Mink Ladies and Other Musings

Today I went to my first "Craigslist" garage sale. I kept hearing from friends about all the wonderful things they bought on Craigslist, so today I thought I would give it a try. At our house, we are training a puppy. During this stage, they shouldn't have free roaming privileges. Back in the day, we used to put up a piece of old plywood and use it as a makeshift barricade. Not anymore. Today they have puppy play yards. I had seen them in the store for $85.00. They are just pieces of heavy. molded plastic that snap together and can be shaped in a variety of ways. I found one on Craigslist, so I ventured out, looked it over, and bought it...for a fraction of the full price.

As I was leaving, I noticed some coats the lady had for sale. She had three different fur coats...one of which caught my eye. It was a pale beige fox, and I thought it would be perfect for Elise and the cold Chicago winters. She told me she bought it years ago for over $400.00, but she would sell it to me for $20.00. I called Elise and asked her if she was interested. She was reluctant. I bought it anyway. I had only $19.00, so the lady accepted my price. Nineteen dollars for a pretty fox coat!

Elise grew up in the age of PETA. Her generation has been told that wearing fur is wrong. Not my generation! In my time we had the "mink ladies". I have no earthly idea why, but back in the 50's and 60's, it was quite chic for women to wear mink. Not full blown mink coats mind you, but three or four mink pelts that were sewn together and worn around the neck. How awful was that??? But the worst part was, these pelts still had the mouth and eyes and feet still attached!! As a young girl, I was permanently scarred (and scared!) by these horrors of fashion! Imagine being 5 years old, innocently sitting in church, and suddenly having two tiny, black, beady eyes of a dead animal starring at you for an hour. I would break out into a full blown anxiety attack if Mrs. Baar and Mrs. Potts sat in front of me at the same time...that meant FOUR eyes starring!!! (Not to mention, four ears, two mouths and eight feet!!) No amount of peppermints (our approved form of church candy) could soothe me.

Ah, memories! But those little minks didn't scare me enough to stop me from buying a full length fur when I lived in Chicago. It's quite chic to be seen along Michigan Avenue wearing a full length fur. I was working for Estee Lauder at the time, which I enjoyed, but I was far from making a "full length fur" type of salary. Undaunted, I searched high and low for a cheap fur. Finally, I found one in an antique store. It was HUGE, and the fur was...well, it was fur, but I have no earthly idea what kind of animal it came from. But that didn't matter, because I felt so elegant wearing that coat! And warm!!! Oh, it was so toasty on those windy, bone-chilling Chicago winter days walking to work. Years later, I dragged that old ugly thing back to Michigan. When I had playground duty, that old coat protected me from the cold like nothing else ever could. Kids used to love to come up and snuggle around me just to stay warm. I even remember wearing it while shoveling snow off of our roof with my dad. I'm telling you, that coat was like an oven!

So, now it's time for my daughter to have some fur memories of her own. Don't know if she'll enjoy the fox...might not ever wear it...but I hope she does. And I hope she will have some fun fox coat stories to pass on to her children!