My youngest sister, O., is planning her autumn wedding.
Last month, she invited all of us Gaffron sisters and several of her fiance’s family members to shop for dresses with her. We sisters had a “Girl’s Weekend” which included pool time at a hotel. In fact, another hotel guess commented to me that it looked as if we were having a “Girl’s Weekend.”
O. did say “yes to the dress” that weekend. Almost everyone that loves her will need to wait until this autumn to see the “big reveal” for this dress. So let me tell you about a dress from another autumn wedding.
I present to you “The Dress” that my mother, Shirley, sewed for her wedding to my father in the autumn of 1974. Mom met my dad several weeks before her 16th birthday. Dad gave her roses for her Sweet 16 because his mother told him that it would be a nice thing for him to do. They married several weeks before Mom’s 20th birthday. Dad had just graduated from college and he had just started his first teaching job.
Both of my parents are no longer with us. I can tell you about how young they were and show you photos of how cute they were without getting myself into trouble.
The summer before the wedding, Dad took what little money he had and he went shopping someplace in Westmoreland County near where he grew up. He needed a suit for his new teaching job, and he needed a suit for his wedding. He only had enough money to purchase one of these suits. The salesman at the suit store approached him. Dad introduced himself and explained the purpose of his shopping trip. The salesman said, “What did you say your name is again?” Dad repeated his name. The salesman said, “I’m the owner of this store. My last name is also Gaffron. I’m your dad’s cousin. Tell you what. If you buy one suit, then I’ll throw in a second suit as a wedding gift from my branch of the family.”
At least that was how Dad told the story. I have no idea how much of this is actually true. Any questions would just destroy the “magic.”
Anyway, back to The Dress. Mom sewed it on the same sewing machine that she used to sew all of the clothes that she made for our family. (My sister blogged a little bit here about the “Little House on the Prairie” outfits that Mom made us.) The leftover material from the sleeves ended up in her fabric scrap collection. I used some of these fabric scraps to make accessories for my Barbie when I married Barbie off to Ken. I still have some remaining scraps for an as-yet unknown future project.
Here’s a full length portrait of my mom wearing The Dress. My dad is also in this portrait. He is wearing the suit that his “surprise cousin” allegedly gifted him on behalf of a mystery branch of the Gaffron family.
I took Mom’s dress, her veil, and her wedding album back to my house when we prepared to sell the house in Berlin. My sister O. modeled The Dress (Mom’s dress, that is) and The Veil in front of my Christmas tree last December. It fit her!
My mom’s name was Shirley. O’s middle name is also Shirley. So now we have two brides with Shirley in their names.
Let me tell you about yet another bride named Shirley. This Shirley was my maternal grandmother’s only sister. She passed away before my mom was born. Here is a photo of Shirley on her wedding day, standing with Grandma.
Shirley didn’t have any children of her own. So, I get to be the one to tell you blog readers about her. Here is what I know about this Shirley: my grandma missed her very much. A few years before Grandma passed away at the age of 90, she and I sat down with all of her photo albums. Grandma showed me many photos of her with her sister Shirley.
It is my understanding that this Shirley got married in the early 1950’s. I don’t know anything about her dress or about the dress that my grandma wore in this photo.
Even though my mom made her own wedding dress, I know a tiny bit about wedding dress shopping in the 1970’s. My late mother-in-law, Fran, married my father-in-law, Dennis, in 1974. They actually got married just a few weeks before my own parents got married. My in-laws and my own parents all belonged to the baby boomer generation. (My parents disliked the term “baby boomer.”) Fran told me that so many women shopped for wedding dresses in the 1970’s that the Pittsburgh department stores had dedicated wedding dress sections. Fran found her wedding dress in one such department store. Fran said “Yes to the Dress” because the embroidery included one of her favorite flowers.
In the very late 1970’s or the very early 1980’s, Mom brought me to her own sister’s wedding shower. It was held at somebody’s apartment in Pittsburgh. I ghosted the event (otherwise known as a “French exit” or an “Irish goodbye”) in order to check out the building’s elevator. I was still riding in the elevator when Mom found me. I wasn’t a big fan of weddings back then. But I enjoy them now.
