my sister and i are 5 years apart. our personalities are so far apart you’d never know we’re related. kinda geeky, but more “who cares”, i would throw on a pair of jeans (they were cool jeans) and a tshirt let my Heeb hair go wild and go to the mall with the rest of my 13 year old friends.
my sister who spent hours fighting her Heeb hair would wash (and guess what…this was before blow dryers) and then roll in huge pink rollers and sit under the dryer hat. the roar could be heard in every room of our little house as my sister tried to not have curly hair.
one sunny spring day…the kind of day in PA where it’s cool in the shade and warm…i was at the mall with my girls. my mom was the credit manager at the Fashion Bug so she felt like i was still under her watch. i think in some way i felt close to her and safe that she was near by.
but even my mother couldn’t stop nature. back to the spring day. nature seriously sprung a leak. getting my period was still knew and i was unprepared for its appearance. so were my jeans. not far from being ruined, i called my sister at home and asked her to pick me up. my white jeans were soaked. not attractive and with more time, closer to being destroyed. i saved babysitting money for these sweet low rise (the first time we had low rise jeans in style) medium bell bottomed jeans!
my sister’s answer? i’m doing my hair. silence on the pay phone line as we quietly wrestled with an age old issue of Heeb hair. why should my life be put on hold, my jeans be trashed and i be humiliated sitting outside as the sun turned disappeared behind the Strawbridge & Clothier?!
style in the form of clothes was not something i couldn’t afford yet.
