out with the twin beds, huge chest of drawers (that she painted grey - not good) and a table with an enamel top.
Here I am in my cropped jacket with matching bonnet in my pleated skirt at 18 months !
Kudos to my cousin ellen who scanned in + emailed pages of old family photos from Roby's photograph album that she borrowed from Bernice. Otherwise I would not have these photos that my mother
described to me a couple of days ago.
1 comment:
Carol - you could pull-an-Ellen and do a photo re-creation of the one of your Mom standing in front of the car. Suspect you know exactly where it was taken so could find the same background. Looks like late fall or early spring? (based on leafless trees, clothing). I think you look so much like your Mom (based strictly on photos) - what do people say that know you both in person?
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