I went to the farmer’s market yesterday. It was a warm day, so I wore my beige shorts, a peach t-shirt, and my old, comfortable, black Clark sandals. I fit right in. Most shoppers were wearing t-shirts – though some had logos. One person had a shirt with a Vikings’ logo, another shirt said University of Minnesota. A teen was wearing a black shirt that said, “”Don’t follow me, I’m lost too.” Many were wearing shorts, others had on jeans, sweatpants, stretch pants, or leggings.
This is very different from a hundred years ago when women (it was usually women back then) shopped for food. Many were homemakers, and shopping was the fun outing for the day (or week). A hundred-year-old photo in the July, 1925 issue of Ladies Home Journal, showed a woman shopping at a produce market. Fresh vegetables sit in crates outside a small store. She is wearing a tasteful knit sweater suit over a crisp white round-collared shirt, a sophisticated velvet hat decorated with a few feathers, shiny flesh-colored hose, and 1- or 1½- inch pumps. She displayed her prosperity by wearing a fur stole made using a full animal pelt that included the animal’s head and paws.
The picture took me back to my childhood. Each Sunday my family sat on the left side in the fifth pew from the front in a small rural central Pennsylvania church. After all these years, I’m a bit foggy on names, but a family I’ll call the Smith family sat two rows ahead of us. Mr. Smith, a highway contractor, was wealthy by the standards of the isolated area where we lived. His wife, in the spring and on cool autumn Sundays, often topped her church outfit with a mink stole made of four mink pelts, each still with its head and tail. Several of the minks were biting the tail of the mink ahead of it.
My mind would drift away from the minister’s sermon. I was entranced by Mrs. Smith’s stole. It must have cost hundreds of dollars. I dreamed of buying one someday . . . if I ever got rich.
Fast forward, 40 or 50 years. I visited the area where I grew up and, on a lark, went into the Roller Mills Market Place in Lewisburg. It is an old three-story brick flour mill that has been converted into an antique store (aka flea market) with more than 400 venders, each with a small stall. It’s a building where it’s easy to get lost, and time flew by as I looked at old knickknacks, pot and pans, mid-century calendars, tools, and much more.
And, then I turned a corner, and there IT was, draped over an ancient manikin with frizzy, unkempt, blond hair – a mink pelt stole made from four animals with several biting the tail of the one ahead of it. It looked just like Mrs. Smith’s stole. Maybe it actually was Mrs. Smith’s stole. After gasping, I walked over to the manikin, and turned over the attached price tag. $15.
Only $15!! I removed the pelt stole from the manikin and headed to the checkout. I was finally wealthy enough to own a mink stole.
When I got home, I showed it to my husband. He said, “Egad! Why did you buy that?”
I said, “Maybe I’ll wear it a party.”
He said, “I’m not going with you. What would people think? You’ll get into trouble with PETA.”
I said, “That’s silly. These animals were killed years ago. I’m recycling them”
I hung the stole in an empty closet in a bedroom that once had been our son’s room. It’s hung there ever since.
While writing this post, I decided that it was time to give the stole another try. I flung it over my shoulder, and looked in a mirror. I looked great. I decided to go outside to take a photo.
An Excel Energy truck was parked in front of our house and a repairman was fixing a street light. It might just be my imagination, but I think that he gave me a strange look.
I told a friend about the repairman’s reaction. She said, “Next week wear the stole to the farmers’ market. You could be a Glam Gran.”
I thought about it a little, and concluded that I’m not confident enough to wear the stole to the farmers’ market. I’ll never be a Glam Gran. I hung the stole back in the closet.
Oh well. . .I have something that once was a symbol of prosperity, but times change, and that symbol has become flea market junk. I guess that I’ll never look as fashionable as my childhood fashion icon. Sigh. . .I’m just going to have to continue wearing my ratty t-shirts when shopping for vegetables.
What a delightful post! I had no idea where you were heading, and there you were, modeling your dream stole! I’m so glad you bought it and wore it for us.
It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoyed this post. I know that it’s a different from most of my posts, but had a lot of fun pulling it together.
I love this post! Have you ever read the Miss Read series…you might enjoy them…this putbme in mind ofvthose books.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Read
I never heard of the Miss Read series, but the books sound good. I just did a search of the holdings of the library system where I get books, and see that a library in the system has No Holly for Miss Quinn, so I requested it.
