20 Years Later... Queens is still a Preppy Campus

Pretty Preppies all lined up for our Class of 1990 photo for the 20th Reunion Weekend

The ole' Chi-O Gazebo... out near our college's chapel complete with blooming azalea bushes

The front circle of Queens College, er Queens University now...

The back circle with our library and one of the dorms next to it

Wallace Dorm, my literal home-away-from-home for 3 years in a 3rd Floor corner room

Standing outside of the Chi Omega cottage, I felt like I was waiting for another meeting to begin in there

Bummin' around with two of my very-favorite ole' sisters n' friends, Julie and Allison

Enjoying the ole' Selwyn Avenue Pub's outdoor firepit area with Allison and Wendi

The BEST laugh of the evening was looking over our yearbook with Derek, Julie and Jenkie: note the cover with its all-girls' logo design and then, at the very bottom below Jenkie's hand, the one boy- love it!

Just back from my 20th College Reunion... and like me, ole' Queens College is still "Preppy".

I wasn't sure actually if it would be that way after what once was a southern all-girls' school, um southern women's college, went co-ed my junior year. Our slumber party atmosphere rapidly dissipated but as the days passed by, we all adjusted to having both girls AND boys on the campus and actually, it turned out quite well.

Situated in the heart of elegant Myers Park, Queens has now become a university but my class will always still call it QC, Queens College. The buildings and grounds are perhaps at their loveliest we've ever seen them. Everyone commented on this as we toured around this small jewel of a campus. My old dorm Wallace has been completely renovated on the outside in the kind of red brick & white column southern neo-classicism styling prevalent with small private schools all over the south.

Greek Row was also a lot of fun to saunter down with our tiny white cottages still there, all lined along the drive. Our class scattered into the various sororities' spots during the open house hours and it was neat to reminisce about all of our times spent there with our "sisters". All of the sororities are still there from my day: Alpha Delta Phi, Chi Omega, Kappa Delta and Phi Mu. From the above picture, it's pretty easy to figure out that I pledged Chi Omega...

A bunch of us hit the campus bookstore after our touring around and I espied a tee shirt that I HAD to have- too hilarious! It seems that our college now has a Lacrosse Team with a t-shirt to prove it. After I purchased this, to probably wear while I'm out kayaking n' such, I happened to see two students crossing by a dorm all kitted-out in athletic clothing carrying their crosse sticks so that was fun to witness the actuality of...

Like so many college campuses, most of the students around were super-casually dressed however, every once in a while during our reunion, I'd see what I call, "a really cute girl" wearing something smart-casual preppy. In fact, our petite tour-guide was a recently graduated student who is a cousin of one of our sorority sisters and she too was wearing a darling outfit with coordinating accessories and tailored jewelry. Yes, good, good...

As usual for my class, we were prim n' preppy by day and then happily partying by night. After the formal reunion was over, we all met back up at our local hang-out, The Selwyn Avenue Pub. Just as the Brat Pack of the late 1980's had their "St. Elmo's Fire", we had "the Selwyn pub" and enjoyed it tremendously. In fact, we still enjoy it tremendously and had such a fun time that evening chatting, eating, drinking and laughing away.

It was hard to believe that we were gathering for our college twentieth but as the weekend moved along, at times it truly did seem just-yesterday we were all young collegians.

20 Years Later... returning to college for a reunion

Greek Seniors on bid night.... I'm the one havin' fun in the second row, fourth from the right

James and I enjoying the Casino Party during my senior year at college...

Our 10th College Reunion group...guess-who's laughing away in the hat???

My, oh my does the time fly by! This weekend I'm heading to North Carolina for my 20th College Reunion...

Have literally two whole decades passed by since I was lugging text books around, going to sorority mixers, eating cafeteria food and alla' that collegiate stuff? Wow.

