Tag: requiem

Okay, I find this ridiculous, but I couldn’t just recycle this jar without first taking a picture. This is a glass Miracle Whip jar, from the era when all condiments came in jars, not plastic bottles.

I have a lot of vintage dresses. I love them and at one time in my life, I wore them a lot. Alas, none of them fit now. I’ve decided to trade them in at my local vintage clothing store. But before they go, here’s a tour of these great specimens, all pretty wrinkled due to being rolled up and stored in Rubbermaid containers for many years.

This dress always made me think of a young co-ed, graduated, single and with her first job at a publishing firm in New York City. I also loved the double breasted buttons which worked well for me in this configuration, but never work in coat formation.

And look at the tag! Miss Executive!

Pendleton Woolen Mills is an Oregon company and so I snapped up this suit just after moving here.

I loved the color. The skirt was very unattractive, being a gathered, pleated-at-the-waist, hitting-at-the-mid-calf monstrosity. I had designs of cutting it into something that would work better, but never did.

Ah! My coat in Massachusetts for a long while. It kept me warm on my cold winter morning walks to work.

I always felt like I was in the rock band Led Zeppelin when I put it on.

I love looking at old labels on dresses. Peck and Peck sounds great, doesn’t it? And according to Wikipedia, it once was. I know I found this dress one of my go-to classics.

And here it is. It covers most of your body, but the cut is incredibly sexy when worn. It was my first realization that more clothing, properly cut, could be much hotter than wearing less clothing.

See those great seams that cut across the bodice? Those made the dress. It also had a side zipper, which I love! This is the dress I will miss the most.

For awhile, this was my go-to dress. It dressed up and down (in fact, I tore a tiny hole in the skirt while playing pool one time) and I loved the lace around the collar.

Nice, eh?

This was a great summer dress, and a bit revealing for my mid-twenties-aged fun. I wore tap pants and a sturdy bra and was quite cool.

I made this dress for a party. It was my first (and only, thus far) foray into sewing with slippery material. I looked good in it and somewhere I have a great picture of my spinning in a circle while wearing it.

This was a favorite dress in high school and beyond. I loved the seersucker and the simple cut and, it being the early 90s, I wore it in the winter with long johns and converse sneakers.

It had this funny detail on the front.

This was my first dress with a side zipper.

I bought this my senior year of high school and wore it a few times until the freshman 15 caught up with me.

The matching jacket is fabulous and I always felt very much the sophisticated 50s co-ed when I wore this. This was also the favorite of Alexsandra, the woman I was trading with. She said this designer mostly did sportswear, so this was an unusual piece.

Boston in the late 90s/early 2000s was a great place to find cheap vintage dresses. I think I paid $10.00 for this beauty. I loved the color, the belt and the detailing.

Wearing this, I felt like the young sophisticated woman about town.

This dress doesn’t look like much on the hanger, but I loved it because I could wear it any time of year due to the pink or grey. I bought it right before I left Boston and wore it at the going away party we had at the house. I also love that it’s homemade and the skirt detail reminds me of those birthday cakes with dolls in them that were popular when I was growing up.

Bodice detail. Someone was a good seamstress.

Skirt detail. I wore this for a party at church and one of the women was overcome because she had made this exact dress for a dance in high school. “Warren, don’t you remember this dress?” she excitedly exclaimed to her husband. Warren did not. She told me that she had made it in red and black, which caused a bit of talk at the time.

So ends my tour of dresses. Keep looking for a shot of me in my new dress. And when shopping for dresses in Portland, be sure to visit Alexsandra’s Vintage Emporium. Those out of town can click on the link and you can shop there from your computer.

The black blob to the left of the pants is Antares, who did not wish to be photographed for this picture, but also did not wish to move.

I can recall a time in early college, when I realized I had owned a skirt for five whole years! That was the beginning of the realization that clothing could last a very long time and these pants here are an example. I’ve had them for nearly ten. I can remember when I bought them, as they were on sale at Meier and Frank (now officially Macy’s) and were such a good deal I bought two pair. I was very excited and they went with me on many walks, jogs, bike rides and through a lot of work around the house. They were made from some sort of “wears like iron” polyester blend that just kept going and going. And going. In fact, for the last two years, I’ve hated these workout pants and wished I had others. This hatred was not enough for me to find new workout pants as the intersection of “in the mood to shop” “pants that fit” and price I feel is appropriate” (sixty dollars? For workout pants? You have to be kidding!) is an intersection I don’t happen across overly often.

However, a Goodwill trip recently was fruitful and I am now the owner of two new pairs of workout pants (that cost $12.00 combined) and so I bid these pants a farewell (not, alas, fond as I let them overstay their welcome) thank them, and wish them a good journey.

Very early in the morning I head a crash from the kitchen. In my half-awake state, I thought “I’m not going to investigate that right now because it will probably just make me mad.”

