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LJIdol Topic 1 - Invisible
Sep. 20th, 2026 09:26 pmLJIDOL Week 1
I cut the white fabric today.
Once upon a time, when I was a child and dinosaurs roamed the earth, our moms made all of our clothes because it was exponentially cheaper to sew clothes at home than it was to purchase clothing from a store. Mom made all of my clothes for years – I remember how proud and excited I was to wear my first pair of store-bought slacks to school in the 5th grade. Dark blue bell bottom pants, with huge yellow and white flowers printed all over the fabric. We girls only got to wear pants to school on gym day, so the odds of matching somebody that day were probably much better than random chance. In my ten-year-old brain, it was the total height of cool to wear the **very same pants** as my friend Connie and we were TWINS.
SQUEEE!!!!
My mom was not just the basic average household seamstress of her day, but I did not know it at that time. My mom had been offered a full-ride scholarship to the Chicago School of Design when she graduated from high school. Her entire wardrobe at that time -- and that of her younger sister – were all designed and sewn by my mother. Other people, not just other students, but the younger school teachers as well, were openly copying her designs. There was never any question that she was the one leading the fashion curve, no Miss Popular Queen Bee mean girl trying to take the credit for the style.
She continued that cutting-edge designing with my clothes, but I just wanted to blend in and look just like everybody else. Unlike her school, however, I had a Miss Popular Queen Bee mean girl in my class…and I was a wonderful target. I was big. I was fat. I was clumsy. I had bad eyesight. I was bullied at home. I was the wrong religion. I did not dress like the rest of the kids. And worst of all…I was smart. In 1968, a smart girl was a VeryBadThing. A smart girl who cannot keep from blurting out corrections when others are wrong was a danger to herself and others…especially when she cannot blend into the crowd and disappear.
It took me almost half a century, but I have now achieved invisibility. I am now totally invisible in car dealerships, furniture stores and at the car-parts counter. If I could only extend this power to the bank…I’d certainly be rich beyond measure!
I cut the white fabric today.
Once upon a time, when I was a child and dinosaurs roamed the earth, our moms made all of our clothes because it was exponentially cheaper to sew clothes at home than it was to purchase clothing from a store. Mom made all of my clothes for years – I remember how proud and excited I was to wear my first pair of store-bought slacks to school in the 5th grade. Dark blue bell bottom pants, with huge yellow and white flowers printed all over the fabric. We girls only got to wear pants to school on gym day, so the odds of matching somebody that day were probably much better than random chance. In my ten-year-old brain, it was the total height of cool to wear the **very same pants** as my friend Connie and we were TWINS.
SQUEEE!!!!
My mom was not just the basic average household seamstress of her day, but I did not know it at that time. My mom had been offered a full-ride scholarship to the Chicago School of Design when she graduated from high school. Her entire wardrobe at that time -- and that of her younger sister – were all designed and sewn by my mother. Other people, not just other students, but the younger school teachers as well, were openly copying her designs. There was never any question that she was the one leading the fashion curve, no Miss Popular Queen Bee mean girl trying to take the credit for the style.
She continued that cutting-edge designing with my clothes, but I just wanted to blend in and look just like everybody else. Unlike her school, however, I had a Miss Popular Queen Bee mean girl in my class…and I was a wonderful target. I was big. I was fat. I was clumsy. I had bad eyesight. I was bullied at home. I was the wrong religion. I did not dress like the rest of the kids. And worst of all…I was smart. In 1968, a smart girl was a VeryBadThing. A smart girl who cannot keep from blurting out corrections when others are wrong was a danger to herself and others…especially when she cannot blend into the crowd and disappear.
It took me almost half a century, but I have now achieved invisibility. I am now totally invisible in car dealerships, furniture stores and at the car-parts counter. If I could only extend this power to the bank…I’d certainly be rich beyond measure!
