The
dress pictured here was worn by my Grandmother Triplett 100 years ago to say “I
do” to her true love, Harvey. I have Grandma’s dress adorning a dressmaker’s
form standing in my living room. And thereby hangs an incredible tale.
When
we were little kids (my brother, cousins and I), we used to dress up at Grandpa
and Grandma’s house. She had a chest of old clothes and shoes that we were free
to play with and I remember seeing shoes with many buttons, so different from
our shoes having laces or buckles. I even remember a pair of soft white leather
shoes with many buttons—her wedding shoes. But there was no wedding dress to go
with the shoes.
Grandma
died in a car crash and my mother occasionally
spoke of her mother’s wedding dress because it had apparently disappeared. She
said Grandma had sewn tiny seed pearls around the neckline as decoration and her
description made me think of a fairyland creation. Like the fairyland of our
childhood, the dress seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Flash
forward to August 2001. My dad had died and mom was moving into senior housing, but she needed to have a
sale of farming equipment and the contents of barns, outbuildings, and the
farmhouse. My brother and niece had spent several weekends working on cleaning
out the accumulation of 50 years of country living, but there was still plenty
to do when I flew back to the Midwest a week before the sale. The day before
the sale we were still going through boxes, sorting and tossing.
I
was working my way through the back entry between the garage and back door
where an old trunk had sat since my Aunt Anna died back in the mid-80’s. I
opened it up to find it mostly empty except for a few vintage hats. However, a
small shelf attached to the lid still held some detritus which looked like it
should head for a trash bag. By this time, I’d learned never to do a wholesale
dumping of "stuff" because currency, old pictures, and other priceless
memorabilia could well be mixed in with useless receipts from 25 years ago
I
started gingerly pulling out a yellowed plastic bag. When I opened it, there
were several beautiful little girl’s dresses for perhaps a two year old. I knew
they weren’t mine so I guessed they were surely my mom’s or her sister’s from
back in the 20’s.
There
was another yucky plastic bag in the open shelf so I picked it up and opened
it. I pulled out a lovely piece of satin fabric—decorated with seed pearls—and
the hair rose on the back of my neck. Could this be Grandma’s “lost” wedding
dress?
Out
came a long skirt with three rows of ruffles, evenly spaced. The last item was
a long sleeved blouse with a square neck also decorated with seed pearls. The
first item that had emerged was like a decorative vest so the wedding “dress”
was an ethereal three-piece ensemble.
Mom
verified that, indeed, it was her mother’s wedding dress but she didn’t
remember anything about the little girls’ dresses, guessing that they were hers
as a tiny child. It was agreed that I could take the wedding dress home with me since
my brother’s family never knew Grandma Triplett and my mom had no place to
display the dress. I folded it and the little dresses and put them in a corner
out of the way.
Sale
day arrived and the helping hands of friends joined us in getting all the indoor
“treasure” outside for the auction as the weather had threatened rain the night
before. After lunch I was visiting with a cousin of my mom’s generation and
mentioned Grandma’s wedding dress. She, of course, had never seen it so I went
in the house to get it. But the corner was empty!
Apparently
the helpful hands had carried the dresses (the little girl’s dresses were gone
too) out to be sold. Grandma’s wedding dress was gone again. And this time
there was no doubt in my mind, it was gone forever.
The
sale over, we all went home and I was recounting the sad tale of the vanished
wedding dress to my friend, Jackie. “Why don’t you advertise for it?” she
asked. That thought hadn’t even grazed my mind so I thanked her for the idea
and called Mom that evening. She, in turn, advertised in two county papers and
the daily just across the river in Illinois.
Three
days later Mom got a phone call from a lady who said, “I think I have something
you’ve been looking for.” Mom had taught elementary school for sixteen years
and one of her students was the caller’s son. He had come to the sale and bid
on a box of doilies, aprons, and other items, which, it turns out, included
Grandma’s wedding dress. The lady was planning to take the items to a flea
market that weekend but when she read Mom’s ad in the paper, she felt compelled
to return the dress.
And
that’s how Grandma’s wedding dress finally made its way from Palmyra, MO to
Elko, NV
She
and Grandpa were married on May 14, 1919 the day before her 25th
birthday and probably 2-4 weeks after her school term was finished as she taught
in a rural school for at least five years prior to her marriage.
 |
| The newlywed 100 years ago, today |
