Lavender

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so

Call up your friends, dilly, dilly,
Set them to work
Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
Some to the fork

Some to the hay, dilly dilly,
Some to thresh corn
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
Keep ourselves warm

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?'
Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so


I'm being guided by lavender. I walked into Mervyn's through the children's department. On the forty per cent off table there were pairs of lavendar sparkly fairy wings. I sensed I needed to get them for our summer fairy camp, if not for my own personal use.

Moving on through the mall, I found a fabulous lavender and black top to go with my "dress-up" black skirt, and on sale. I 've spent forty-five years as an anti-purple person. Purple made the dark circles under my eyes prominent, and never went with my brunette hair. Plus, the whole idea of purple paisley polyester double-knit made me irritable.

When my sister and I got into the closet and drawers in the spare bedroom we found Mom's jewelry box, her mother-of-the-bride/groom outfits, my sister's blue-ribbon 4H sewing projects, and Mom's personal favorites from her long sewing life. We found the all-time grooviest outfit I ever wore. Mom created it for me from 1970's Marimekko fabric. The cotton/linen print had huge waves of black, sand, lavender, and white. Mom designed my outfit to have bell-bottom pants that Judy Carne and Goldie Hawn would kill for. Then she made a knee-length buttoned vest to go over them.

Mary Jane and I gasped when we found it. The outfit was even more impressive than we remembered. I wish I could fit in it, now that Marimekko is back in style. I also wish I could find the awesome gold and lavender floral print corduroy Nehru dress Mom made me in junior high. That's the trouble with retro. You never know what to save until it's too late!

I wore the new lavender top to the Texas Ballet Theater's performance called "Five of Hearts" at the Bass Performance Hall in Ft. Worth. I wore Mom's large mother-of-pearl pin and her mother's mother-of-pearl pinkie ring. Lavender looks surprisingly nice with my graying hair. Crap. I'm turning into my grandmothers!