The Closet

When I was barely two years old we moved into a brand new house, my parents’ first one to own. I think back now on the number of closets we had and wonder how we found room for anything, much less all those evening gowns we began to accumulate. There was a little square box of a closet in each of three bedrooms, one linen closet in the bathroom, and one tiny one in the hall. And that was it! We did have a full basement and a floored attic, so I know we had some storage space. And we certainly didn’t have anywhere near the amount of possessions we have now. Somehow, we made do.

But when I was nine years old, we finished off the upstairs by adding two bedrooms, a bath, and a roomy upstairs hall big enough to hold Mother’s old Singer sewing machine. And off of that hall was THE CLOSET. Yes, Mother had had the foresight to include a huge walk-in closet with a rod that was high enough to hold all of the formal dresses.

It also had built-in shelves that housed all the goodies that decorated them. There were velvet ribbons, artificial flowers, lace, satin trimmings, sequins, beads, etc. It was a little girl’s paradise – I loved to play with all the fabric and decorations.

Also, Mother was wise enough to let us make doll clothes or whatever we wanted to attempt out of the scraps of material. As a result of her patience and insight, all three of us learned to sew and began to make lots of our clothes while we were still in high school. I even made a formal myself once when she was out of town. I remember paying $6.00 for the material, and Daddy thought that was too much. But I finished the dress and wore it to some dance.

The closet was a magical place for anyone. I can still recall all those dresses made of nylon net, chiffon, taffeta, satin, or velvet. One of our favorite dresses was a black cotton print trimmed in white eyelet lace around the top and bottom. We all wore it at some point. And the colors: there were all shades of pastels, reds, whites, dark rich blues and greens. The black and white photographs we always received didn’t do them justice.

We’ve all wondered what Mother did with all of those wonderful dresses. I believe she eventually gave them away when they moved to a new house. Oh, to have just one of them now, or even better -- to have a day back inside that special room.