It must have been given to her around a special day, maybe Valentine's Day, for the color was certainly fitting, but there wasn't anything in her wardrobe with so much of that color other than her pep rally skirt. At least when she wore that skirt, there was a multitude of other girls wearing similar wool skirts. Mom obviously thought the A-line dress was perfect for her fair-complexioned brunette daughter, but didn't she know how hard it would be for her to walk through the halls at school looking like a large piece of Christmas wrap? The cotton-polyester fabric was bright red with just an ever so slight hint of orange. The fabric was quartered into approximately eight-inch blocks by one-fourth inch white lines and at the neckline a broad collar of white reached to the edges of her shoulders and down about six inches from her neck in the front and in the back. Did her Mom not know how embarrassing it was to her daughter to stand out among her peers like that and how hard it was for her to fain enthusiasm for the surprise gift?
Very vivid description. It reminds me of the situation in high school where a girl wore a hideous red velvet dress to an event but her mother thought she was the most beautiful thing there.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the girl felt beautiful anyway. One can hope. . .
DeleteWe seem to be on a similar wavelength this week.
ReplyDeleteThe power of seemingly (at least to everyone but the person) inconsequential events encountered when we're of an age after childhood but before (young) adulthood. My God! The resilience of children and younger people to deal with occurrences that continue reverberate through a lifetime of years. Maybe I'm mistaking the impressionability of the young with the actual power (of events) to have an effect, both mental and emotional, but still (we) remember those moments and days.
What is interesting to me is how parents may view the events in the lives of their children against the backdrop of their own experiences. I remember an occasion when I was horrified by an experience a child relayed to me. I worried about the impact of the experience on the child because of thinking how I would have felt at that age in a similar experience. As it turned out, the child just brushed it off and wasn't affected.
DeleteI would hope the mom did not know!
ReplyDeleteIf this is a true story, then surely, it has left a lasting mark, for youth is a time when "impressionable" has far greater implications than we give it credit for.
"The cotton-polyester fabric was bright red with just an ever so slight hint of orange."
The fact that our subject remembers the color to this detail...to me speaks of a stoic endurance of what was clearly an embarrasing moment in time.
An act of love on the part of the daughter, to feign enthusiasm :)
You've captured a dynamic of mother/daughter relationships during the "awkward" years, quite well, Pat.
Were you the girl in the orange tinted red dress??
That would be me. I suspect every teen has had embarrassing moments. It is just part of maturing. As for remembering details, I fall far short of the ability to remember details that one of children has. Some people have quite the gift to do so.
DeleteShe sounds like a normal teenager and she is probably right. At that age you need to fit in not stand out and look daggy (Australian slang for unfashionable).
ReplyDeleteNow there is a word I've not heard. You are right. Fitting in with the herd is what so many teens seek, for better or worse.
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