the beginning

I love history.  To be more specific, I love the story behind the history.  I see abandoned buildings and I wonder about their lives.  Were they happy and fulfilled or were their lives filled with tragedy and discontent?  Did they marry for love or convenience?  Did they leave any piece of themselves behind?  I want to know.

I've always been curious.  One of the reasons that I loved Stephen King's The Stand was because I was fascinated at the thought of having the nation at my disposal, wandering through houses, picturing the families that live there.  (Never mind something like 99.2% of the population died.)  I often wonder about the stories behind the homes I pass as I drive down the street.

When I began pinning on Pinterest, I discovered a whole world of ball gowns, day dresses, tea gowns and other costumes at my disposal.  I began spending quite a bit of time researching the stories behind the fashion houses and if available, the women who wore them.  After all, why be content with just admiring a dress when it's more fun to find out who wore it and why.  Was it for a court presentation with Queen Victoria?  Perhaps a ball where she met her one true love?  A visiting gown to go out and about gossiping about the night before? Those stories are so much more fascinating than just seeing a dress in a display.

(Case and point: The Diana exhibit came to our fair city recently.  While the exhibit was gorgeous, it meant so much more to me because I "grew up" with Diana.  I remembered seeing her wear many of the dresses-including the famous little black dress she wore right after her divorce from Prince Charles.  I always felt that she had to prove something to herself after the divorce and what better way to do that than by looking stunning in that little dress?)

Pinterest wasn't big enough to tell the whole story, though.  After all, they only give you 500 characters to explain what's going on.  I took my pictures and stories and began a tumblr. Sometimes there's a lot of maneuvering that has to be done to set everything up on Tumblr, though so my daughter suggested blogging. (She likes blogger better anyway.)  So here I am.

While we have all kinds of technology today to preserve our every thought and action, stories from earlier decades could be lost forever if we don't do something to preserve them.  I hope that in addition to satisfying my curiosity, this little blog might help save some of those stories for the future.