Monday, March 24, 2008

Taking Out My White Sandals

(This was supposed to be posted on Monday. My apologies.)

After going to church on Sunday, I was flooded with memories of Easters past. A particular trio of little ladies were dressed in their best Sunday best.... beautiful dresses made by Mama Tracy, of course. Little Rian Elizabeth needed some help from Sister Tasha so that her photo could be taken, and Tressa and Abigail were able to stop their activies for a few seconds so I could capture them.












Yesterday's weather made me laugh. There was a huge drop in temperature, and actual CHUNKS of snow came down. Not the usual snowflakes, mind you. But chunks. So each of these beautiful little ladies came equipped with a snow white sweater made by Grandma Zimmerman.

Easter was always that time when I could finally wear those spring colors again.... the pinks and peaches and light greens that I just didn't feel right wearing with clunky brown and black shoes in the prior weeks. But, once it reached Easter, they seemed fair game again.... especially in an ensemble with my sandals! No matter the weather!

All too often, however, we'd have an Easter like yesterday. COLD. REALLY COLD. And, no matter how cold, I was "bound and determined" to wear my white sandals I had been waiting all winter to wear. I'd try to remember where I had stashed them on that very last day of semi-warm weather back in the fall when I had last been able to wear them....or dig to the bottom of my shoe pile looking for the worn-out white leather. If we "thought ahead", I'd find them late, late the night before Easter and Dad would be able to use that weird white bottle of shoe polish (you know, the bottle with the wet sponge on the end) to spruce them up. I watched with fascination as they turned from grey and cracky to chalky white and cracky. To me, just like new.

Despite the weather, I was wearing those shoes. And, I'm ashamed to admit, many of those Easter Sundays, I sported white tights with my white sandals. Sometimes, I even wore plain knee socks with those sandals - as exhibited here. I firmly deny all responsibility - as the tights were the expectation by Mom if the weather was cool, and I was taught that Easter was the time to break out the white shoes. Too bad these two great independent thoughts often resulted in a bad combination.

Aaron and I would receive jelly beans and Reese's Peanut Butter eggs - our absolute favorite. After becoming sick of chocolate through a bad experience with plain MMs, I had an aversion to plain milk chocolate for several years. So, Aaron and I could always tell our baskets apart because his had a chocolate bunny and mine had a white chocolate bunny. I remember often looking at my shoes to make sure they were whiter than my bunny. If they were, I felt it was going to be a particularly good Easter.

I have no idea why I did something that dumb, but that's what I did. I find myself saying that more and more these days.

4 comments:

Kelly Spezzano said...

Those little girls are absolutely precious (I cannot believe how much they all look alike- even the little one)

As for the white sandals- we have the dilema in FL to retire the white shoes as etiquette would have it (no white after labor day). But when it stays warm so many months out of the year it's hard to put those light colors away!

Dani said...

I don't think it was all that dumb, just particularly special. Easter was an emotional day for me too.

However, unlike most of Florida, I don't wear white shoes during the "winter" months excepting for Easter. I was very excited to break them out!

Other Mother said...

Since I grew up in western Nebraska, we often had snow for Easter (and Halloween too). We wore our spring dresses and shoes anyway, and then put on our winter coats!

Elizabeth said...

My summer shoes = my winter shoes, this year. I never put them away nor got them back out, and what is the result: Holes.

Perhaps the labor day and Easter thing wasn't really about fashion but about making your white and dark shoes last longer.