My Fashion History Continues Part 2 (1979-1994)

This post is a continuation to My Clothes History through Photos and Diary (1964-1978).

In January 2020, I was busy getting rid of some clothes that didn't fit and trying to decide what to do with them. None needed to be tossed, but should be donated. My decision was made to photograph the items I wouldn't keep because they all had memories attached to them. It is indeed my history. I remember where and when I bought them and where I wore them. I frequently bought certain labels, they were Talbots, Liz Claiborne, and Jones New York. In 1979 I was working at the Veterans Affairs building in DC, 2 blocks from the White House. Naturally, I wanted to be stylish and there were plenty of stores in which to shop during lunch. I loved the Garfinckel's, the Hecht Co., Woodward & Lothrop, Lord and Taylor, and Talbots stores.

I realize I have shared a lot in this post, but it is for my own benefit and memory. However, I thought somebody would get a kick out of some styles we all wore. Not only do the clothes elicit a memory, but the memory also brings thoughts to working in DC, both at the Veterans Affairs and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

The VA is the triangle-shaped building on the upper right side. (I took this picture from the tall Washington Monument in 1976.)

I am writing this history of my love affair with clothes for several reasons.

I can now get rid of some clothes, especially those that don't fit, and with this blog, I will always have photos of my past wardrobe.

Some clothes that still fit and I wear are documented for memory. It is amazing how much you forget over the years, especially for a 75+-year-old who has moved many times. These photos keep the memories fresh.

Hold tight, below is the outfit I wore to meet my future daughter-in-law and her family in 1980. I think it was the first time I ever wanted to impress somebody. This year the wool sweater and dark pencil skirt were given to my very thin neighbor. I had a light grey/blue silk blouse to wear with this, and it still fits me. My daughter-in-law doesn't remember this outfit. Even though I explained it in detail.

This was a Jones of New York 100% wool and fully lined.

At a gathering for my grandfather's funeral in 1981, I wore this two-piece cotton outfit, which was a favorite of mine. It was made by Jones New York. I loved the lace collar.

Nothing special about the dress, but I sure loved these dark brown shoes. I'm not a shoe person at all, and these were the only stylish shoes I've ever worn. I remember walking all around DC wearing them. I wouldn't now! I also wore a jacket to work most days. When I left Virginia I had 15 dress jackets (have kept three Talbots that still fit).

Max Cleland was watching over the Veteran's Affair's birthday cake.

I was wearing a pink and white wrap dress by Diane Von Furstenberg, I wore this to help celebrate a new stamp to honor the 50 years of the VA's years of service. Max Cleland was the Administrator of the VA.

Another Liz Claiborne outfit. I gave the two-piece outfit to my neighbor.

I loved this skirt, but it was a tad too small, so I gave it to my neighbor. In the below photo, I was wearing this orange/red print skirt. The other two women were VA pals and we spent a long weekend in New York City, seeing Chorus Line and all the other touristy things.

My neighbor got the Liz Claiborne skirt and I kept the top. This print is so me.

This is a Liz Claiborne two-piece outfit. I gave my neighbor the skirt and I kept the top. Note: Both of the Liz Claiborne tops had shoulder pads.

Another wool skirt the neighbor got.

One of my favorite outfits is by Alpert Nipon, which cost $138, bought in 1983, I still have the sales slip. There was a black dressy bow tie for under the collar that I kept, but my neighbor got the outfit.

I loved wool sweaters. I gave these to my neighbor.

Red wool Pendelton suit, I gave to my neighbor. I always felt overdressed when I wore this. Although just a suit, it was a bit too fancy for workdays at the DAR.

The top purple-grey blouse is silk, and the bottom is white satin, both fit perfectly. Still in my closet, waiting for the perfect occasion to wear. I also have three other blouses I can't part with.

This blue and black plan washable wool-heavy shirt has an interesting story. 

Although it belonged to my friend Mark Sherman, a co-worker at the Veteran's Affairs, he gave it to me before he departed DC for a brighter future in Hollywood, filming movies. He learned how to make movies on his job at the VA. We had a lot of fun, and this shirt/jacket represents happiness when I think of him, and also when I wear it on cooler days. Note: January 2024, I gave it away recently. But at least I have a photo.

