WTF is black tie-dye? A beach urchin wanted to know. Well. It is basically a black skirt with strips of tie-dye. It is a pretty cool skirt, quilting-type cotton, not t-shirt fabric. Maxi length with elastic waist. Black Chico’s “travelers” tank top. I wore those ALL summer under loose summer-weight knit jackets back when I worked at Cubelandia. I saved a few just in case. Turquoise/aqua colored cotton “wrap” to drape over my shoulders. I needed that by the end of the night. It was chilly enough that the venue put out a tub of blankets on one of the tables on the porch.

Come to think of it, I should seek out an extra (or two or three) of that skirt. I bought it on Etsy at the beginning of the pandemic. I was looking for my standard tie-dyed t-shirts and I found those but then this other site popped up. I didn’t receive the skirt for a long time. The seller was much more concerned than I was. I was tracking it and I knew it was stuck at a facility somewhere near Detroit. Brownsville maybe? But probably not because that’s Amazon. I think this was just a post office. Anyway, I assured the seller it was NO PROBLEM and NOT HER FAULT! I wasn’t going anywhere that I needed to wear that skirt.

Beaded purse. 100+ years? I’m not really sure. I am pretty sure I took this from my step-grandma Bolette’s house after she died and people were picking out jewelry and things. The narrative in my head is that it originally belonged to my great Uncle Henry’s wife Lillian. Uncle Henry was The Commander’s paternal uncle and he gave Bolette a lot of things before he died. Including a Cadillac, I think. I think she may have driven it for a while. She was quite a bit younger than my grandfather and his brother Henry.

That is really all somewhat conjecture possibly with some kernels of truth sprinkled here and there. I was a young mother during those years. With a part time job no less and my aunt Charlotte was largely taking care of Bolette’s affairs then. Not without some complaints from Bolette who at that point was struggling with whatever sort of dementia she had. Before that started to set in she and Charlotte were wonderful friends.

At any rate, Great-Uncle Henry lived long enough to know that my daughter, his great great grandniece was born and long enough into her toddlerhood that he sent her Hush Puppy. When she opened the package, she took one look at the expression on Hush Puppy’s face and said, “Needs a Mama!”

I have a few more recent similar (much cheaper) purses that I bought. I’m gonna fling those. I’m keeping this one and maybe some day I’ll try to get it restored. I guess in those days they didn’t design evening bags to be sturdy enough to contain things like iPhones and automotive key fobs…

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