For my undergrad schooling, I went to a small liberal arts college called Queens College which was, until our junior year, one of those southern "all girls schools". Being from a family where I was the only-girl including all of my cousins, I was sooo excited to be surrounded for once by females. It was like a big slumber party every day especially after I rushed and was part of a sorority, Chi Omega. I loved my college years and look back on them fondly. Now Queens is labeled a "University" but for me, it'll always be a cozy-college nonetheless.

Cramming-in two majors within four years was a bit stressful but after I finished-up History, it was like heck, I'm heading into my junior year and certainly could add the additional degree of Political Science into my course load. I spent a literal ton of time in our ole' library and also spent many weekends working through assignments and projects but enjoyed it. Yes, I'm a study-geek and still am... with the master's down now finally and the phd hopefully left to go... And all the clubs n' organizations I was involved in were great as well: Judicial Board, Phi Alpha Theta, The Learning Society, Mortar Board, etc. Lotsa' fun!

And of course meeting my-James at Queens was nothing less than fantastic! :)

Our college was quite-Preppy indeed for the most part. I dressed-up every day for class even if a few of my fellow students didn't. A strand of pearls, charm bracelet, stacked gold bangle bracelets, diamond stud earrings, family crest ring...these were daily-wear for many of us as well as of course various outfits from places like Talbots and L.L.Bean. Handbags were Coach and book bags were Vera Bradley. I really didn't wear a whole lot of my sorority's colors n' letters on a daily basis but that didn't mean that I wasn't all into it... I owned a total of one, yes one, pair of jeans while in college and espying me in tennis shoes meant that either I was jogging around campus or getting ready to practice for a soccer game when I was on the team for awhile. The BEST were all of our formals, casino nights, holiday galas when we really dressed to the nines. Taffeta, velvet, silk galore'!

In fact, tonight I'm packing-up for this coming weekend and mostly it's dressy-casual Preppywear going into my suitcase because I'm returning to ole' Queens but of course and am also still very much...a Prep ;) I can't wait to see fellow classmates and have fun together reminiscing and catching-up with one another. We had a really great class who all seemed to get along fairly well with one another and I especially liked that the different sororities and non-Greeks alike hung out together. In fact, all of my roommates were from a sorority different than mine. Pretty diverse for Preppies don't ya' think?

Believe it or not, I was a rebel in college! Shocked? Oh yes indeed... I rebelled big-time by going to Queens instead of Converse College where I would have been following in the footsteps of my grandmother, great aunt and mother. I may be Preppy and love tradition but I still do, to some degree, march to the beat of my own drummer when it comes to life choices. I'm so glad that Queens chose me and that I chose Queens.

Happy... a wonderful blog award!

It's always wonderful to be recognized by the blogging community but especially by another fellow Preppy Blogger... thank you so much to The Classic Preppy for awarding me this today!

Here is my 10 Things That Make Me Happy Listing to go along with this award:

1.) My spiritual journeying with Christ and the amazing church n' Christian community James, Dad and I truly enjoy being a part of here.

2.) My immediate and extended family- southern sprawl all the way down to Australia and everyone's always a lot of fun to be around. And our pets, furry "children" included in this....

3.) Husband James who truly IS my best friend n' buddy and all the great times we've had in 21 years of hanging around one another/19 years of marriage and in the years to come.

4.) Friends who are more like-family and the "sisters" that I never had plus my "younger brother" Fletcher as well. I'm so fortunate to have this group of amazing folks by my side.

5.) Being outdoors but especially always the hours spent fly fishing, gardening and at our beach!

6.) Traveling: anywhere, anytime, any how...

7.) Southern delicies like sweet tea, divinity, deviled eggs, pound cake, pecan-anything n' such.

8.) Baking-away in the kitchen here while watching the marsh waters ebb n' flow outside the kitchen windows

9.) Jewelry... I'll admit it! I love to sparkle or pearl-glow and never get tired of looking at new designs as well as antique pieces. Take me to Breakfast at Tiffany's, or Cartier', anyday!

10.) Good Haiku and Tanka poetry.