What fun to find the stole! Ha Ha!!
It’s sometimes amazing what you find at flea markets. 🙂
I enjoyed this post so much! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
What a delightful post! I’m still chuckling…Thanks for sharing !!
Egad.. now I’m laughing.
I’m glad it gave you a chuckle. It was a fun post to write.
Love it. I once bought a fur muff from a vintage clothing store that was a whole arctic fox, feet and all and yep, you put your hands inside it. I got it for a costume. and my family sat in the third row on the right side in a small rural pennsylvania church, albeit in western PA. my mom did have a fox fur collar on her coat that she wore here.
Wow. . . it’s amazing what you can find a vintage clothing stores. When I was a child, fur muffs were another thing I loved, though I don’t think that I’ve ever seen one made from a whole pelt. I’m glad you wore the muff to church. I wish I had the confidence to do that.
Too cute! I’d never be able to pull off wearing that either. 😂
Some people just seem to be able to pull things like that off better than others. 🙂
Excellent post! But I’m with your husband on this one 😉!
He’ll be pleased to hear that you agree with him. 🙂
👍
Great story, thanks!
It’s nice to hear that you liked it.
Fun post and at least you put it on once!!!
Halloween is coming …you might consider that.
Good suggestion – Now I just need to find a Halloween event to wear it at.
I remember those. My aunt had something similar, and even as a kid, I did not like looking at the dead animals. I’ll have to stop over at that flea market one of these days.
As far as flea markets go, it’s a very nice one.
Times do change..sometimes for the better.
Agree 🙂
I love the story and like to think that you found the very stole you ‘admired’ so long ago. How many other people walked past it in the shop, and you spotted it. Knowing its day is past but you still appreciate what it meant in its time. I rather agree that the style of those with their poor little jaws becoming the clip is somewhat terrible but I can imagine how special it made its wearer feel and we all deserve that. I have a rather nice pillbox style fur hat my grandmother owned. It doesn’t keep the my ears warm at all and it was much more suited to her red hair but I still wear it now and then. Throwing it out seems even more a waste of the animal’s life. It is nice we have so many nice synthetic options to keep us warm these days.
You nicely described how I feel about mink stole. I know that its day is past but sill appreciate what it meant in it’s time. I’ll never know if it’s the same stole I admired as I child, but I found it in a town only about 10 miles from where I grew up. I don’t think that there could have been very many of them in the area. It’s awesome that you occasionally your grandmother’s pillbox-style hat.
Great post!
I love vintage and wish that we would have kept the old-fashioned values, and most of the fashion..
I had to laugh because just the other day my mother was watching an old movie and the woman was wearing a fur stole, and it caused my mother to remember the one she had, but never wore. She thought it would be worth a pretty penny.. I can now tell her it is not worth a fortune. 🙂
We know that times have changed for the worse when a fur stole would cause a stare, but not blue hair..
Thank you for sharing!
Your mother’s stole probably isn’t work much in dollars, but it (and stories about it) can create valuable memories. Love your analogy. Times have changed.
I enjoyed this post! However I’m sure my grandmothers did not dress like the woman in the photo when they went shopping at the neighborhood store with several small children in tow.
I’m sure mine didn’t either. My take is that, similarly to today’s photos in magazines (and other media), the photo is aspirational rather than realistic, and designed to sell magazines.
Thank you for embracing the elegance of a bygone era and passing down memories!💕
It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this post. I had a lot of fun writing it.
It was fun getting to know you a little better, Sheryl. I never would have guessed that you would be so enchanted by a mink stole and how amazing it must have been to find the one of your dreams decades later! Your husband’s reaction made me smile. I do wonder what kind of looks you would get if you wore the stole to the farmers market. 😉 The picture of you with your new possession is priceless!
It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoyed reading my mink stole adventures. Maybe I’ll feel confident enough to wear the stole to the farmers’ market next year. 🙂
How fun! My mother used to wear her fur stoles and coats when they went out. She still has them. Isn’t it strange that we don’t feel right about wearing them anymore. Maybe someday!
Fashion trends (similarly to food trends) ebb and flow.