Meh. We’re experiencing typical March weather. One day we enjoy mild(er) temps and then the next day snow showers and blustery cold snaps one back to reality that spring can be a bitch here. Patchy daffodils are poking through but remain tightly closed. They seem to understand we’re not out of the winter woods yet. But I digress.
Sunday is Easter. I recall having a new shirt and tie for Easter services; my sister—in her early childhood days, would style a new hat, gloves, and some wee purse—maybe white straw, to sashay down the church main aisle. Since I’m old as Christ’s last pair of sandals—I do recall the Easter fashions of yesteryear. If mother attended mass—which, frankly—her presence held the same miraculous magic of Christ’s resurrection—she would most definitely own her power with a big hat. This recollection timestamps to the early Sixties; Jackie Kennedy came along and women across America stopped wearing hats virtually overnight.
Which is interesting as Jacqueline Kennedy sported a most memorable hat—in the ‘pillbox’ style at her husband’s inauguration. After that occasion hats were deemed old school. That inaugural hat was designed by a very young HALSTON. His name would be a global brand and reframe American fashion in the 1970s.
Are there folks who get all dressed to the nines for church nowadays? So much has changed in my lifetime. I vividly recall when a young man wore blue jeans to the opera—in the early eighties. People whispered disproval; I outright damned his entire family lineage. If one can’t dress up for Madama Butterfly then stay home.
I sound curmudgeonly. Which is my divine right at this age. I’ve seen some things—done some things, and had things done to me to shape my observations and opinions. I guess I just miss when things were special. There used to be a section in the lady’s department for ‘special occasion’ dresses. Go figure.
But then I woke up today and I’ve got a roof over my head with food in the fridge. That reality in and of itself is a special occasion. I forget these truths in my race to live a meaningful life in work-from-home NIKE track shorts.
not this sh*t again 
I remember a time when my Parents actually dressed up to stay Home and do nothing Special! There’s Old Pixs of my Mom in a Dress she could have gone to a Gala in and she was just putzing around the House in it with all her Jewelry on and her Hair coiffed. She was very Bohemian in Aesthetic tho’ so didn’t look like your Garden Variety Mom of that Era… more like Carmen Miranda on Steroids. My Dad wasn’t as formal as many Dads of that Era, but, he always looked like he could have been going somewhere. He wore Uniforms to Work but they were always spotless in spite of doing Work that should have been messy and soiled them. I was a Hippie and my Parents didn’t mind at all, they were the Free Spirits of their Era and wanted me to be authentic to myself. So, I confess that Dressing Up wasn’t my Jam at all, still isn’t, tho’ I do enjoy unusual Fashion and a Boho Style that is more Eccentric than most people might be comfortable tooling around in. I Love Iris Apfel and her Aesthetic is more ‘me’ if I had to get dressed up. My Mom always said it was better to be looked over than overlooked.