To save time tonight (which I have precious few minutes of this particular evening), I'll pass this blog award on to the blogs highlighted on my Blog Favorites listing in my blog's sidebar here... you all make me happy too when I read your great postings. Always interesting, inspiring and at times, quite intriguing as well- thank you sincerely!

Best to everyone out there who blogs-away and creates a fascinating virtual-world for all of us to happily delve into... Lachlan

From the Garden...bouquets across the years

The dining room of our Macon house...with mother's garden camellia arrangement on the table

My garden flowers arrangement in our island home... gathered this evening & placed on the sideboard

Note the lamp... this is the same one that's next to my arrangement made today but pictured here about 40 years earlier

Tonight I brought-in the first bunch of flowers from our garden out on the island here that could be arranged into a small, early-spring bouquet. Two roses, some rosemary sprigs and a few blooms n' buds off of our stalwart lemon tree fit nicely, and quite sweetly, down into an old china creamer. I've plunked this onto the dining room's sideboard with a sweetgrass mat underneath it but as it is smelling so wonderful, it will most likely travel eventually onto the top of my bedside table later on this evening.

Whenever I garden out here on this island, I feel "close" to my late mother. This was my parent's getaway place; this was her final house, beloved home and where she passed away within the master bedroom as the sun set over the marsh waters one evening almost six years ago with Dad and I by her side. It was she who planted many of the rose bushes, the lemon tree and the confederate jasmine vines that seem to merrily clamber up our front steps and porch. Mother loved to be outdoors but she really loved to be outdoors watering. I can close my eyes and easily picture her standing around with the watering hose in her hand smiling away. Sometimes I think that her two favorite things to do for zen like moments were watering the flowers and playing away on her piano. Us kids, even as adults, knew these were "her moments" and we could wave to her in passing but it would be rude to completely interrupt her serenity.

Mother, her mother and now in-continuum, myself... we all have tended flowers in household yards n' gardens and brought some of them into our houses and our daily lives. I'm sure that somewhere there are photos of various garden flowers in Grandmother Wylly's Savannah house but I haven't run across any recently. However, I do have some circa early-1970's snapshots of my mother in our Macon house where she's arranged camellias from our yard onto the dining room table. Funny enough, everything in these two photos of this house we still have...minus the really-70's patchwork shade large table lamp just beyond the dining room in our former den. Be sure however to check-out the lamp my mother's turning off in the living room picture since it's the very same lamp that is in my photograph taken this evening of the first island-bouquet of this spring.

Another thing that strikes me when looking at the older photographs is how simple and streamlined the Macon house was- and how older Preppy Houses used to be this way. Far less "stuff n' decor'" and far more sparsity but still such inherent elegance of the items, architecture and daily-living going on within the rooms. I try to keep us fairly streamlined out here as well. Sometimes I go into people's houses and feel like I can't breathe, both literally and figuratively, because of either so much stuff or of over-decorating or, horrors, a combination of the two. Less (but still good quality and great functionality) IS indeed so much more isn't it?

I loved that Macon house as a child. I remember it well and enjoyed playing on the various stairs' landings in the wintertime or by one of the fireplaces and during the rest of the year, playing out in its sprawling yard by the woods or on the rocks lining our pond. Many of my Barbies and my older brother's G.I.Joes "sank" into that pond's dark, still waters. It was a sad day when we had to leave this house behind to move up north for so much of our early-childhood was left behind as well.

But life goes on, great moments await ahead and even the simplest of gestures, that of bringing-in garden flowers to grace a room, pass along through the generations..........

The NEW "Preppy Handbook"... coming soon!

Coming soon... to a bookstore near you... the NEXT book for Preppies!

