The Dress

When my older sister, Coni, started Kindergarten in 1969,

my mom let her pick out any fabric she wanted for a new dress for the first day of school.

She choose a orange, navy blue and white floral print (very groovy -- as they said back then!)

Mom made it into an adorable little dress.

When I started school,

my mom decided that it would be a tradition in our family that all the girls will wear the dress.

And so it was...

Here's me starting Kindergarten in 1972...

(Too bad I still don't have those awesome rust suede shoes!)

My sisters, Cricket and Cortney followed tradition and wore the dress for their first days of school also.

(Even though it wasn't real cool to wear such a groovy dress in the 80's and they weren't real happy about it!)

Then the dress sat in storage wondering if it would ever appear again.

Then, sure enough, it made another appearance in 1993 when Elisabeth followed tradition.

(Isn't she a cutie!)

The dress has been worn by a couple of my nieces since then.

Miraculously, the fabric has held up all these years.

It looks as good as new.

I did have to replace the worn out lace but then it was looking groovy again just in time for Emma's first day of Kindergarten.

(What a doll!)

Emma is the last girl in the family (unless Cortney will be having a girl...crossing our fingers!) so, until another girl comes into the family,

the dress will be heading back into storage

hoping to be able to make another appearance some day.