Mabel Ray 15 or 51 years later

I've written about this before, but . . .

The other day, it was my turn.  An outing with my girls and I'd invited other people to join us; I'd dressed up for it because I don't have much opportunity to dress up and **I had a gorgeous dress to wear**!  And the most privileged person in the group asked, "Where did you get it?"

I laughed out loud.  "At the Salvation Army where I get all my clothes.  Well, all my clothes that someone doesn't give me."

And the thing is, I really don't feel much "poor" anymore.  There are a few times of financial stress, but in general I'm not trying to figure out if I can get the deodorant this week or if it has to wait until next week.  I've got socks and underwear, and long johns and heavy coats, that are good.  I have "go get winter gloves for everyone" on the list without too much dread of how much that costs.

And the dress really is something.  Even if I had it on with long underwear under it so I could go on that walking tour in comfort.

And by sheer coincidence (of which there are of course not any), I posted that original post 15 years ago *to the day*.  And it happened a bit more than 50 years ago which we are calling 51, so there's that.