Hippie Clothes

Teenage Girl called this afternoon. They are having "Hippie Day" this week at school. Her parents are throw-away types, so there is just nothing to be had at home.

Well. I never seem to part with anything, and I did pack down all my rather strange clothes I brought over to Germany with me in the mid 70s. I thought: someday I will have a daughter and she will want to see my strange clothes, just like I loved looking at (and wearing) my Mom's 50s close. Except we had a boy, who was just not into dresses.

She biked over, and came in wearing a fake mustache and goatee. Because it is project week, and they are doing "dressing", and they are supposed to cross-dress tomorrow. She was planning on wearing a coat of her Dad's. [German schools seem to be getting quite Americanized anymore...]

Well. Back in the late 70s I had this thing about wearing men's coats (lots of pockets!) so I do rather have a collection. And I have a bow-tie and cummerbund (in purple), a wing-tip shirt with cufflinks, and some pants that need suspenders to stay up (when I could get them on, it seems I have added a few inches around the waist and nothing fits any more). And of course my satin lapel suit jacket.

We dressed her up in the whole thing (I forgot that I have a fedora, I'll have to have her come back tomorrow) and had a good laugh at how she looks. She decided that it was too much, however. She'll stick with her Dad's coat, but took the suspenders and pants.

We dug through the attic until we found the boxes of clothing memories. Good Lord, I need to trash most of this. But there were my flowered wrap-around pants; the blue-stripey crush shirt; the crocheted poncho (with fringe!); and lots of other goodies. She added some beads and my TWA travel bag, but just wouldn't think of wearing the silly hat (I used to wear crocheted hats) and there she was - the picture of me, some 35 years ago.... She screamed at the purple, orange, and green mini-dress, and the psychedelic black and white, nausea-inducing shirt. She liked the buttons and the T-Shirt "Never underestimate the power of a women", but decided that was too much, she'd just stick to stripes and flowers.

So see, WiseMan, good thing I didn't throw all that away, or she would have gone home empty! Somehow this will not save the rest from the threatened cleaning out he will be doing during his sabbatical this summer....