Old Friends, Endless Memories

Sue called last night. She read my blog about her and Tom and Debbie and didn’t know that Tom and his wife separated. She called to ask about it. We spent over an hour on the phone and, as always, we wound up laughing until our sides hurt – you can do that with someone you’ve shared memories with for over forty years.

I got a long email from Tom yesterday. He has two buddies from the Navy that he has been close to for 35 years. They had gotten together for the wedding of one of their sons and Tom sent pictures and a long letter about what a great time they had. It was a pleasure to read – even though I don’t know his friends I’ve been hearing about them for over three decades – it was great to hear they are doing well.

Sue is the only person I know who loves to sew and loves to collect fabric as much as I do. We can talk for an hour about that alone. She tells me about the latest rural adventures of living in a 150 year old farmhouse in the heart of the Allegheny National Forest and catches me up on what her son Eric and husband Jim are doing.

I was with her the night she met Jim back in 1979. Her first marriage hadn’t worked out and she moved back home, I graduated from college and was living there as well. I lived in a great little house with high ceilings, hardwood floors and a baby grand piano in the living room that came with the house. Tom lived four doors down the street, Debbie lived three blocks away. Tom and Debbie and her brother Pat and I got together every Sunday night to play pinochle and drink beer. On Saturday nights Sue and I went to dances at a couple of local dance halls and it was on one such night at The Crossing in Kersey, Pennsylvania that Sue found Jim. I remember it well. The band was a decent Bob Seger wannabee outfit and I was dancing with a guy named Rick who was a logger – lots of the guys who hung out there were loggers. Sue came up holding the hand of a burly, bearded guy wearing a Lynard Skynard t-shirt and said, “Look what I found.” Great! Maybe she’d get to use The Dress!

Let me tell you about The Dress. There was a ladies dress shop in my hometown called Bermans. Both Sue and I worked there in high school and I worked there over the holidays through college. Mr. Berman was a good guy – he liked Sue and me and we learned a lot about fabric, fashion, and alterations from him. He taught me to dress windows. By the mid 1970s Mr. Berman sold the shop and retired. The new owners had a clearance sale and Sue got me out of bed at 7 one Saturday morning to go look at wedding dresses with her. There were dozens of them going for $50 each and Sue had found one she loved she wanted my opinion.

“What do you want a wedding dress for,” I asked, “you don’t even have a boyfriend.” That’s not the point, she told me.

The Dress was fabulous – an Oleg Cassini confection in heavy cream satin absolutely covered in re-embroidered Alencon lace that had originally been $800 — in 1976, mind you.

“It’s gorgeous,” I agreed with her, “but it’s a size 8 and you’re not.” That’s not the point, she told me.

She bought it and we spent the entire summer taking that dress apart and remaking it to fit her somewhat more voluptuous figure. We removed all the lace and spread it out on sheets on my living room floor before remaking the dress. It was an extraordinary lesson in garment construction to do that. Tom often wandered down to check on our progress. At last it was finished and Sue looked beautiful in it.

For the next few years every time a guy so much as bought her a drink she tried on The Dress to make sure it still fit. Then she met Jim.

By the time they got married I was living in Houston. When she called to tell me they had set the date I was so happy for her. “You’ll finally get to wear The Dress,” I said. Well, no, she said.

What???

She was pregnant with their son Eric and by the date of the wedding The Dress would be way too tight. Oh well.

Last night while we were talking I asked about The Dress. “Oh, I still have it,” she told me. “I cut it up and made a jacket out of it but I saved everything – it’s in my cedar chest in the bedroom.”

Well, that’s good. “Yeah,” she said. “I saved it with Eric’s teddy bears and the Lynard Synard t-shirt Jim was wearing the night we met.”

Ah, memories.

Thanks for reading.