POCKET BOOK, HANDBAG, OR PURSE

Odd, isn't it, that the 'science' of observation brings us to believe that others are spending their time deciding on who we are by:

1. The clothes, style, and colors we wear

2. The kind of glasses frames we select. Sarah Palin's frames cost about $400, if you are interested.

3. and now handbags.

Great grandmothers bought flour in the same kind of sacks and made dresses and matching aprons. So, what did people say, "Oh, I see you buy X brand flour?"

Mother's bought clothes off the rack or bought fabric from bolts and saved the extra's for splash on children's clothes or quilt tops. In a small town, dress shops were limited and so was fabric.

My generation started out in home designed clothes, bought clothes at stores that were altered at the store so they fit--as an adult I learned the value of second hand stores for everything but shoes and underwear. It stretched the budget so the kids would have new or more. Fabric was cheap and sewing became something I liked to do.

My daughter sold doughnuts on Saturdays to buy designer jeans and other clothes, only to learn we could make 4 dresses to one purchased at a store.

When Tom's grand daughter was here at Christmas, she did not have a piece of apparel that did not have signature of some television or movie show. Bet no child will have a Hannah Montana shirt with her artistic photo stamped on it.

As for color, most people have been colorize by the age of fifty. We are told what to wear, what sort of fabrics to wear, even hair cuts. It talks about proportion, cut of garment, and to be dressed professionally in the best possible clothes to make a statement of who we are before we open our mouths.

Some of us have been there done that. Some of us had a closet full of suits and shoes that may have hurt our feet, but we wore them because that was what was available off the rack.

We know too, that sometimes if we look in the mirror, we don't look like we have a lot of sizzle to give. There is, after all, something to be said about color and how it helps our faces glow.

For people in the infant stages of the "coloration", I shutter when I think about your best friends with totally different coloring helping you shop. There is a great deal of information in books about looking your best; how about feeling your best~~that needs to be the ultimate goal, don't you think?

I am okay with the ideas available to all of us if we are looking for solutions. This essay would not have come to be published on the blog unless I had read an article about hand bags and how we know what others ARE by the purse they carry.

1. Brief case purse combo--ability to multi task
2. Photo bag--family oriented
3. Confidence
4. Monogrammed--Proud of who you are
5. Eco friendly--care about your surroundings
6. Back pack--casual
7. Oversized--Stylish with your six pound purse
8. Shoulder bag--Sensible
9. Bejeweled--like being noticed
10. Wrist bag--no nonsense
11. Brand bag--like the finer things

They don't list a diaper bag~~an era most of us have enjoyed in our life time.

When I worked at the nursing home, I carried a tote bag. Inside the tote was a zip lock bag, that was my 'purse'. I got my first purse when I was in junior high. It was a bucket purse. I wanted black but they didn't have any black so I settled for turquoise. It was my first leather purse and I carried it for years. I suppose--thinking about it now--I could have had it dyed--. Then, I bought a leather purse at a second hand store that I had for years and years. When that finally was discarded I went through a series of styles. I found what I think is the best for me a few years ago. I don't know what it says. A lady at the market this morning 'wanted one just like it'.

What do you call that thing you carry your valuables in? Is it a pocketbook like Grandma, a hand bag like Mother, or a purse?

Tomorrow: What is in YOUR wallet. I almost said Walleye, we are off to fish!

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