Teen Style

Northumberland County

Helen’s Closet
By Jency Rogers  9th Grade

   "Honey, can you please turn on that light so I can see?” Mommon asked as we were heading up the steps to the guest bedroom.

   “Yes, ma’am,” I said smiling back at Mom and my sister Hannah. It was a beautiful warm day in May, and we had gone over to visit Mommom. I told her that my spring dance was coming up, and I had not bought a dress yet.

    Mommon said, “Well, let’s go upstairs and see what I have in my closet.” Mommom is my ninety-seven year old great grandmother, and when she was younger, she was very stylish. So I was hoping her closets would have some neat dresses.

    We reached the top of the steps and opened the bedroom door. It was so hot in the room that it caught our breath. The sun was pouring through the curtains, and tiny specks of dust were floating through the air. Before we could even think about looking through her clothes, we needed to open a window. “This is where all my hats are,” she said, walking towards the closet near the end of the room. Mom opened the door and pulled the string to the light so we could see. Mommon walked inside and started passing hatboxes to us. One by one, hatboxes started to fill up the floor. While Mommon and Mom kept taking out boxes, Hannah and I started looking at all the different kinds of hats. Each one was completely different from the other. There was one in particular that was dark blue and made out of beaver fur!

   “Mommom, do you remember where this one came from?” Mom asked.

    “I got that hat when I was only twelve years old. My mother bought it for me at the store in Reedville,” explained Mommom. “I wanted that hat so bad! It was my favorite hat,” she said smiling. I could tell she was remembering when she wore the hat. “It’s gone now, but there used to be a light blue satin ribbon that tied around the hat and went down the back,” Mommom said.

    As we went through the hats, which we had tried on, Mommom said we could have one. Hannah picked a brown suede hat with a feather on one side, Mom got one made from all feathers, and I chose a black Sarah Sue one with a pearl pin on the side. It is something I will keep forever.
After the hats, we went to the next closet. I opened the door and turned on the light. Mommom sat down on an old wooden chair and watched us go through all her amazing clothes. “This is so much better than shopping for a dress!” I exclaimed.

    As I looked, I tried on dresses that looked like me. One was a strapless cotton black dress with little red flowers on it and a faint gold pattern in the background. It fit perfectly, but I decided that it was not formal enough, and I didn’t want to be pulling it up all night. I tried on several more, but they did not seem like “the one.” So Mommom said, “Honey, go in the cedar closet and see if you see anything.” The cedar closet held her nice dresses, and it held some of her beautiful gowns. I looked through the dresses and found the one.

    The dress I picked was just right for the occasion. I tried it on right there, and I knew that it was perfect. It fit me like a glove. It came right below the knee and had short sleeves. The pattern was black and bronze flowers with a black sash in the middle. To top it off, it had a funky rhinestone broach on the sash that made the dress. I was so excited to wear a dress like that to my last middle school spring dance.

    When we got home later that afternoon, I took my dresses and my hatbox upstairs to my room. I hung them up and wished that people today dressed like that again. Mom came in my room and said, “Jency, just think, you’ll be the only girl at the dance wearing her great grandmother’s dress.” That made me realize how cool it was going to be.