Dressing Gowns and a Touch of Heartache

So now I'm on this nostalgia fetish in which everything having to do with vintage vanity is attracting me. Perhaps it's because I have one of those birthdays coming up that divide evenly by 5 (or 10). To combat the feeling of getting older, I'm getting younger in my mind.

Old memories surface:

Peach Chiffon lace Lintage Intime Nightgown at Empressjade

• My mom, in a dressing gown, takes out her pin curls. The curls boing all akimbo. Young girl me wonders how she will tame them. She has a tiny little groove in her right front tooth from using it to continually open bobby pins.
  

Gl'amour Pink Chiffon Vintage Nightgown at empressjade

• My first floor length nightgown that wasn't flannel felt so glamourous. I was wearing it the night I found out that my boyfriend, who had just left for college four weeks earlier, had up and married some witchcraft-practicing tart he had just meant in one of his classes. A Mississippi River full of tears flowed while my sister held me.

Hot Pink Baby Doll Kitten Sexy 60s Nightie at missfarfalla

• Hot humid nights and the sound of crickets. Sitting on the floor with my sisters in front of a big box fan and staying up too late. Talking about boys.

Vintage 1060s Tangerine Dream by INTIME New Old Stock at fabgabs

Photo credit: Lulu of Lunatech Photographics

• A box full of nightgowns as a 30th birthday present, from my ex-husband. He thought they might help me like him better and forget the black eye he gave me the night before.

Vintage 1950s Mocha Delight Silky Nylon Vanity at fabgabs

Photo credit: Lulu of Lunatech Photographics

• Didn't work. I left him anyway. Took the nightgowns with me.
  

Old memories, both sweet and sour, float around me like little balloons of celebration. Today I remembered a phone number from 28 years ago but forgot to eat lunch. Go figure.