A WANNABE GRANNY'S MUSINGS
- 20/10/2009 <--Prev : Next-->
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Bulawayo Jacarandas - October 2009
Being of the old school I try not to stare when I see a beautiful young mother-to-be wearing a skimpy tight top over her wonderfully rounded pregnant belly.
In the "olden Days" preggy dresses were long, voluminous and most demure and concealing, so it takes a while to get used to seeing a very pregnant woman wearing a pair of tight pants, a skinny little tight top with that delightful shaped, slightly tanned, tummy peeing out boldly.
I have even seen a belly ring in at very pregnant tummy !! Ouch.... hope the little fellow inside is not too close to that ....
Baby Boomer maternity dresses were actual "tents" , and I am cautiously delighted to see the change in fashion even if it is a little different to say the least.
But what am I going to do with all those maternity dresses I have been keeping for my own daughters and daughters in law for all these years. ?
Imagine their faces when I produce that midnight blue cheesecloth dress, hand smocked in silver gossamer thread by my own Mum ? It has at least five metres of material in it, and could serve as an tent for a hockey team on a hot summer's day !!
Mind you it is so old now there is probably more cheese than cloth there now, its taken them so long to get "hitched" so maybe I should throw it away as grand children are looking less and less likely these days with all the career women I have in the family....
We have always been a family heirloom type family.
My Mum offered me her wedding dress which she wore n 1944 just after the war...., it was made of ivory embossed velvet and my wedding was on the hottest day of the year !!
I had to say no however to the head piece which was shaped like Queen Victoria's crown, and although it was very beautiful and most intricately made with fine bone floral filigrees work, also in ivory, it would have looked rather odd in the eighties !!
The lace and net of the veil had all but disintegrated sadly so I had to pass on that too.
I can just imagine those minxes of mine "Oh goodness, Mum has kept her maternity dresses for us, how are we going to duck out of this dilemma?"
Mind you, if they manage to by-pass the family wedding dress and the preggy dresses, I will get them for sure with the Christening dress I still have from the arc !!
The family christening dress was handed down from the last century and arrived in the country in an ox wagon, it was found by the of silver fish sadly but Mum was an excellent seamstress so we could not escape whatever we did !!
Lying in a box wrapped carefully in tissue paper, exquisitely hand worked and embroidered, it is now yellow from age and is very special, oh my grandchildren will look delightful in it I just know it !!
I also kept the family pram, it is up in the top cupboard in the spare room, I looked at the modern jogging prams in contempt the other day, thinking that my grand babies would be a great deal more superior in our old family pram.
These modern baby carriages are very nifty the way they fold up in an instant, but my old baby carriage is really regal, and when I am baby sitting I will not get a bad back as the carriage is high enough for one not to have to bend over !
It is also sprung like a model T Ford and I can just picture myself sitting in the park, just one finger gently resting on the fine carved bone china handle will rock that wee bairn to sleep in an instant ... I just know it,
None of this racing around the park with one of those ugly three wheelers bumping my grand children into a stupor !!
The lining is pretty old, but it has lasted remarkably well I think, Aunty Poppy brought it out from the UK in that same old Ox wagon in 1892 !! Of course I have to be prepared for the fact that the girls might object to the colour - it is a deep violet, but it is made of the finest silk imported from India, but slightly tatty, maybe I will take it along to Jacobs and see if they can line it again .........
