The Blue Dress Remembered

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With a PTA social evening on the horizon I needed a dress that would be comfortable and warm as it was winter in Christchurch. The venue was the Russley School hall where the heating was not the best.

With three young children, a mortgage and items on Hire Purchases finances were constantly stretched. Being in charge of our cash flow I devised a plan to cope with the ever increasing costs of running a house and making ends meet. In my purse lay four or five envelopes. Each week I faithfully put a ten-shilling note into each envelope ready for the end of the month when payments became due. Payments of the mortgage, the electricity account, the telephone account, the Hire purchase payment on the refrigerator which all had to be paid for.

Alighting from the bus into the City I went straight to the Post Office where I settled the mortgage payment. The electricity building was some way from the Post Office so I set off for my next port of call. On the way I glanced in the windows of the many shops eventually stopping in front of a large window where a dress caught my attention. That’s my dress, I thought, it’s absolutely the one I want. It was a Princess Line cut, very sleek and close fitting. The sleeves were three-quarter length trimmed with ribbon; the skirt appeared, on the mannequin, to come just below the knee. The neckline was round and also trimmed with matching ribbon. And the best thing of all was that the dress was a colour I really liked, Royal Blue.

With no more thought I entered the shop, found my way to the dress department where I asked the assistant about the dress in the window. She directed me to the clothes rack, gave me an up-and-down look, smiled then took the dress off the rack and held it up for my inspection. The colour looked even nicer and the fabric was a soft and warm woollen blend.

‘Would you like to try it on, Madam?’ the assistant asked. ‘It looks about my size,’ I replied as I moved towards the fitting room. Looking at myself in the mirror I could swear the dress was made just for me so well did it fit.

Although a mother of three I was still slight of figure and the dress was a perfect fit; standing at just 5 feet tall even the length was perfeect which meant that, just for once, I wouldn’t need to do any alterations.

Coming out of the fitting room my feeling of happiness was soon dispelled when the assistant told me price of this lovely dress. I realised there was no way I could possibly afford to buy it so I thanked her very much and left the shop. Once outside I stood still for a moment wondering how I could get the dress. I opened my purse and saw the little envelopes squashed inside. Without looking I could see the ten-shilling notes lying there in the dark and knew I had the answer. It meant, of course, that the telephone account wouldn’t be paid this month but if I waited I may never be able to buy the dress.

Feeling rather like a thief I removed the four ten-shilling notes from the envelope marked ‘telephone’ and re-entered the shop. This time I rushed up the stairs to the dress department, found the assistant and told her that I wished to buy the dress I had just seen. ‘I’m so glad you decided to buy this one,’ she said wrapping it up.

‘It really suits you, I’m sure you’ll get plenty of wear from it because it’s made from pure wool.’ I added a little more money to the ten-shilling notes to make up the price, handed over the cash before leaving the shop feeling like I had spent a million pounds.

The royal blue woollen dress was such a pleasure to wear and had many outings. I have no idea how I made up the shortfall in the telephone account, nor can I recall what happened to the dress eventually but I suppose it either shrunk or I grew out of it!

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