I must have sat by that oak tree for two weeks straight. I was waiting for the mail man to deliver my very first new dress ever, that was ordered and bought, just for me.

You see, we were a very large family, ten of us, to be exact. I was number nine. Mother always made our clothes, unless we were fortunate enough to have something that fit given to us. At that time in my life, things were called hand-me-downs, now we call them 'gently used, pre-owned' or 'recycled.' All I know is, I don't think I had been this excited since I won the book report contest in Miss King's class, at the beginning of second grade. I loved to write and would take any opportunity to re-tell the story of books I had read. That was a good day, but this one was good in a different way.

It all started about a month before when Miss Clark came by to bring us some catalogues . She brought Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward and others that I don't recall the names of. Those catalogues were used for a number of things. The primary use was to place them in the outhouse, I guess you can imagine, they weren't there just for reading. I don't remember having 'Charmin' back in those days. Well, we got to look at the Catalogues before transporting them to the outhouse. We also got to cut out paper dolls and make a 'wish list' for Christmas.

I would study those Catalogues until my eyes hurt. I would show Mother different pictures of blouses, little skirts and dresses. She would encourage me to cut out anything I really liked and keep them as patterns. Sometimes she would sew my clothes to resemble those pictures as closely as possible. I can't say enough about Mother's skills. As a teenager I would design an outfit and show it to Mother. If she had the right material , the outfit would sometimes be hanging on the door when I got up in the morning, ready to wear. I never could figure out if Mother slept as much as the rest of us did.


Well, as I browsed through the thick catalogues I found a little girl model who had on the most beautiful blue dress I had ever seen. It was blue checked, had a white collar and puffed-sleeves. The catalogue it was in was outdated but Mother said sometimes they would show it in the next season too. We didn't have much money but she told me that it was time I got a store bought-dress. I almost peed my pants with delight.

Mother sat down and wrote a letter with the order form, and sent it to Sears Roebuck. She checked a COD box, she said that meant Cash on Delivery. We didn't have checks or anything so we would pay the mailman when he brought my package. Mother said we would "just keep our fingers crossed that the dress was still available."

The dress cost two dollars and ninety-nine cents. That was a lot of money. I had earned almost a dollar picking potato bugs off the potato plants in the garden. They were soft shelled but otherwise like a beetle, and were orange with beady red eyes. Daddy gave me a penny for each bug so I 'braved' up when the job was ready to do. After Daddy counted them, well sort of, he would look in the bucket and say, "pretty close to fifty I'd think," then I would feed them to our chickens. I also fed our neighbor's chickens sometimes and would get money for that. Mother gave me the rest of the money to go with it and the 'wait was on.'

It was summertime so I could sit with my back against the oak tree and read or draw while I waited for the mailman to come. I had just completed second grade, so that meant when school started again I would be a third grader. I day-dreamed, a third grader with a new blue dress.

I thought it would never happen, but after almost three weeks my package came. As I ripped the brown paper off, and saw the beautiful dress inside, I doubted that life, at that moment, could be any sweeter. To this day, several of my paintings have little girls with the blue dress on.

I wore that dress until it no longer fit. Then, you guessed it, number ten , my little sister laid claim to it. I think she loved it as much as I did.

What joy the simple things in life can bring.