I'm sure you all have heard about this already but just in case... here's the link to an article about the latest version of The Preppy Handbook coming out soon, "True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World" by Lisa Birnbach- super exciting!!!

www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/books/04preppy.html

We definitely need an updating off all-things-preppy with this being thirty years after the first handbook was published. Back in 1980... I was a junior-higher already well-acquainted to utilizing grosgrain hair bows, sporting Lacoste tennis dresses, taking horseback riding lessons, swimming at the yacht club's pools when we weren't sailing, stressing over homework crammed-in after formal dance lessons and realizing that my adult destiny would indeed be tied-up by several years spent in the Junior League. Preppy was something I was but couldn't really name, or knew it could be named, until the handbook came out and wow, there it was- a world I was already entrenched within. Even my chums seemed to come straight out of the handbook as (really and truly) some of them were indeed called, "Buffy", "Bitsy", "Chip" and one guy labeled with the endearment of "Shack" which, in the deep south, doesn't seem all too quirky actually. My mother wore Lilly Pulitzer dresses and split her time between League volunteering and tennis playing while my father sported tortoise shell glasses and navy blue pinstripe jackets during his legal-eagle career days. Our house was a simple, old 1890's renovated farmhouse just down from a neat park on a big lake and like many a true-Preppy, our kitchen was a bit neglected, yes, however our living room and dining room always was busily-engaged entertaining people year-round, even on school nights. It's fun thinking back tonight to how life was for our family as The Preppy Handbook hit the book store shelves back in the early 1980's.

I have a copy complete with its hard case as well as another copy that's so well-thumbed through, I'm amazed it is still intact. My one regret has been with not buying, 'Tipsy in Madras", right when it came out which I see from time to time available for sale or eBay bidding for um, quite-dear amounts. One day I'll break-down and throw the $50 bucks or more towards a used copy but not quite yet.

It'll be interesting to see what all's inside this update of the latest preppy guide. I'm not a big fan of the cover however much I tend to like bright yellow and stripes. It's too bad that they didn't style this cover similar to the madras-framed covers of The Preppy Handbook and Tipsy in Madras. Doing this would have made these books constitute a Classic-Preppy Trilogy of sorts which would have been really nice. (Sorta' like my Kate Spade style books, Manners, Occasions and Style that I cherish and still enjoy thumbing through for lifestyle inspiration from time to time.) But I'm not the writer or publisher of True Prep and heck, I'm frankly just so happy to see this book coming out this September.

You can bet that I'll be buying 2 copies of True Prep...one to keep for posterity and one to reference again and again and again...

Are Peonies Preppier than Petunias?

Picture perfect... peonies as the focus of a pink and green oil painting by German artist Carl Schuch

This afternoon and early evening found me happily gardening-away. Except for some heavier projects around the island grounds here, I rarely call on our yard man since I prefer to be outside gardening myself. For me, gardening and lawn mowing is a combination of de-stressing, peaceful solitude, enjoyable zen-like moments of "just being" and a deliberate fostering towards a more integral connection with the natural world that I can all too easily overlook within busy day-to-day goings on. Every place we've lived, I've found time and spots of space, however small and however large, to garden within.

Try as I might however, I simply can not get my very favorite flower, the peony, to grow out here on this lowcountry island. This is such a disappointment but "it's life" and so I saunter forth with other flowers as well as the herb and vegetable small raised kitchen garden beds. I am also keeping up my late mother's rose bed that sits at the front of the double stairs leading up to our second-story front porch and door. This is a small space crammed-in with various rose bushes, a layering of lantana below them and vines spreading out behind with a concrete birdbath stuck in the middle. At times I think that I'd really like to switch-out the birdbath for a bubbling fountain: maybe a traditionally-styled one that's two or three basins high topped by a classical finial. Maybe one day... and maybe another place n'time, I'll actually have peonies in my garden.

Already we have the first blushing of roses showing forth and I'm happily anticipating filling up our various sterling and crystal bud vases here in the house as well as my rose bowl with fresh-cut roses all summer long. This is such a simple thing but such a great joy to me. Reminders of my mother all around as well as natural beauty gracing our home's interior.

