The Dress

Dec. 26th, 2010 02:23 pm
valarltd: (holiday)
[personal profile] valarltd
Every family has it. The gift that was so dreadful it surpassed badness and went straight to Family Legend. This is our family's story. The Dress.

It was 1991.
I was 5 months pregnant with Victoria.
My father was married to a size 2 with a pair of size 0 daughters, none of whom was more than 5' tall. For reference, I am 6' and size 16 at the time. I had lots of long red hair and am an autumn.

And my stepmother bought me maternity clothing.
The sweater and tops were all right, but then I opened...The Dress.

According to Mudd, a look of shocked horror passed over my face as I peered in the box.

The dress was black. With pink and orange and blue and lavender and green flowers and bubbles printed all over it. It had a dropped waist with a peplum, and a solid black rib-knit skirt that bound my thighs together. It had a bow on the butt. It had a black peter pan collar, and a pink button and a black bow and a blue button and a black bow and an orange button.

I put it on, against my better judgement.
I looked like Peggy Bundy.

Mudd had to get me down the stairs because the skirt made me only able to walk from the knees down.

My mother, later, took a single look at the dress and said "How badly does this woman hate you?"


I got the receipt and took it back. In its place, I got a lovely green dress with hints of lavender. The punchline? There were SIX identical dresses on the return rack.

Date: 2010-12-26 08:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aldersprig.livejournal.com
In my family, "striped towels" have become synonymous with "why the heck did she get me that;" My dad's mother gave my mother pastel. Striped. Towels. one year for Christmas. My mom made a good show of liking them, but those towels followed me to summer camp, college, anywhere they might get ruined or lost.

When discussing the Nook I just bought my dad, I said "I'm glad you liked it; I was afraid it was going to end up being like the striped towels."

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