I am coming to realize that I didn’t have all the clothes and stuff my friends had and my mother and father did most of all of my shopping through high school. I bought one outfit in high school on my grandma’s charge. Other than that Diane or Lee bought every stitch of clothing that I wore. And I am not mad. She would come home with a bag and throw it at me while I usually was laying on the floor reading, watching tv, or doing homework. No, I never wore tight clothes and I dare say that the only items that I owned before now that were tight were my Lane Bryant work out clothes. They had a line that came out in the mid 90’s. My mother dressed me in dresses, pants suits, suits, and straight leg jeans. But she never wore tight clothes either. I guess we have always known we were pretty and smart without having to show our bodies. two piece long prom dresses

I am sitting here laughing ? because when I went to visit Purdue for the MEP weekend for those accepted into Engineering for the fall. I seriously packed all suits. I wore a gold and black suit to the party. And in the picture I am in the front row with a sailor like navy blue suit with a blouson waist and it had a crest on the jacket and the pocket of the cream shirt. And I had patent leather flats with a crest on it. And shit I thought I was sharp. And my mother had the exact same outfit down to the shoes.

I take that back. I did pick out my graduation outfit, it was Lane Bryant rayon t-shirt and white skirt and I had yellow pumps (my first time wearing a real heel, I wore kitten heels to prom) with a matching yellow thick belt and then I changed into matching pants. And my dad bought either my white and gold leather flip flops from Nine West or the white and leather gold belt that matched the shoes from Lane Bryant or Nine West. It was expensive to me and I tried to find something less expensive to no avail. I can’t remember but he went and picked either of those items or both up for me. He picked my earrings for my prom dress, too.

It’s funny damn near everything I owned that year and took to college had crests, my peach gown. I had an extra patch from covering up a hole on this grey sweatshirt material long sleeve jumpsuit that was my go to for everything my freshman year. Late to class throw it on.

My cousin Erika had on my damn gown when she came over here a couple of years ago and it still looked new.

Most of the clothes that I took with me to college were discount finds that I purchased with my graduation money or Lisa’s throw aways, or all my clothes from all 4 years of high school. The multi color airplane shirt short sleeve shirt that I wore with these olive green corduroy shorts. Lisa passed it on to me. I had never worn the shorts and I guess I was used to such colorful clothes it never dawned on me to just wear black.

I had a blazer that I found on clearance and it matched these brown loafers. I used to wear that with a cream silk blouse and my ripped jeans. Back in the day your jeans ripped on their own from long years of wear and tear. Now Carrie buys them like that.

I had gotten the gown and the jumpsuit from Bargain Bob’s basement in Greenwood, In. It was a warehouse with discounted clothes some were in perfect condition and other items like my jumpsuit had minor flaws. It was worse than Value City, but I got a rush every time we went there because there were so many clothes and shoes. There was shit everywhere. You had to dig. It was like digging for treasure!

I think I paid about $5 bucks for the gown and $7 for the jumpsuit. I wanted the jumpsuit cause Lisa’s ma had a black one made of broad cloth or cotton that she threw on to run Johnny to school, come pick us up late night. And beauty of it was it always looked cute. With some sandals, or mules, or tennis shoes. You could even wear a wedge. So my $7 find carried me through my freshman year. And then I gained the freshman 15 and I had lost all the weight from Weight Watchers the year before.