Party Dresses

I went to our young Miss C's house tonight, to have dinner with her and her parents, and to help C make up her mind about which dress to wear to an up-coming dance at the high school. She and her mom had gone shopping for dresses and found not one but two dresses that they both liked. Which one.... which one..... they couldn't decide at the store, so they bought them both, planning to make the decision at home. Keep one, return one-- that was the plan.

C had asked me to come to her house last week to look at the dresses, but I was too sick to do that, so they waited till I got to feeling better. Tonight seemed like a good night, so off I went to their house.

It amazes me every time I see young Miss C all dolled-up in a dress. She doesn't often wear dresses... she prefers jeans and shorts, and the occasional pair of capris. Her tune changes when there's a dance or a tea party, however..... then she pulls out all the girly stops and she looks like the sweet young lady that she is.

So there she was tonight after dinner...... in dress number one, which had an asymetrical hemline, with deep flounces of sparkly fabric that gave off different hues of a pretty turquoise color. She stood there in that dress and just glowed, then she spun around to twirl in it, and I thought the dress looked just perfect on her. I kept that opinion to myself, however, until I saw the second dress. So.... out C came in dress number two, a darker version of the first dress, with ruffles beginning at the waist and stopping at the hemline just above her knees. Deeper color, more mature in design, no sparkles on the fabric. She didn't twirl in this dress, but she did stand there tugging at the waist, tugging at the straps, pulling the hem down closer to her knees.

I told Miss C that the first dress was the one for her, for the simple reason that she wore it, rather than it wearing her. My Aunt Dolly's rule for clothing-- "If you've got to pull and tug and adjust and re-adjust, then you're not wearing the right clothes." I passed that little bit of wisdom to C, and she's going to keep the first dress for the dance and return the second dress to the store.

Pardon my saying so, but I love it when that child values my opinion and listens to what I have to say. For years and years, I've believed that I am "the keeper" of my Aunt Dolly's memories, being that she never had children of her own. I often wondered who would be the keeper of our memories here, but I've long ago stopped wondering. I stopped worrying about that when I realized just how close and how connected my husband and I were becoming to our young Miss C. We couldn't have found a better keeper had we tried.