Happy Valentine's Day from Marjorie

I love this image because it reminds me of my kid sister, Helen. Her head is always in the clouds and she's a dreamy romantic at heart. And she LOVES clever costumes like this one. Her life's ambition is to become an actress, a fact brought out in You're the Cream in My Coffee when she's tapped to recite "The Wreck of the Hesperus" at the Kerryville High School Spring Fling.

Sometimes, though, Helen's life ambition seems to change hourly. For example, when she met Amelia Earhart at a book signing at Marshall Field's, she briefly wanted to become an aviatrix. That
ambition lasted until she learned how much math is involved in learning to pilot an aeroplane.

 Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours!

XXXOOO
Marjorie

Schuss! Skiing in the '20s

dressingvintage.com

Recreational skiing really took off in the 1920s, you know. We Midwestern gals have our Scandinavian neighbors to thank for creating early ski hills in snowy Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The Norwegians, Finns, Swedes, and Danes were, of course, long accustomed to scooting around on skis in the winter, just to get from one place to another, and they brought those skills with them when the immigrated to the U.S.By the late 1800s ski-jumping competitions were being held at places like Ishpeming, Michigan, as well as back east in mountainous Vermont and New Hampshire. The famous resort at Sun Valley, Idaho, won't open until 1937. But the handy rope tow was invented in 1910. And lo and behold, skiing is a sport both daring and graceful, and loads of fun for ladies like me, both on the slopes and off.

housefraserarchive.ac.uk

I love the exhilaration of gliding down the hills, wind in my hair and snowflakes in my eyelashes, but
my very favorite time is"apres-ski" (that's French for "after-ski"), when we gather in huts to warm up over mugs of steaming hot beverages and impress each other with tales of our feats of derring-do (and flirt with attractive men in

Edward, the Prince of Wales, sporting a Fair Isle sweater

thick sweaters. I think I'll knit matching sweaters in a tricky Fair Isle pattern, one for me and one for my beau! Maybe if I start now I can finish them by next Christmas. Or maybe it would be wiser just to check out The Store for Men at Marshall Field's. What do you think?

See you on the slopes!

Marjorie

Happy new year...

...from my decade to yours!

Love,
Marjorie

Merry Christmas from Marjorie!

Christmas shopping's almost done.
Now it's time for lots of fun!
But first,remember why we're here
To celebrate this time of year.
The Baby in the manger stall,
The King who came to save us all. 

Wishing you the merriest of Christmases, from my decade to yours,

 Marjorie

The Christmas Robe: A Roaring Twenties Short Story

Well, whaddya know? A Christmas short story starring ME! It's set in the 1920s at Chicago's Marshall Field & Co. at Christmastime...what could be better?

I hear "The Christmas Robe" is available on Amazon (although why I don't know, because it has absolutely nothing to do with the world's longest river...in fact, there's no river in it at all...), but you can obtain a copy FREE from the author's website.

I hope you enjoy this story about the time I coveted something special for Christmas, and wound up with a gift that was better than I could imagine.

Gotta run . . . big sale on bay rum, and I still need gifts for Pop and Charlie!

Toodles,

Marjorie

Oh, snap!

Sometimes I don't think I'll ever understand twenty-first-century technology. Would you believe that my author uses her telephone to take photographs? This enables her to sneak snapshots of me when I've just woken up and haven't even had time to comb my hair.

I mean, honestly. Was this really necessary?

(She seems to think it's funny. Well, har-de-har-har.)

A telephone that takes photographs, indeed. What's next...a radio that transmits motion pictures? That'll be the day . . .

Now, here in 1920s, THIS is a camera.

I received one from my parents as a Christmas gift one year. What was your first camera? 

Hope you're enjoying a very merry Christmas season, out there in the future!

Toodles,

Marjorie

What I Wore: Fashion Plate Edition

Louise Brooks. (source: marieclaire.co.uk)

I stumbled across this enlightening post from Marie Claire. It's a list of 18 stylish ladies of my era, the 1920s. Go have a look at them and then come back and tell me which one you like the best.

Clara Bow. (source: marie-Claire.co.uk)

Style-wise, you're most likely to find me wearing a skirt-and-sweater combo like Clara Bow's, and I am also a big fan of the cloche hat like Doris Hill is wearing. My roommate, Dot, resembles Louise Brooks up top there, lucky girl. Whenever I need to look more glamorous than normal, I borrow an ensemble from Dot, except for that one time when I "borrowed" an expensive gown from Field's for a special event and disaster ensued. Jennifer is putting that incident in our forthcoming novel, because apparently she doesn't believe in maintaining a character's dignity. 

Doris Hill and her cloche. (source: marie-Claire.co.uk)

Speaking of the novel, she just turned the second round of edits in to the publisher. I keep telling her that if she'd write the story perfectly the first time, it wouldn't need any edits. She doesn't seem to find my advice helpful and in fact seemed a little put out by it. Talk about your thin skin! Geez Louise.

What do you think about the fashions of my era?

XXXOOO
Marjorie