Easter Parade


Clockwise, left to right: My sister Coral, my mother,
Sheryll, Melodye, and Heidi (the church organist is in the background)

Look at me, all dolled up in my Easter finery! We’re standing in front of Everybody’s Tabernacle in Baltimore, circa 1961. There’s lots of cultural history embedded in that photograph, and there’s a story behind the slightly peeved expression on my face.

In retrospect, I should have shown more gratitude to the woman who gave us those outfits as a "love offering." But truth be told, I loathed having to dress like anyone else. And I remember being especially peeved about having to wear hand-me-down cowboy boots with that flouncy cotton dress. Footwear can make or break an outfit, don’t you agree?

53 Comments

  1. footwear can make or break an outfit!
    I remember being forced to wear these horrible snakeskin shoes with a snakeskin bow on the back and pointy toes. I still hate pointy toed shoes to this day.

  2. I say you were just ahead of your time. I think cowboy boots with a springy dress sounds “feminine and playful with a little edge.” 😉

    Also? Little girls in their Easter Finery are ALWAYS adorable, no matter what! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    • You’re so sweet. 🙂

      I have noticed girls sporting cowboy boots with springtime prints, but, uh, not for me. Especially when the leather’s really scuffed and they’re so large that the toe box curls up like an elf’s shoes.

      Your turn to post a springtime picture??

  3. Cowboy boots and flouncy dresses worked for k.d. Lang. I think it’s kind of a cool look. But I understand your peevish feelings, and I’m sure they had less to do with boots than other stuff.

    • So true for k.d. Lang, but it wasn’t fashionable at the time the picture was taken. And you’re right: what you’re wearing is far less important than how you’re feeling inside.

      • I remember standing next to the school wall during recess because I was embarrassed about wearing my brother’s black galoshes. My white galoshes were ruined the night before when I put them too close to the fireplace screen to dry them. The boot melted onto the metal screen and was ruined.

        Now I’d much rather wear black boots than white. HA.

        • Oh…that makes my heart melt. I’m so sorry, Little Tracy:(

          Had that happened to me, I can only imagine the fallout, Bible verse included (“Pride goeth before a fall…”

  4. I have some of those flouncy dress pictures too. They are some of my favorites.

    I remember my mom wanting me to wear those anklets with the little bits of lace around the edges much past the age when I should have been doing so. Sigh.

    • I had two brothers, much older than I. We didn’t get a pass on their hand-me-downs, though. Think no one noticed that my buttons were on the “wrong” side? Ahaha. You would be wrong.

      But yeah, now people wear clothes like this on purpose. Call ’em vintage, and it’s all good. 🙂

  6. First of all, the cutest face in the pic stands out: yours. For miles. Secondly, the cowboy boots ( hand me downs even ) are adorable. Totally chic. Even then you had style, even if you loathed it!

  7. I used to loathe twin outfits, especially since my mom bought them with my cuter younger sister in mind. This was especially painful when I was twelve, and she eight, and I was a stick figure inside a dress really meant for an eight year old.

    • Oh, ouch! I can so relate!

      One positive thing about being the elder of (just) two sisters? You only had to wear the same dress/outfit until you outgrew yours. When I could no longer fit into mine, I’d get Sheryll’s. But poor little Heidi: She had to suffer through three sizes of the same outfit. Yikes!

      • I knew families where this happened, and yes, we did wear those Easter dresses for several years running (I had two, a sailor dress ages 7-9, and then that hideous yellow thing for ages 10-12) but my sister never had to wear my clothes. Mom always got her new. (It wasn’t intentional, it’s just that she was so cute, I was so skinny and gangling, and my sister was really into clothes from day one. I didn’t buy myself a pair of jeans until I was 19–my babysitting money all went into books and postage to send out stories.)

  8. Hand me down shoes. Sigh. Ugly black tie up clunkers come to mind. But how fun it was to buy my daughter sparkly pink jellies when she was little. 🙂

    Love the photo and knowing the emotions behind it!

    • Oh man, I had my share of tie-up oxfords. My father used to buy us Buster Browns. And orange-soled saddle oxfords. Is it any wonder I prefer flip flops, now that I’m old enough to buy shoes for myself?

      I hope you’ll post a photo of yourself as a spring chicken. 🙂

  10. Cute picture, but sorry about the hand-me-downs. I remember getting some awful clothes as hand-me-downs. I do love that you have a slightly peeved expression and that there’s a story behind it. (There’s always a story, even if nobody listens to you, right?)

    • In truth, we were lucky to get hand-me-downs. Otherwise…we probably would have gone to church nekkid.

      There’s always a story, isn’t there? In sharing our photos and other memorabilia, we get to tell that story. I hope you’ll post one of yours… 🙂

      • We were lucky to get hand-me-downs too, but that doesn’t mean I had to like them!

        I’ve shared a few things in the past, but mostly tied to my childhood art or writing. I think one of the favorites was when I called winter a pig (or it might have been snow, can’t remember now). It was a poem I wrote in grade school. 🙂

  11. What a great picture! And the story behind it is even better.

    Where I grew up, March and April were so cold that we sometimes were still wearing our snow gear at Easter. So I’m in complete agreement that footwear is a make or break issue. Especially if your footwear happens to be raspberry-red moon boots. Oy!

  14. “Cowboy boots with a flouncy dress”…. that doesn’t get any better. but to a small fry it might just be the pits. Might I suggest for your next time out on the town a new pair of boots?
    Love the picture and can’t wait for the story behind it. This is just another way to wet our appetite for more of the story.

    • It’s suitable attire for Texas and those parts, but Baltimore? Not so much. 🙂

      I loved your post today, by the way. Oh, the stories you and your fishing buddy could tell…

      • Oh yes the stories we can tell. Hummmm…..now there is an idea. Maybe I’ll tell a few fishing stories. Nothing but the truth…Crossing my fingers.

    • I have precious few, actually. Part of my Nancy Drew adventures involve prying these treasures away from hoarders who don’t realize how much they’re really worth.

      ((HUGS)) because I know how much it means to have these talismans, and how it feels to do without.

      • I have a feeling I know where they are but there’s nothing I can do about it. And some where destroyed (a scene I worked into book # 1, lol).

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