Pages

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Sentimental.

Our house is the process of living through a self imposed biennale of decluttering. It is torturously painful yet it has to be done. There are strict rules and regulations as to what gets to stay and what heads down the road to the Vinnie's bin......with clothes, if it hasn't been worn since we previously went through the process, then it goes....without hesitation. No exceptions.

Have you ever clapped eyes on a more hideous dress:


 Here's a close up of the nasty, polyester fabric just in case you are unconvinced:



Are you surprised to hear that it's staying? It was a present from my dad. He gave it to me when he came back from a trip working in New Caledonia, soon after we'd bought our first home and embarked on babies. As an electrical engineer, dad travelled the world with his work. Soon after finishing Uni he and his cronies headed to the UK and Switzerland. Then, there was a period of relative stability after he and mum got married and we all lived in Sydney....before our family relocated, when I was ten, to a remote Indonesian island halfway between Jakarta and Singapore. This signalled 'hello Sydney boarding school' for my sister and I.....until work took mum and dad to Launceston, of all places......where we all stayed while he continued jetting off solo to work in such far-flung places as Peru and Taiwan.  He would be gone for months at a time with very little communication...we're talking about back in the days before email here. In hindsight, it really was a selfish and evasive way to participate in family life......it wasn't until two weeks before my wedding that he confirmed that he'd be walking me down the aisle.......and he didn't meet my eldest daughter until she was almost a month old.....but then again, he never met my youngest daughter at all. 

So, this atrocious dress was a joke. As he laughingly gave it to me he said that it would be the perfect attire for housework. He gave mum one too. On his next visit I met him at the door dolled up in the dress.....he roared with laughter. 

Then the dress was promptly relegated to the deep dark depths of the rag bag, which was how it somehow escaped vanishing forever. I found it again after he died. It's staying because it's impregnated with memory....it makes me cry and laugh at the same time....shame it's so ugly.

My husband has two items of clothing that he religiously saves. On the weekend he squirrelled them away to a safe place in the attic so I couldn't take a photo so I'll just have to describe them instead. One is a jacket which he refers to as his 'Get One'....and no he wasn't wearing it when I met him. Once upon a time, in a previous incarnation, it was his old school blazer.....until he and his university rowing crew came up with the idea of cutting off the magenta braid and having the University Boat Club embroidered pocket sewn on over the top of the school crest. Apparently, so the folklore according to my husband goes, whenever these eight blokes wore these particular jackets they were irresistible. This was well before I knew him and often speculate whether any of the other mothers at school may have known him in his hey day....wearing this jacket. 

The other is his battle suit.....the retired dinner suit that he kitted himself out in every time he went to a B&S Ball. It is still faintly emits the odour of sheep shit and Bundy Rum and is stained with patches of food colour spat by other ute driving revellers. I can't wait to hear the explanation he comes up with one day in the future when the children ask him what exactly these special treasures are. Hmm.

Rx

16 comments:

  1. Oh dear to the Dinner Suit. My husband had one like that.... fortunately it was upgraded a few years ago - the wide lapels and big shoulder pads and double breastedness were very early 90's style. It was purchased for his last school formal, and worn to every 21st and quite a few weddings after that. I think we burnt it. Certainly the fumes that emanated from it suggested it was highly flammable by the end. I can't believe your husband has such strong memories attached to something he wore to B&S's (or maybe they actually prompt memories that wouldn't be there otherwise due to high levels of drinking).

    Laughing at the 'Get One' jacket too. I'm sure he was quite the catch out on the town in Hobart.....

    Funny how clothes bring back such memories, both good and bad. Cleaning out mum's things, I had a 3 large bags of her 'good' stuff for the consignment store. As I went to drive off, my sister ran out with mum's very expensive down filled Bognor 3/4 length coat. It was only 4 months old, and would have fit any of the three of us, but none of us wanted it. We had only associations of her wearing it non stop (she was always cold) while in her final illness. We were glad to be rid of it and those memories. Hope the cleaning up isn't too traumatic xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Traumatic and so much left to wade through.....children's bedrooms next....thinking of making future birthday parties 'no gift please' as it's the way so much kiddie crap infiltrates the house. Rx

      Delete
    2. I want to do that too, some give great gifts for birthdays, but so much is just landfill crap. I've been throwing a lot of it out while clearing out the playroom....I'd definitely prefer not to get it to start with. Can't quite reconcile with how they will feel to not get presents though....

      Delete
  2. Great story behind the dress!
    I must admit that even in this modern day and age I have house work dresses!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would love to see them as curious as to what other housework dresses look like....surely not as hideous as mine?! Rx

      Delete
  3. Love the story about your daddy.

    Support the decluttering 100%.

    Good Luck.

    Am in a PANIC re travel clothes and will email you I PROMISE soon because we need to workshop this x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Having declared momentary moratorium on decluttering yet couldn't help myself and had a mini session in the pantry tonight....back into it on Monday with all guns blazing! I'm thinking floral theme for gardening tour yet am fickle so may change my mind! Rx

      Delete
  4. That is a very special dress.

    I have a dress I bought for our honeymoon that I still keep. Not too much else kept though except the odd evening dress my daughter may want.

    Laughed at the B and S suit story. Friend of ours once went to a country op shop to buy a dinner suit for a B and S and found one that fitted perfectly which was odd as he is quite a big guy. When he got home and looked at it carefully he realised that there was a name tag inside and that the suit had originally been his father's.....

    The Farmer still has his swag from B and S days. It is almost falling apart - obviously saw a lot of action. I refuse to touch it - don't even want to imagine what happened there...!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Special. Amazing story about your friend, the op shop and his father's suit.....what an amazing coincidence, although did he then have to behave when he was wearing it?! A swag....oh dear! Imagine.....no don't! Rx

      Delete
  5. I was reading away and exploring new blogs tonight and came upon yours via Library of Design. I admire that you can be so religious about decluttering, my husband would love me to be able to do that. The sentimental in me holds on to everything, clothes and all.

    And as for B&S suits and swags...best left tucked away where no-one can ever find and ask questions!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Decluttering doesn't come naturally to my husband and I. After our session on the weekend, I caught him red handed going through a bag which was destined for the bin to see if there was anything he could rescue. It's so hard not to be sentimental....I will admit to saving not one but three pairs of my 4th child's baby shoes... Ah, B & S nostalgia....now that we are all so grown up and responsible?! Rx

      Delete
  6. I wish I had such decluttering power, I hold onto everything for sentimental reasons, so you can imagine the pile of not so attractive pieces in my collection. Then try and cram all those extra pieces into tiny french living spaces and well, the picture gets worse. Maybe not as bad as an old B&S suit though! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Decluttering is a skill I've had to force myself to learn. Lucky you to have no B & S suit in your attic! Rx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, your darling Dad, Romy. We all need our touchstones to them once they're gone. The thought of how that suit must smell is ghastly! J x

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE hearing your thoughts! Rx