This turned out to be one of the smartest half-awake thoughts I’ve had as what was smashed into pieces too many to repair was my popcorn bowl.

My Great-Aunt Bea (known as Auntie Bea) was very crafty and one Christmas our family received a set of hand painted personalized popcorn bowls. Mine was a cheery yellow, and proudly stated that this was Patty’s Popcorn Bowl. This was back when I was still called Patty.

There were even cute happy popcorns painted around the bowl. I’ve used the popcorn bowl a lot in the last few years, as it is the perfect size for a salad for dinner. Now, thanks to the cats the popcorn bowl has been swept off into the trash can. Auntie Bea died shortly after I moved to Portland, so there will be no replacement.

I bought this green bag back in 1997 with part of my college graduation money. I wanted to buy a leather satchel, but did not have quite enough to fund that purchase. So I settled for this L.L. Bean bag which I carried to my very first full-time job: receptionist at the Somerville office of Motion Industries.

I pressed it back into service this year when my new bag (which I knew I shouldn’t have bought) broke rather quickly, cheap thing.

Though the bag is still good, it is very, very heavy, even without anything in it. There is a metal bar across the top layer that must weigh five pounds. And that is before I pack it with my lunch and newspaper and other accouterments. I’ve just found a new one and I am letting this one go. Farewell, faithful servant.

I bought this tape player at BEST–a store that seems not to exist anymore–right before I left for college. I was excited at the duo tape and the high speed dubbing. Many, many mix tapes were made on this player. Over the years the radio has started to fade out and I rarely listen to my tapes, so it was time for this to go to the great electronics recycler in the sky.

It was April, 2001. I began my stint as a summer park ranger on the Boston Harbor Islands and realized I was completely without a backpack to carry five days worth of clothes, books and food to the island. Roommate Felicia took me to Target where I bought this guy for something like $35.00. It was worth every penny. This backpack was much like Mary Poppins’ carpetbag in that I could keep putting things into it even though it seemed full. After my short career as a park ranger ended, this backpack went to Hungary and Romania twice and was fabulous for my walks to the grocery store. The checkers were sometimes amazed I didn’t need additional bags. When Matt took over the grocery shopping, he used it too.
In the end, two things landed this in the donation pile. The strap, which I bought black duct tape specifically to repair, sometimes made me feel like a scroungy person. Also, lifestyle changes (I ride my bike to the store now, and the bike setup means I don’t need a huge backpack and Matt is getting a car) mean that its large size works against it. I’ve acquired another backpack (from Matt? Aunt Carol? I’m not sure) which is of normal size and it gets used more often than this one. It absolutely killed me to donate this, but I can’t hold onto every unused thing I’m attached to, or this house will fill up with detritus. So I bid it a very sad farewell.

I was in Portland for Christmas in 1997 and I convinced my mother that I needed reusable shopping bags beause the plastic bags from ‘Friendly” Findleys in South Boston were piling up in my apartment. We were at Kienow’s and she bought me four of their shopping bags.* The one pictured is my second-to-last, I have one lone survivor. We shall see how long the handles hold out on that one. And yes, I could fix that handle on this one, but I’m winnowing my bag collection.

During my three days of librarian school in Boston, I was waiting in line and carrying one of these bags and the woman behind me recognized the Kienow’s name asked if I was from Portland. It turned out she went to Gresham High School and we had a lovely chat. Today, that same Kienow’s location is a New Seasons, but I will always remember running over there to pick up some milk for my grandmother. I sometimes wonder where that Gresham High School turned Librarian is today.

*side note: I remember these bags costing something like $4.95 apiece. That seems crazy now that you can buy Fred Meyer reusable bags for $0.89. Of course, I think the canvas shopping bags are much nicer, but still. Demand in action! Economics, baby!

For years–and we’re talking 5+ here–I’ve been using these red stretchy gloves when I ride my bike. They are the kind that you can buy at Fred Meyer for $1.00 at Christmas and they are synthetic and most likely made in China, etc. But this pair had lost their stretchy characteristic, which made them very handy for biking, as I usually am pulling my gloves off and on while the wheels are going round and round. It involves steering with one hand and teeth to get them on and off, and the lack of stretch was perfect.

Their lack of stretch was one of the signs of their age. They also had holes all over them. I had to make sure to put the right one on the right hand, or the holes would let in the cold air. Today, when performing the steering with one hand teeth grabbing maneuver, one of the gloves dropped to the ground. I gave a movie worthy cry of anguish, but didn’t stop the bike and backtrack to rescue the glove. I just let it go. It was time to move on to another pair of gloves.

I’ve had this colander since college and it has served me well. I like its large sized holes, good for draining, and its color that isn’t really purple and isn’t really blue. Alas, its bottom is falling out and we are losing food. So off it goes, to that great kitchen in the sky.

Update: this colander has gained a second life as a produce harvester.