Monthly Essays

Unfashionable

The picture on this page is over 12 years old. Anyone who has seen me lately will say I don’t look like that anymore. Miss Clairol is no longer my friend, and my hair is its natural white. A former college roommate said, “Some women pay a lot of money to get that shade of platinum. Lady Gaga for one.” Now that’s a true friend!

The thing is, along with this aged hair is an aged brain that is getting more curmudgeonly by the day. Make that by the hour. Just call me Andy Rooney. I complain a lot.

I don’t watch TV news, but I read newspapers to stay informed. I get Apple News on my computer, which is a compilation of articles from many papers and magazines. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of silly celebrity gossip mixed in. If someone makes the mistake of getting sucked into reading one story, then suddenly many more pop up. And yes, I made that mistake.

What has me riled right now is the fashion trend toward ‘sheer’ clothing. My jaw dropped when I saw a picture of a woman at some national awards show in nothing but what looked like fishnet made of thin tan thread that make the dress nearly invisible. It’s ludicrous to me, but there’s a real fashion trend in this stuff. I just googled sheer clothing (purely for research) and found all kinds of sheer apparel for sale.

Of course, this nearly-nude fashion statement is in women’s clothing, and I may be old-fashioned, but I call this dressing for male eyes at the misnamed gentlemen’s clubs. No self-respecting man would wear sheer shirt and shorts in public. Actually, what self-respecting woman would wear a sheer shoulder to thigh dress outside of the bedroom? When did classy go out of style? Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan must be turning over in their graves. How can women be taken seriously, be viewed as intelligent, if they’re parading around in their birthday suits? Actually, they are wearing something—mile-high heels!

I’ll admit to walking on my tiptoes when I was a young working girl at an office. Now I look back on that time with amazement. If men had pointy stiletto high heels custom made for their wide feet, they wouldn’t wear them an hour.

I’ll also confess I wore halter tops with shorts and wore bikinis for swimming. I was cleaning out my chest of drawers a couple weeks ago, and I found a favorite (tasteful) halter top. Of course, I’m never wearing that again since it doesn’t go with my white hair, but I kept it to remind me of who I once was and how I bent with fashion dictates and shouldn’t be so judgmental.

But I am judgmental, and I draw lines I feel should not be crossed. This is an “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment, and I will point and shout, “NO!”

Okay, I’m through ranting. And just so you get some value out of reading my thoughts, here’s a continuation of last month’s group names for animals. They are so descriptive. A crash of rhinos. A murder of crows. A lounge of lizards. Aren’t they fun?

A Sign of Love

Opposites Attract?–Juliet Rae believes that opposites attract, but her divorced parents prove that they don’t last as a married couple. She’s content with her life as a high school history teacher and president of the Butler Creek, Arkansas, Historical Preservation Society. But then she meets architect Grant Logan, who has inherited the Civil War house from his reclusive uncle. Grant refused to register his house with the Society and let them place a marker in his yard because he will not be dictated to by a bunch of do-gooders. He’s chrome and glass, she’s antiques. He’s country music, she’s classical. Will their differences outweigh their growing attraction? Get your copy today!

Travel back to small town life in 1954 to meet the people who live on the Corner of Pearl & Moffet.

Before 33-year-old Josie Jameson takes the seat reserved for the widow, she glances around the old graveyard. Over three hundred people have gathered to pay their respects to her late husband. That is nearly the population of Ducane, Arkansas.

She had married Orville nine years earlier. That he was 43 years her senior hadn’t really troubled her, but there had been plenty of talk. She was a farm girl when she married and moved to the big white house on the corner of Pearl and Moffet. She didn’t fit the mold of housewife to the richest man in town. Now that he’s dead, she owns the Ducane Savings and Loan, The Station that makes more money from liquor sales than gasoline, his private ledger books with unofficial loans and repayment schedules, and the little brown books written in his tight scrawl that hold the town’s secrets.

When tragedy strikes, the good people of Ducane, who share each other’s joys and sorrows, who celebrate others’ accomplishments with pride, who take food to the bereaved and do chores for those who are sick, these same good people whisper, “This is Josie’s fault!”

Corner of Pearl & Moffet is a gripping tale of one woman’s struggle through sorrow and challenges to find her own life. Download your copy today.

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