Matching Easter Dresses

It was 1965 when my Mom made us matching Easter dresses. The photographic proof is in a big box in my garage, but the picture is in my memory.

One Mom-size and one Little Girl-size sleeveless A-line shifts to the knee made of a light fabric with dark blue polka dots. Each dress had a matching short blue jacket, too. 

We were super cute together. I was 7 and she'd just turned 30 the month before that Easter in Modesto, CA. 

When my Mom sewed she took over the formal dining room with her sewing machine, ironing board, and fabric.  I can't begin to count how many hours of my childhood were spent in fabric stores. She was an excellent seamstress and made beautiful clothes when I was a child and even a stunning long blue gown for a college dance. I think she was her happiest in her "sewing room" which could be the dining room, an extra room, any room in the various homes we lived in during my growing up years.

In particular I remember the one in Danville, CA, just off the family room. It was 100% her room and no one else's. She sewed, she painted, she did needlepoint. She did a lot in that room.

And then, when I was in high school, she went back to work and eventually started her own business. Now she had a room to herself in the house and her own office. I didn't think much about it at the time, but I do now. It seems a bit crazy that I live in a three bedroom house, but I do and one room is my studio, my study. It invites me to reflection, to writing, to art. 

My Mom was a spitfire who made her own way as much as her background and time in history would allow. At the end of her 83 years she didn't remember that she'd sewn beautiful clothes and made art, but I know those impulses were still deep in her heart. She didn't remember that she had her own room in our homes and her own office. But, I remember as I now have my special spaces.

Clearly, I can still see the scene of the messy dining room at 2705 Sunrise Avenue in Modesto in the Spring of 1965 that turned out matching Easter dresses for a beautiful Mom and a cute girl.

The photograph is buried in a box, but the picture lives in my heart.