This coat was hardly ever worn. One of my co-workers, Rita Montgomery, and I went shopping one noon in DC and saw this in a window. She had to buy it, but I, without thinking I did the same thing. We each bought them at half price, spending $400 on the cashmere wrap coat. It was too fancy to wear to my DC job. It remained in my hope chest for 30 years, then last year, I gave it to my neighbor along with the other clothes. Then I asked for it back so I could take this picture. We then agreed I'd keep it until she wanted to wear it. So now, neither of us has worn it in over a year. It fits perfectly. And it's in my closet, keeping the story with it.

Pre 1989 purchased sweaters that I still wear.

The Carol Reed lined wool skirt that I could wear if I had a place to go! I bought it in North Conway, NH, during a trip from Virginia.

One of my favorite outfits, purchased in Talbots just before I left employment at the DAR in 1994. Still fits perfectly, except, the skirt is the old style...long length. It can be rolled under the jacket tho.

Two washable light wool skirts I bought in London. I could still wear them. During my two trips to London, I also visited a Laura Ashley shop and bought several blouses in London and NYC. In addition to these winter skirts, I bought two summer ones, I gave them away last year.

Matti of Lynne dress I bought to wear to my husband's reunion. It still fits, but is way too long now...that was the style in the early 80s. I recently hemmed it.

There are two Pendleton jackets purchased at outlets The pink plaid was from Pennsylvania between 1980-1980. The other jacket is a Brooks Brother corduroy green lightweight jacket bought at Shelton's on Sept. 12, 1990, in York, Maine, now out of business. I went to that store every time to buy something. I have since given both away.

This Vanity Fair bed jacket and pajama pants were bought in Reading, PA at their massive factory outlet. We went twice a year.  The original pajama top was so tattered and worn, that I threw it out, but I took a photo at the last minute. It lasted a good 35 years. The pants are faded because of all the washings, but the lace on the sides and leg bottoms are still intact. I also have saved and can wear 4 velour tops.

The other day, I showed my niece two of the light velour bathrobes I bought so long ago. Pink is for summer, and maroon is for winter. Hardly ever wear them, but I just don't want to part with them.

Another outlet I liked was the Barbizon store in Freeport, Maine. My Virginia husband loved Maine so we went up there quite a few times. This long nightgown has hardly been worn. I think because I have to hem it. I have since hemmed it. It is over 45 years old and still looks new.

We faithfully visited and shopped at LL Bean's in Freeport, Maine, but I don't have anything over 26 years old.

The last pair of shoes I bought in DC, in 1994. Yes, still fits, but where am I going to wear them to? And yes, the style is obsolete for now.

When I moved to my town in Massachusetts, I had one executive-type job, but I always seemed to be overdressed.

Here I am at the right. The Plant Manager of Prince Spaghetti is in the yellow long-sleeved shirt and tie, the others are in accounting or various department heads. A couple of the women never wore dresses or skirts, let alone jackets. I actually think people were getting relaxed about dressing up. Even though my husband worked in an office, he was able to wear jeans on Friday. I wore some of what I had and bought other clothes at either Macy's, Talbots, Marshalls, and more recently Kohl's. It's what I still do today.

Washington, D. C. -- Old Matchbook Collection #6

I have decided to part with my matchbook collection, but before I throw them away, I thought I'd share them. Hopefully a few will bring back old memories. Some of these books are from the early 70s. The Old Ebbitt Grill was in a very old building before the owners moved the restaurant into a newer location near the White House. In future days, I'll be posting matchbooks from all over the United States.

I forgot to include this one with the group.

Veterans Day -- Seeing President Carter, Princess Diana and an Old Army Photo of Me

I have celebrated Veterans Day in some pretty unusual and exciting ways. I got to see President Carter at the annual ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and in another year, I got to see Princess Diana (and Charles).

Click on my blog posts about President Carter and Princess Diana.

Those were fun Veterans days, described above. But for the more serious side, I offer this. I worked at the Veterans Administration (VA) in Washington, D.C. for about six years. Later, I was at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) a few blocks away from the VA and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I remember walking by the construction for the memorial, but once the names were inscribed, it took a good year before I could go back over there and see it. I just didn't want to see the names, especially the name of somebody I knew. The picture was taken in October, probably 1990. Below, is a picture of me. Please remember this day and what it means to you.

Me at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
(A little follow-up, I still have my fatigue pants, jacket and great leather boots.)

The Well Known Veterans I met through Work

"The Vietnam War" shown on the Public Broadcast Station (PBS) is a ten-part, 18-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. It was shown on tv in September, and because it was shown over 10 days, I missed a few episodes, but watched them a few days later on another PBS station. The Vietnam War was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on September 19, 2017 and I believe most large libraries will carry the DVDs.

