Mickey, Donald and an Unexpected Find!
So it’s almost Halloween. I have these twin boys who are now almost 31 years old, but when they were little, boy did I love to dress them up for Halloween. First came pumpkins, then Hershey Kisses. It went on to dinosaurs, the California Raisins (google it), Roger Rabbits, and the pièce de résistance, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. They put their foot down the next year when I wanted them to either be big ole M&Ms, or Thing 1 and Thing 2.
I made all the costumes. My mom taught me to sew, begrudgingly, because she was right handed and I was left handed. So she’d get frustrated and I’d get pissed. I learned enough to make pillows, quilts, crib bumpers and Halloween costumes.
I’m a grandmother now (and loving each and every millisecond of being so), so I drug out the costume box to see if Henry or Harper would want to be either a pumpkin or a Hershey Kiss. I think they’re both gonna pass as I saw Harper’s adorable knitted pig costume and I can only imagine what Matt has up his sleeve for Hank the Tank (Iron Man, the Hulk, Matt Ryan, the possibilities are endless . . .).
But guess what I found when I got the costume box out? My mom’s wedding dress and a blouse she wore on her honeymoon. Those items are treasures in and of themselves, but here’s the rest of the story . . .
My Dad, Leon Custer Ross, was in the 101st Airborne in WWII. He was a medic. So he parachuted in behind enemy lines to patch up his men and wait for rescue. My mom, Wanda Lee Blankenship, met and married him upon his return to the states. But he was there on Normandy Beach that fateful day. He lived to tell the story, but the thing is, he never told us any stories. He wasn’t interested in reliving any of it. My brothers and I pieced a lot of stuff together from his letters to his mom that we found one day (I still want to have them published).
So here’s the thing, Wanda was an amazing seamstress. Her pieces looked just as good from the inside as they did from the outside. She made a lot of my outfits growing up, most of my prom dresses. She also made her wedding dress and that blouse. The wedding dress was made of white eyelet, the slip underneath? Leon’s white silk “dress” parachute. That blouse? My dad’s camo parachute. How unbelievably cool is that? ? And how awesome is it that I still have them??? My parents died many years ago, so I’m thinking I should shadow box frame them, one for Harper, one for Hank . . .
Also, check out this unbelievably cool art installation that my ex mother in law, Peggy, (another story for another blog post) sent me cause she knows one day I’d like to visit that beach in Normandy . . .
-LeeAnn, a proud daughter, mom and GiGi
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/09/the-fallen-9000/