Seattle Stories: The Dream Dress

Another adventure with the mighty Kodak 110 camera! It’s March of 1976 and I’m at the Pike Place market in downtown Seattle. It’s a beautiful spring day, as evidenced by the buskers blooming on the sunny streets. It may have been on this very day that I found, deep in the market’s maze of head shops, comic book shops and secondhand stores that I found The Best Dress Of My Life. It was old, circa 1930s. Floor-length black velvet, with long tight sleeves that came to points over the back of my hands. The waistline was pinched in tight and the skirt flowed in billows down to my ankles. The neckline was quite low and rounded, edged with a few dozen dangling mink tails. YES MINK TAILS! The moment I saw that dress I knew I’d be eating cheap popcorn for dinner for the next month. I paid $20.00 for it. At the time that was a week’s worth of groceries, three bags full. But it was worth every penny. I wore that magnificent dress every chance I got. It fit me like a dream. I dearly wish I had a picture of it, but the harsh reality is that I don’t. So you get a picture of the early spring buskers up in the sunlight at street level.