Flowers like roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, camellias, gardenias, magnolias and such are what I'd call the stalwart symbols of what-are Southern Lowcountry Preppy Flowers. They grace our gardens, dining room sideboards, church alters, offices, are plunked into bud vases on vanities and bedside tables and of course are part and parcel' of bridal bouquets and hostess gifts. As well, they inspire the pretty prints of summer frocks, paper picnic napkins, thank you note stationary, bed linens and so on. As well, their lovely scents are found in our perfumes, candles, lingerie drawer sachets and the like. Southern ladies just love their favorite home-grown florals...however they are to be found!

Orchids potted in porcelain cachepots are the elegant stand-a-lones within a Preppy's environment. Found anywhere from the front hallway's entrance table to the dining room's sideboard to a bedside table, these beautiful floral statements are Preppy perennials when it comes to adding flowers within the household decor' statement.

Sweet cottage flowers that can also be found within the Preppy environ are ones like cosmos, primroses, delphinium, ranunculus, lilly of the valley, violets and hollyhocks. Tucked by a garden gate or tucked into little windowsill pots alongside herbs, these flowers are casual-elegant. Floris, Penhaligons and Crabtree & Evelyn utilize the scents of cottage flowers in a very English Country House style that is oh so Preppy both in the States and over in the UK. I have a collection of Floris perfume scents that I've gathered for myself during various trips to England that I have enjoyed so much over the years now.

The next grouping of flowers would be ones such as daffodils, pansies, tulips, lillies of all kinds and so forth which are best found (or tended) in large groupings out of doors near a wood's fringe or alongside small streams but can provide cheap n' cheerful casual floral arrangements inside the house especially when its most appreciated in the earlier days of spring. White tulips especially can be wonderful for early spring brides, such as I was, when there are few flowers available at that time of the year en-mass' for a wedding's needs. We combined white tulips, white roses, lillies and ivy for my April 6th wedding's flowers all those years ago. The aim was for classic, elegant, timeless yet very spring-fresh and 19 years later, I still remain pleased with this floral grouping even though I'm not a big tulip or lilly fan overall.

Less-Preppy perhaps but quite fun n' festive to grow in a cutting garden or basic terracotta pots are flowers like zinnias, sunflowers, daisies, poppies, purple coneflowers, nasturtiums, vinca, geraniums and yes, petunias. More "country" than "town and country" but definitely offering up a delightful splash of bright colors which certainly comes in handy for deck and dock parties, picnics, tailgating and Fourth of July celebrations.

Some people may disagree with me as to the next flower listing since I see these particular flowers as un-Preppy: carnations, chrysanthemums, gladiolus, dahlias and marigolds (unless the marigolds are used as practical deer-resistant borders in kitchen gardens such as I utilize them for within my floral cutting kitchen garden bed here). For some reason or another, big mums just give me the creeps. They make me think of 1950's poodle-skirted homecoming football game corsages and funeral homes, hmm. A style-decade I'm glad I didn't grow up within and a place I know I'll end up passing through but I won't realize it by then... so er, I'll "pass" on those big ole' mums please.

But please feel free to pass me a bouquet of peonies anytime....

Beach days... when one "summered" each summer

One of my favorite summer house rentals: the "tower house" on Tybee Island

Brother Wylly and I in the tower house's back yard playing with a sand pail

Wylly and I in floating around in the ocean with Grandfather Collins

Being out on the beach this weekend has me thinking back to the summers we stayed out on Tybee Island all summer long... the years before we left Georgia and moved up-north. I loved those seeming endless summer days spent out on the sand, in the surf and inevitably on one of my uncle's boats as well.

Every year we rented a house on or near the beach. Mother, us-kids and assorted aunts and cousins would descend upon said beach house en mass; decamping into a variety of rooms. These were the old school beach houses of worn wooden flooring, minimal (or should I say, bare) decor', screened porches alongside front porches and extremely utilitarian bathrooms and kitchens. Quite no-nonsense summer and second homes where the obvious emphasis was on being outside above all else. Battered furniture, dog-eared paperback books, seashells lined up on window sills and such was just par for the course. Screen doors slamming, water hoses being turned on and bacon frying were the sounds of those carefree days that still evoke memories for me today. This morning as I squirted out sunscreen from a squeeze bottle, I remembered those Coppertone ads of yesteryear with the little girl and the dog pulling her bathing suit. I love the smell of sunscreen and salt air because so much of my growing-up years (as well as times now) associate pleasantries with the combination of these two scents.

