| When my wife (of sixty-six years) was a little girl, | | | | ones. Such is the following: if you were asked the |
| she tells the story below about her mother. Her | | | | common denominator between the outdoor elements |
| parents were both immigrants from Europe at about | | | | and a "green dress" what would you say? The |
| the turn of the century, and during the depression | | | | answer lies in a family anecdote - and explains how |
| years, with unavailability of industrial or manufacturing | | | | my remarkable mother (Rae) dealt with a difficult |
| employment, and lacking a trade, some young | | | | period in her life - the depression years. My mother |
| husbands eked out a living for their families as best | | | | was a woman of many attributes, among them was |
| they could. With few stores and fewer people having | | | | her desire to be respected by the outside world, |
| the pennies required for cable or street-car | | | | appearance being an important criterion. Her budget |
| transportation to go shopping, traveling "peddlers" | | | | was extremely limited, therefore her wardrobe |
| saw an opportunity to earn a livelihood by bringing | | | | consisted of a few house dresses and one lonely but |
| the product to the customer - small-scale commercial | | | | attractive "green dress". Every morning she would |
| businesses evolved through itinerant merchants. | | | | check the weather, and be it sunny, rainy, windy, |
| In the country, pots, pans, cutlery, curtains and | | | | snowy, etc., her pleasant comment (to herself and to |
| clothes, sometimes bananas, were carried in wagons | | | | me) would invariably be, "I think today, I'll wear my |
| and cars making the rounds of local farms; in the | | | | green dress". When eventually, that green dress was |
| cities the products carried for sale were fruits and | | | | retired because it could no longer be cleaned or |
| vegetables, or - as in the case of my wife's father, it | | | | repaired, I do not know, but my mom was a woman |
| was women's clothing, carried on a rack in the back | | | | who knew how to face the world elegantly attired, |
| seat of the family sedan. Since money was very | | | | whatever the elements. |
| tight during the depression years, the | | | | This anecdote provides an insight on how my |
| "customer-peddler" would often also be "banker", | | | | mother, without complaint but with the use of her |
| collecting only a dollar a week on his sales. | | | | humor, faced the hardship of the depression years, |
| Surprisingly, the people, although poor, were | | | | and teaches that adversity can be lightened by the |
| scrupulously honest, enabling a struggling housewife | | | | attitude one assumes. (Whenever I think of this |
| to occasionally buy on-time a new dress, apron, or | | | | story, it brings a smile to my face - the lesson |
| coat, and my wife's father to earn a living for his | | | | learned from my mother's behavior - whatever the |
| family. And so it was that my wife's mother acquired | | | | situation, do what you must - but with a sense of |
| her basic wardrobe - a green dress. | | | | humor). |
| Family vignettes help shape personalities of loved | | | | |