{"id":76364,"date":"2017-03-05T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyplateofcrazy.com\/?p=76364"},"modified":"2017-10-25T11:38:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:38:59","slug":"two-brooches-maybe-three-or-a-spa-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyplateofcrazy.com\/2017\/03\/05\/two-brooches-maybe-three-or-a-spa-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Brooches. Maybe Three. Or a Spa Day."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes I think they had it right back in my grandmother’s day. A passel full of troubles? Don an outrageous hat. One with a big, beautiful brim. Embellish your lapel or collar with two brooches, maybe three. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then you can go out and face anything, head held high.<\/p>\n

No hat? No pins? No mid-century options?<\/p>\n

Okay. Here’s the contemporary Plan B… a little pampering at the day spa.<\/p>\n

Now, I can’t say I’ve ever been much for the usual girly-girl preoccupations or self-care, though I certainly have nothing against it. Manicure, pedicure, facial… they’re just not my thing. And the one time I went to a day spa (it was a gift), as sparkly and pretty as everything was, I was wildly uncomfortable, I couldn’t relax, and all in all, I’d rather be shoe shopping.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if I could avail myself of full body massage (by someone who knows what to do with all the spots that ail me)… I can’t help but think that<\/em> would be heavenly. Or, maybe a soaking tub, a few tea lights, a bit of jazz, a great book…<\/p>\n

My mother wasn’t much for pampering either, and neither was her mother; my grandmother was a woman I adored and looked up to. So presumably, like many women, I “absorbed” the behaviors of my closest female role models, and consciously or not, I made them my own. <\/p>\n

And the affinity for hats and brooches? Though I wear neither, I’ll chalk that up to some vague and wistful homage to my grandmother, who, in the 1940s, surely did.<\/p>\n

Speaking of fabulous forties looks, check this out! It’s a screenshot of an old film I saw a few months back. I’m drawing a blank on the actors and title, but get a load of the hat! The brooches! Imagine the attitude! (And since this is early forties, I’m certainly hoping I’m not violating copyright with my screen capture.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I suspect my mother, as a teen and young woman, enjoyed her share of those same accessories. I know she had a passion for pearls, and she had two drawers full of costume jewelry. <\/p>\n

Still surrounded by boxes after my move last year, I continue to unearth objects I didn’t know I had, including odds and ends that were hers. For instance, I found an unopened box three weeks ago that was jammed with smaller boxes of brooches and pins, charms and bracelets, gloves and hankies. Remember hankies? They were often monogrammed, lace-trimmed, neatly folded and tucked in a purse. <\/p>\n

There were no hats among the found treasure, sadly, though I have foggy recollections of hat shopping with my mother as a child, especially around Easter when selections were plentiful, and trying on every manner of veiled, feathery, straw or felt variation in the local department store. However, I did come across this pin (or brooch), which I’m now madly in love with. It’s a sort of dragon I think, quite heavy, and certainly serves up attitude!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But oh, the hats. My mother looked stunning in hats<\/a> — she had one of those gorgeous, symmetrical faces that bore them impeccably — though by the mid-1960s she rarely wore them. Times were changing, styles were changing, women’s priorities were shifting, and with them of course, the appropriate garb.<\/p>\n

Clearly, finding that box with its accessories going back to the forties and fifties has brought a flood of memories, enhanced by the occasional black and white photo that captures my mother or my grandmother when they were younger than I am now. <\/p>\n

I’ve often wondered what they would be like if they were alive today — my grandmother especially, as a woman for whom I have so much affection and admiration. How would she spend her time? How would she unwind? <\/p>\n

I also wonder about women of my age who are comfortable in salons and spas, with their mani-pedis utterly routine, and entirely at ease spreading themselves out under a white nubby towel as a stranger works through the kinks in their necks and backs, hands scented with fragrant oils. I confess, I envy the ability to indulge and enjoy. Are they at home with these activities because of a maternal behavioral legacy? Or did I somehow miss the mani-pedi-pampering gene?<\/p>\n

Well, these days I wish I hadn’t. I could use the relaxation. And spa services are easier to find than grand and glittering brooches, not to mention big, beautiful, audacious hats.<\/p>\n

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