What's Old is New Again!

I love jewelry.  My first purchase was a candy-beaded necklace affair that I bought at Charlie’s for five cents.  I adored wearing it, chewing the beads off one by one, leaving my neck and chin a rather sticky mess, but feeling oh so glamourous nonetheless.

The ears were the next body part to be adorned.  As a little girl I would wear my mother’s clip on earrings until my head rang with the pain … racing around the house with  bright red lipstick, a plastic triple-strand choker and a scarf around my shoulders. ...  That was my first induction into the “no pain, no gain” beauty club. When I turned 12 my father pierced my ears for me.  More pain. It was a rather dramatic rite of passage, with all the family members crowding in the kitchen in attendance, watching, shouting, adding advice in three languages.  Chaos. My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  Pish. Have you met my family?

Well the piercing worked, and before long I had swinging gypsy hoops to match my love beads (purchased from Woolworth’s for 99 cents) to match my patched embroidered Landlubber hiphugger jeans procured from a strange head shop on Winter Street in town that always smelled of incense and something else. ... Peggy Lipton was a far cry, but hey, I could dream.

College was Disco Inferno – so I won’t traumatize anyone with what we wore! Suffice it to say that it was tight, it was shiny, and that no organic DNA could be found in our get ups. 

"Big" was the watchword for the '80s, with huge dangling earrings and necklaces, shoulder pads the size of Manhattan, along with really, really, big hair. I wanted to be Alexis Carrington. (Still do)

The late '80s and '90s brought kids, so it’s all still a blur.  If my shirt were on the right way I was happy. I do remember thinking I was being very avant garde (hahahahahahahaha) by adding a second hole in my ear.  Some odd place in Provincetown did the deed, and it wicked hurt for three weeks! Crazy.

And then, finally, and along with me, what’s old became new again.  I ask you – how fun is that?

A few necklaces from my mother that I wore playing dress-up all those years ago miraculously survived. And while many beloved brain cells have lost their way,  the ones I still have enjoy mixing those vintage items with the latest fashion offerings. It’s a lovely combination of nostalgia and hip, and one that is really, really cool.

TGIF folks – put it on, dress it up! Happy Weekend!