Monday, May 5, 2008

Whirling Dervishes

Stacks of catalogs arrive in our mailbox everyday. A cover of one caught my eye. A little girl was wearing a froth of nylon ruffles . It reminded me of my childhood. My Grandma Georgiana would buy us nylon slips for gifts, white nylon slips that ended a a froth of ruffles. They made our dresses stand way out and when you twirled, it was magnificent. I wanted the same for my granddaughters. I knew what I would order for birthdays. And then, there they were being highlighted on Martha Stewart. I immediately went on-line and ordered them before they became a back ordered item. When they arrived, Grandpa Glen could not wait for birthdays. How could I justify putting them in my gift closet when his little sweethearts could be wearing and enjoying them now?
Ruby and Sadie were thrilled to twirl and hug.
They danced and strutted. They wore their matching tee-shirts (the shirts matched their skirts.)

Heather received her skirt on her next visit. She would have loved whirling with Ruby and Sadie, but they were in Utah, so she danced by herself and got dizzy.
She also played a mean game of BINGO and won a pile of prizes as did TJ.

Now for the rest of the story. The Christmas after moving to Arizona, after Georgiana had left us, Grandpa George sent us Christmas presents from Idaho in the mail. One of mine was a fluffy nylon slip two sizes small and probably pretty inappropriate for a 12 year old. I remember feeling bad that my present would become one of my younger sister's. But even more, I knew that I had grown up without my grandpa realizing it. I knew that he was also missing grandma.

2 comments:

Susan said...

Thanks so much for all of the gifts. T.J. has been wearing his BYU shorts and Toby's ever since he got them. Heather asks every day if she can wear her twirly skirt to school, even though she knows the answer will be no! Yesterday, as soon as she got home from school, she changed into her skirt. It was perfect for an afternoon of playing dress up with Ashlyn!

Vagabond Mother said...

They look so happy to twirl! I'm glad you have three grandgirls to spoil, I don't know if I was as "all girl" as them. I love that name "Georgiana" still. Isn't it odd how fast life goes?