Chickenminnie’s Weblog

Last night, while looking for something else entirely, I discovered a box in my sewing room marked DRESSES.  I couldn’t imagine what it could be since all of my clothing storage consists of summer or winter, and the off season stuff is always stowed under my bed.  Mystified, I opened the box to discover some gorgeous old dresses that had belonged to my grandmother, mother and aunts. I have no recollection of stowing them there and thought they had been thrown away, so I was very happy to see them.

Like my relatives, these gowns had been quite fabulous in their day.  The first gown I pulled out was worn by my grandmother Alice to her daughter Sally’s wedding.  It is a pale aqua blue peau de soie gown with pleating under the bust, a sequined neckline and spaghetti straps.  I remember seeing photos of her in that dress with her hair done up, opera length gloves and a mink stole.  She was married to one of the most prominent area surgeons of the day, and totally dressed the part.

The next dress was an off-the-shoulder silk taffeta tea length dress in a color resembling cafe au lait.  Like many of the fancier dresses of the day it had a wide band of beading around the neck and the waistline looked ridiculously small.  My mother told me once that the fashion was to put your belt around your head, mark the location of the buckle and use that measurement for your ideal waist size.  Apparently societal body issues began way before Twiggy.

Under the taffeta was a dramatic dress the color of eggplant which would have been called aubergine back then.  I think this dress belonged to my aunt Sally.  It is a strapless silk with an asymmetrical top band (beaded, of course) and a dramatic scarf arrangement attached to it.  It had several pieces of twill tape sewn to the back of it because it had a small train, and I remember using this dress in my dressmaking days to work on my bustling technique.

In the bottom of the box were various fashion accoutrements of the day; a pink french net petticoat, a tulle sash and a few pairs of kid gloves, all impossibly small.  It was fun to look at these reminders of a more genteel era, and it brought back a lot of the stories I had heard as a young person about dances and parties at the Albany Country Club which my grandparents belonged to.  I guess they would be called “vintage” now!

There’s nothing quite like coming home after a long trip. Being an unrepentant homebody, I don’t travel well and vacations are often more stressful than fun. You can imagine how happy I was to land in Smallbany.

One notable thing about the Seattle-Tacoma area is the traffic! I have done my share of complaining about Albany rush hour, but after spending a week on the left coast Albany traffic is a day at the beach. They have all kinds of devices out there to control their crazy commute and their television traffic reports include such oddities as minutes extra between exits. All the freeways have a carpool lane which means you must have two or more people in the car in order to use it. There is an exception; if you buy a special sensor you can use the carpool lane with one person, but the rate is metered depending on how heavy the traffic is. This rate can be anywhere from fifty cents to $35.00! I saw it as high as $15.50 on the day we took the bus to Seattle.

There are also metered ramps during rush hour. This means that at certain times of the day you cannot simply get on the freeway; there is a traffic light on the ramp and one can only merge on a green. I have seen metered ramps in Denver where they also have major amounts of traffic. I’m glad Albany traffic is not this bad yet, although if they don’t start paying attention it’s going to get this way.

The next time I complain about Albany’s rush hour someone kick me. Hard.

May is a great time to be in the Pacific Northwest because the infamous rainy season is on something of a hiatus, and everything is blooming like mad. The first thing you notice is the rhododendrons which are the state flower…for good reason. Forget the wimpy rhodos we have in New York; these are massive, often tree-like plants which produce enormous clusters of bloom in dozens of colors. Being a garden aficionado I couldn’t resist a visit to the Washington Park Arboretum with its thousands of plant species. The rhododendrons and azaleas were in riotous bloom and we spent a few hours walking the 230 acre park. Washington is also noted for its numerous conifer varieties and this was evident at the arboretum; there were conifers of every description. Some had fluffy little tufts all along their branches, some were weeping varieties and of course there was my favorite, the monkey tree.

At the end of the arboretum was the most spectacular little Japanese garden. It had all the elements one looks for in a great Japanese Garden; a koi pond with some of the biggest koi I have ever seen, meandering gravel paths and fabulous little tea house. It was very peaceful and serene, and I took a lot of pictures which I will try to get posted soon.