Once again, the charming Rochelle, path finder extrordinaire, has issued a map, the challenge for Friday Fictioneers. This week the prompt is from one of my photos.
Here, in 100 words, is my little walk in the park. Lane and Jemma have appeared before and seemed to want to wander back.
Wedding Dress
“Thirty five cents a yard,” The clerk was impatient. Leaving Jemma looking at the calico print, he turned to another customer.
Jemma glanced again at the ready made dresses hanging in the rafters. Oh, to have twelve dollars to spend.
After all, it was a wedding dress!
Lane had offered half his pay, ten dollars, but they needed that for the new house and she must have dishes, pots and pans.
Teaching school for fifteen dollars a month and board would not stretch enough.
Counting carefully, she sighed, “I’ll take seven yards.”
“That will be $2.45”.
*****
Other players have taken different paths, to see where they went click here.
Oldentimes's Blog 
Ah the olden days………when you compare, gives new meaning to inflation!
Nicely done.
thank you.
Dear Mary,
You’ve told a much larger story and given us a sense of time in just 100 words. Very well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
PS Love the photo. Thank you for sharing it. 😀
thank you very much.
Hard times, and a snotty clerk, hope the clerk is not on commission. You pulled me in and gave me a picture of life, very well done. Mike
thanks Mike! I appreciate your kind words
Cutting your cloth according to your means. I feel for the poor girl.
you just have to do what you have to do. At least she has the $2.45 and knows how to sew.
A nice throw back story to a different time, different prices and different values. Drive through fast food, microwaves, cell phones and the internet have turned us into creatures of instant gratification. We’ve lost the ability to be patient and value what we have. Nicely done.
thank you for the kind words. You got the point I was trying to make.
This is such a fascinating image – certainly offers many possibilities 🙂
Your story speaks to a time which you have captured so well – simply and effectively, creating a mood and atmosphere that dictates that necessities will have to take priority over longings, desires and wishes. Well done. 🙂
thank you for your kind comment. So good to find it worked in 100 words. Thanks again.
Can so identify with the cutting of corners!
thank you for stopping by.
Fantastic story that is so much larger than the 100 words. The hardships of getting married and building a home. Yes to make your own wedding dress sounds like a necessity..
It would have been for Jemma at the time, for sure. Thanks Bjorn!
My wife has a christianing gown from 1910. It was actually homemade out pieces purchased at a hardware store. You would think they handmade gowns way back then. Great story. I could see characters in my mind
Things made with so much more pride and craftsmanship than today, not to mention the ‘love’ put into the stitches! Thanks for sharing your story too!
Loved this very much.
Great photo too.
thank you for both comments.
Neat, neat, super cool. The sense of time and place and attitude of the times really comes through. Nice!
thank you! This little story kept building as it was written. I may expand it one day.
A throw back to a different time where wants were simpler and perhaps satisfaction greater. Nicely done.
yes, indeed. Thanks for coming by.
I reckon she’ll be pleased in the end that she made her own wedding dress – there’s something special about that I think – and this way they’ll have money for the house. A very sweet story from a different time!
thank you! Your comments are appreciated.
I wish I could buy mine at that price! Reminiscing about the good cheap ol’ days 🙂
but it was not cheap then. That $2.45 would have been almost a weeks wage.
I know, I meant I wish that could be the same price now.
don’t we all!
Like a glimmer out of a past journal… loved the read on this one! ❤
thank you so much.
I can barely sew a button! I couldn’t imagine sewing my own dress! Well written. I enjoyed the read quite a bit.
thank you
Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
tha for coming bynk you
You’re welcome. 🙂
Great story. Those one-room-schoolhouse-teachers were often lucky to get cash. Much of their pay came in the form of bushels of fruit or vegetables and maybe a ham in butchering season.
I bet Jemma will look radiant in that homemade wedding dress. 🙂
Yes, she will!
A lovely tale of a struggling young couple in a simpler time.
In today’s world, I’d love to find fabric at 35 cents a yard!
Yes!
It’s a great example of cutting the cloth to suit the purse, literally. I hope they do well, that Lane gets to be foreman and then is offered a partnership, becomes mayor and that they live happily ever after.
Thank you for the kind words! Those are good things to hope for, perhaps it will happen like that. 🙂
This puts things into perspective. Back then, people knew where things came from, how much effort it took to make them, and how hard you had to work to get them. It is a bad thing to have lost that knowledge. Great story, sweet and upbeat. Happiness isn’t a matter of wealth.
thank you, gah. You made me smile with that comment, I’ve been working on a quilt for grandson’s 21 birthday coming up. 😉
Choices. Simple and nice. In the days when you did make such choices; not today when you want and need everything.
thank you.
I could feel that huge sigh! But she sounds like a survivor. Good story – a real snippet of life.
thank you, I felt it too when I wrote this piece 🙂
Lane has picked a thoughtful and wise woman as his bride. She is already counting her cents and planning the future well. Good story that shows love, hope, and poverty.
thank you. Lane and Jemma have a fine future ahead, I think.
It shows what choices people had to make many years ago. She was wise in her choice. Well done. Mary. 🙂 — Suzanne
yes, she did make a good choice.
Thanks again for the great picture that led to the good stories this week. 🙂 — Suzanne
You are welcome, and thank you for that compliment
I’m sure the dress will be beautiful.
thanks for stopping in.
I can sense her feelings. Jemma will go far, I’m sure. Great picture of her situation and of a past time. Fascinating photo, also. Thank you for it.
thank you for the lovely encouraging comment and you are welcome for the photo.
thank you
I’m more pragmatic than romantic. A home and pots and pans will go further than a wedding dress. Everyone said I would know which dress when I put it on and ‘awed’ I did that and then peeked at the price – nope. Good thing to because the dress is just sitting in a box in my basement for the 15 years now.
Nicely told story. It’s hard to believe it’s only 100 words.
thank you for the lovely comment.