Our Five Gingham Dresses

I was one of six children. Calvin, Rita, Ronda, Deborah, Deena, Wendy. One boy and five girls.

Every year, for Easter and Christmas, Mom would make look-alike dresses for us five girls. I remember one Christmas, our five dresses were made from a tan polyester fabric, with little fur collars...

When I was 12 years old, Mom made five gingham dresses for Easter. Red and white...with Chicken Scratch embroidery around the bottom of the full skirts -- and also around the huge puffy sleeves.

My Grandma Dodds did the embroidery...and I cannot imagine how long it took her to embroider Five skirts and Ten sleeves...But, the truth is -- for the next 45 years, I never once thought about it.

Fast forward....to 1996. Mom had cancer.

The six of us took turns staying with Mom. 

Towards the end, Mom was in hospice care, with a hospital bed in the living room.   She was sleeping most of the time, and wasn’t eating or talking.  The hospice nurse told us that a person's hearing is always the last thing to go.  So we would sit at the side of her bed, sharing memories of our childhood.  We fondly remembered our holiday celebrations -- and we laughed about the close calls or accidents we thought Mom didn't know about...

One day, after spending the morning with Mom -- I decided to get away for a few hours. My favorite go-to activity is to kick around an antique mall or a thrift store. At a little hole-in-the wall place in Clinton, Iowa -- I discovered a small basket of aprons. When I pulled out a red and white gingham apron, I was snapped back to my childhood....and those five Easter dresses...

I bought all the aprons in the basket ($1 each)...and the next day, sitting at the side of Mom’s bed, I picked up the red and white apron, and started to talk about those dresses she made, and I wondered how long it had taken Grandma Dodds to do all that chicken scratch embroidery....

At some point, I said, “Gee, Mom -- it just dawned on me that after Wendy (the youngest) wore out her own dress, she had to wear Deena’s, then Debbie’s, Ronda’s, and eventually mine. Holy Cow.  She wore a red and white gingham dress for at least seven years...”

Then this happened...

Mom opened her eyes, looked at me and said, clear as day, “only yours was red, Rita.  Ronda’s was teal; Debbie’s was pink; Deena’s was green and Wendy’s was yellow.”

And here’s the thing. In that basket of aprons I bought? There were exactly five gingham aprons -- all with chicken scratch embroidery. The colors?  Red, teal, pink, green and yellow.

That was the very first time I realized childhood memories can be WRONG. I would have bet my life that those five dresses were all red and white.

Anyway -- that apron incident, more than 20 years ago, started me down a path of joyous collecting and deep appreciation for everyday household linens.

Five Gingham Aprons, worn by my sisters (birth and sew)...Sandy, Linda P., Deena, Ronda and me.

The Art of Homemaking Exhibit will be at the Bettendorf Library until the end of January...

Thanks, Mom...