Tell Me A Story: MY RED WOOD SUIT

Mary Marcia
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

Link:
https://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-red-wood-suit.html

My Red Wool Suit

My mother made a red wool suit for me in1967.
My red suit looked very much like
red wool suits worn by
First Lady, Jackie Kennedy
and actress, Lucille Ball.

CLICK on image to enlarge.

My grandson, Joshua,

asked me to tell him a story

that taught me a life lesson.

It was an assignment

from his high school English teacher for students
to ask their grandparents about a life lesson.

I told Joshua about my red wool suit.

My Red Wool Suit

Mom made a double-breasted, red wool suit (skirt and jacket) for me to wear to my Homecoming Dance in 1967. I was 17, and a senior at Liberty High School, in Liberty, Missouri. Mom hated to shop, but she went with me, and let me pick out the fabric. We found the perfect red wool fabric at the Jones’ Store in Independence. I loved it…at first.

Mom was an excellent seamstress, and the red wool suit was beautifully tailored. All my friends at LHS talked about what they were wearing to Homecoming. I was a bit embarrassed that my mom was sewing my homemade outfit. Most of my friends had plenty of money, and shopped on the Country Club Plaza, or downtown Kansas City. My friends bragged that they would be wearing the hottest color that year: maroon….a deep burgundy. I never had a maroon/burgundy outfit, and I wanted one.

I pouted: “Mom, all the girls are wearing burgundy outfits to Homecoming – except for me. It’s not fair.”

MOM: “I made you a beautiful red wool suit. I’m not going shopping again.”

I kept up the “poor me” barrage until Mom relented. She gave me cash, and asked our neighbor, Fran, to take me shopping in Kansas City. Fran helped me pick out a gorgeous maroon/burgundy dress. It was double-breasted with a unique, diagonal criss-cross in the back.

I walked into the '67 Homecoming dance, and felt on top of the world in my trendy burgundy wool, tea-length dress. All was wonderful until I spotted my friend, Irene, walking toward me wearing the exact same burgundy wool, tea-length dress. She was just as appalled as I was.

Later that evening at home, I threw myself on the bed, and cried.

“I wish I’d worn the red wool suit that you made for me,” I said to Mom.

“You looked beautiful tonight, Marcia. You’ll be able to wear the red wool suit another time.”

I did. I wore the red wool suit to my first “real” job interview. I got the job, and later my boss told me one of the reasons he hired me as a bond underwriter was my professional appearance. He specifically mentioned the red wool suit.

The day before Mom went to Heaven, in 2003, we said things to each other for the last time on this side of eternity.

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings about the red wool suit you made for me in high school,” I said. “I loved that suit, and I’ve worn it so many times. I was embarrassed back-in-the-day (36 years earlier) that you sewed it for me, but now that I’m older, and a mother myself, I realize what a precious gift you gave to me.”

Mom cried.

“I never told you...” she said. “I never told you that I saved money from the jar I kept my grocery money in to buy the red wool fabric. You complained there was no Coke or potato chips that week, but it was because I saved the money for your red wool suit. When you changed your mind, and wanted a burgundy dress, I took money out of the grocery jar again. Your dad and I went without meat for a month to pay for the $35 dress from Harzfelds.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

I cried.

“I didn’t want you to think we were poor. We were rich in so many other ways.”

Joshua remembers my mother, his great-grandmother,

who he called Mema.

Joshua was mom's first great-grandchild.

Josh was five years old when Mema went to heaven.

Joshua's birth in 1997, made me a grandmother, and my mother a great-grandmother. Joshua is the son of my first-born daughter, Kristin. The first night he came home from the hospital, I stayed at Kristin's house and slept on the sofa to help if I was needed. Sometime in the middle of the night Kristin brought Joshua to me, and he spent the night sleeping on my chest.

Joshua was just a toddler when I held him in my arms and he looked up at the ceiling fan - and then looked down at the pull string hanging from the fan. He looked up and down and up and down. Even then his brain was taking in information and processing it.

He has wisdom beyond the straight A's he has earned. Josh is smart without being haughty. He has a wicked sense of humor without being mean.

I am proud, in a godly way of my grandson, who now attends the University of Missouri on a full scholarship. Joshua earned an Air Force ROTC scholarship to attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. This scholarship is extremely difficult to qualify for. The Air Force officer who presented Joshua with the scholarship said that it is as difficult to get as an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy. The four year scholarship is estimated to be well over $100,000.