During the winter, I whistle when I walk. Corduroy jeans were on my Christmas list a few years ago. When I first wore them, my husband said I reminded him of the rich kids that went to grade school with him. The well-to-do boys wore corduroy pants, which were warmer than the overalls he wore. He remembered the noise they made walking down the aisles.
Rich was a relative term in our community. We had a few professional men who wore suits to work. They were better off than the farmers and factory workers who wore blue collar duds and made up the majority of the community.
Most of us who never will join the ranks of the affluent have something in mind that signifies rich to us. Lorna, one of my friends, admired the redwood lawn furniture that she saw in news photos of the rich and famous. She flaunted her purchase when she placed what was certainly a cheaper version on her patio.
In the fifties before I was married, I worked in an office in downtown Rockford. Every afternoon, I walked past the elite department stores on my way to catch my ride home. After the Christmas holidays, their windows were filled with beachwear for those who could afford a winter vacation in a sunny climate. I often thought it would be a real treat to be shopping for a bathing suit in January. My dream came true thirty years later. My cousin and her husband invited Ken and me to spend a week at their time-share condo in Mexico. I didn’t swim but I needed a new bathing suit to work on my tan to show I’d been in the tropics instead of the snow. Once in a while, it’s fun to act rich even when I’m not.
What have you bought or done to feel rich?
I don’t remember farm women wearing good, expensive jewelry even when they went out. Certainly my mother never did. She had a few pieces of costume jewelry, but certainly nothing more. So, I’m not sure what possessed my parents to go to Brills in Beloit to buy Janice & me birthstone rings. Both of us were born in October & the opal was our birthstone, but the jeweler advised mother & dad to buy a pink sapphire stone as they are harder & more practical for children. That was the first piece of nice jewelry that I was given, & I have continued the tradition to this day.