The early history was very interesting, and from what I heard from friends, we all learned quite a bit. However, the era from about 1962-1975 interested me the most. It was during those years that I watched the battles play out almost every night on the news, marched in protest 1969, and heard on the radio, while I was in the service in Virginia, that Saigon fell.

Later years, I worked in two medical facilities; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the DeWitt Army Hospital at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Later, I worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in Washington, DC for about 6 years, I came in contact with many veterans, some as patients and others just working there, like me.

Among the veterans I worked under, one was the Administrator and the other a Deputy Administrator of the Department of Veterans Affairs, both of whom were on the "Vietnam War" show. I was fortunate to meet both of them, and got autographs, as shown below.

Everett Alvarez Jr.

The Wikipedia link (above) states, "Everett Alvarez Jr. (born December 23, 1937) is a former U.S. Navy Commander who endured one of the longest periods as a prisoner of war (POW) in American military history. Alvarez was the second U.S. pilot to be downed and detained during the Vietnam War and spent over eight years in captivity; making him the second longest-held American POW." He was the Deputy Administrator at the Department of Veterans Affairs for six years, from 1982-1988. (I worked there 2 of those years.)

Max Cleland (above and below)

Max was a captain in the Vietnam War, and a month before the end of his tour, he was badly injured, which later resulted in having his legs amputated above the knee and his right forearm. He was 25 years old.

Years later President Carter selected him to be the Administrator of the Department of Veterans Affairs from 1977-1981 (I worked there 3 of those years). He always had a smile, was quite personable, remembered everybody's name, and drove his own car to work!

I believe we were celebrating the day when the 15-cent Veterans Administration commemorative stamp was first placed on sale at Washington, DC, on July 21, 1980.

The third veteran, in The Vietnam War series, I saw in person was John Kerry. He and John McCain were shown in the series, but not interviewed. John Kerry often came to Lowell, his old hometown where he tried to get into politics. It was years later, he ran for both state senator, and then president, and I saw him when he campaigned in Lowell.

In addition to the three above veterans, I was very fortunate to see Omar Nelson Bradley, a former General of the Army and Administrator of the VA. He paid a visit to the VA headquarters, in a wheelchair when he was between age 85 to 88 years old.

Not a veteran, but I did see Mamie Eisenhower in the gift shop at the Walter Reed Hospital. I was luck to get a heads up, when I saw her chauffeured car with 5 stars on the license plate, parked in front of the side entrance. (Between 1977-79, she died in Dec. 1979.)

Another individual in The Vietnam War series was President Lyndon B.  Johnson. He was not a veteran, but I thought I'd show a few photos of his ranch, his tombstone, and me with a statue of him at the ranch (1975). A FindAGrave.com photo of his tombstone is HERE.

The above veterans mention are just a few of the many who served or who are still serving. It is because of them that we honor them on Veterans Day.

Two past posts:
A Prince and a Princess on Veterans Day ( Diana and Charles)

President Carter and Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day

President Lincoln Died in Pvt. Clark's Room...See Clark's Unusual Shaped Tombstone

President Abraham Lincoln died in a room that belonged to a Lowell, MA resident, Pvt. William Tilton Clark. When I discovered several years ago that Pvt. Clark was buried in Lowell, Massachusetts, I knew I had to locate his stone in the city I now live. Please read what was written on FindAGrave (below) for an interesting account, to see his photo and learn what Pvt. Clark took that belonged to President Lincoln. A link to a 2010 Boston.com newspaper article, "Lincoln’s boots made journey to Lynn," gives the history about all the artifacts that Clark took and what happened to them in Lynn, MA. Very interesting article.

I have taken several hundred cemetery photos for this blog, and there still can be surprises when I go searching for stone, but this one was among the most difficult to find.

What steps did I take to locate it?

1. Checked FindAGrave. Yes, nice write up and photo of stone. However, it was taken in 2005, and the photo was rather clear, so I thought it would be a piece of cake to find.

2. Went to the Cemetery, and met with a cemetery employee who told me where the burial site was. This is a huge cemetery, you always should try to get directions first. Map and photos of the Lowell Cemetery.

3. Couldn't locate it, went another day with husband, who usually has good luck, and better eyes. But had to go back to the office for the exact location drawn on a map (the plot number was of no use to me without the map).

4. Found it! So what was the problem? The shape of the stone determined what it looked like from two side views. The picture below shows the full design, and the following two photos show a shot from each angle. Figure 2 is the angle taken in 2005 by the FindAGrave photographer.

Figure 1
See distance from the Chapel.

Figure 2.
Stone covered in shadows

William T. Clark

Died Apr. 4, 1888

Boston

Suffolk County

Massachusetts, USA

(My image shows death date as April 1, so I looked up his death record, just to be sure it was the 4th.)

Figure 3
Another view, with family members listed.

Other views, still with shadows.

Below is the Peterson House at 453 Tenth Street, Washington, DC

My photo taken in 1975. Wish I had taken more of the photograph.

The Pope and Joan Baez, 1979 in Washington, DC

Well, no, I never got to see the Pope Paul 11, on October 7, 1979, but I was on the National Mall the same time he was, I heard him speak and I took the below photo as proof.

That same year, in July, there was a free Joan Baez concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I don't believe I saw her either. I wonder if the reason for my not liking crowds stems from the many events I attended in Washington, DC during my 20 years there.

Why I Wrote This Post...You Just Won't Believe One of The Reasons!

The photo on the left isn't anything special to anybody but me. There are no flowery or ornate designs, no statues or outstanding features on it. So when I received a request to use it for a project, I was a bit surprised. My email came from oversees and began with the following message:

"Hello Barbara, I am in the UK and I am preparing a Register of WW1 serving female casualties for publication at my own expense as a lasting memorial to these oft-forgotten women. The Register will show them in alphabetical order and comprise a short biography together with photographs of them, their graves and their memorials. One of these is Frances Poole who is in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington. You have provided a photograph of her grave marker to Find A Grave and I would be most grateful if you would allow me to use it in my Register. I will, of course, place your name against it, as an acknowledgement. It seems likely that she is an ancestor of yours and so if you have a photograph of her that I might use that would be a bonus. I hope that you will give me permission. I look forward to hearing from you, Kind regards, Jim"

Of course he could use the photo, I give everybody permission to use my Find-A-Grave photos (shown above). But I needed to tell him that my Great-Aunt wasn't an ancestor (nor ancestor)! So, I dashed off the below message to him, to make sure this was a legitimate request, I mean who doesn't know about ancestors?

"Yes, you may use my cemetery photo, thank you for asking first. Frances was my great-aunt, so, unfortunately, she wasn't an ancestor, but a sister of my grandfather. No, I don't have a photo of her, only one of her brother and a small photo of her sister, obtained through a passport application I found on Ancestry.com.

Frances wasn't in the war, she had just become a nurse but went to care for soldiers who had the flu. I wrote about that in my blog, which you may see here, and have permission to use anything in the blog.

http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2013/01/frances-and-flu.html."

"Hello Barbara, Thank you for coming back to me. I am most grateful to you for allowing me to use your photograph of her grave. You have corrected me on one thing. I always thought that an ancestor was anyone, back through the generations, that had the same blood source. A quick look at the meaning on wikipedia I see that it is just going back through parents and parents of parents, etc.

He quoted and answered my question: "I'm curious, how did you happen to find her on FindAGrave?"

My project is 20+ years in the making (so far). I have a listing of all WW1 serving female casualties which is virtually complete. This is for British, Canadian, South African, Indian, Australian, New Zealand, and other British overseas territories. In addition, virtually all of the US women who served and died serving their country in wartime or died as to a consequence of the war. Your great-aunt was one of these. She did not have to work overseas to be classed as a casualty of the war. Just dying "in harness" was enough. So I have her name and her date of death. With this, it was not difficult to search Find A Grave (or Billiongraves) to find out where she was interred. I have a successful hit of about two out of three. I do not have a great deal on your great aunt so far but what I have I have put below. If anything is wrong I should be grateful if you would let me know.   Kind regards, Jim"

Two reasons for posting this, the first is to show that not everybody knows what an ancestor is and second, if you are a blogger, you'll always be surprised by some of the emails you receive. The above link is to one of my more popular posts called Frances and the Flu. The cemetery is in Washington, D.C., and I made a special trip from Massachusetts to see where my great-grandparents were buried, and his sister, the above Frances. The trip was six years after I left my Washington job, and never knew they were there, buried within miles from where I worked!

Note: Jim gave me permission to use what he wrote.

1975 DC from Washington Monument -- Wordless Wednesday

My original 1975 photos taken from the Washington Monument are in color, but faded, so I decided to make them black and white for this post. A few years later, I was working in the building right behind the White House (1st row, to the right, behind Lafayette Square). Years later, I was working to the left of where I was standing, taking this photo).