We enjoyed over the years several summer rental houses but my favorite was the "tower house" we had where my older brother got to sleep in one tower and I got to sleep in the other. That was so much fun! It felt like a double-adventure for us with having our own rooms, least not these being tower rooms. The only downside to this particular adventure was my loosing a charm bracelet (granted a cheap, touristy charm bracelet) down into the gap that was between my built-in bed and the wall. Both were made of hard wood and try as we might, we couldn't get down far enough to retrieve this bracelet. I'm guessin' that it's still there: tightly wedged between the wall and the bed's frame.

Every summer, aside from trinkets like my bracelet and such, mother took the three of us children for an annual stocking-up trip to nearby T.S.Chu's department store. I loved that place as a child with its long rows of cedar wood boxes, seashell picture frames and fake pirate kitsch inevitably painted with, "Tybee Island, Georgia" or "Savannah, GA" in small black letters. However, we kids were promptly directed towards the bathing suit and beach towel sections where we'd get kitted-out into that summer's beach gear. As well, every single summer it was the following for our cheap rubber flip-flops: James had green ones, I had yellow ones and Wylly had blue ones. There was no question then as to whose were whose which was rather smart on my mother's part. I'm sure we were enough to keep up with all of our running around the beach and the island's side streets.

T.S.Chu's also had a really creepy old mechanical mannequin Madame Fortune-Teller with which one used to be able to put in a quarter and watch her hand move over the cards in the box and a paper fortune would pop out below for you to read. Her fortune telling days have long been over but each time I'm over on Tybee visiting some of my aunts, uncles and cousins living there, I drop by the store and look for her. The last visit, she had been tucked into a dark corner of the store and when I asked if she was for sale, or could be considered being for sale, no one could help me find out an answer to this question. One of these days I'm going to write a short story with her as its main character... if Stephen King doesn't get to this idea and atmospheric-ethos first ;)

And so weeks and weeks each early childhood summer for me were filled with sun, sand, surf and afternoon naps after lunch "playing possum" (aka, pretending that we were asleep) so that my younger brother would finally settle down for his nap. Weekends were when my father would come in on the train and inevitably bring along both sets of grandparents too who were best friends as well as in-laws. This was when our cheese sandwiches and canned soup meals would dramatically change into picnic lunches and seafood suppers out with all the huge glasses of sweet iced tea I could possibly drink. It was such a fun time overall and a great way to spend our summers together as a family and extended family.

Now that I live on an island myself only a few seconds away from our small beach here and about 15 minutes away from one of the bevvy of big-beaches around, summertime sundry things like bottles of sunscreen, beach towels n' bags and such are kept out almost year-round here at the house. Even in the winter months, you can find me hopping out to the beach for a quick de-stressing spot of time found within our family's schedules. There's always a bit of sand grit somewhere in the house and seashells line the windowsills yet the plain interior spaciousness that defines for me a summer beach-retreat is obviously not possible in a house that we make our home within year-round.

But sometimes, some days I can close my eyes and think that I'm almost back to those wondrous summering days of yore...

Two Preppies and a Wedding....

April 6th, 1991 was a truly wonderful wedding day for James and I........

Such joy and laughter then as well as now.... I am very thankful for "us".

Over two decades now of being a couple, it just keeps getting better n' better!

Waaay back in 1991, two Preppies had a White Tie formal wedding and reception...and had a total blast! So many good memories of that evening and so many wonderful years we've enjoyed together with many more to come, the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise!

Even though our wedding was held up-North, it had a Southern flair to it with the merging of two deep-south families. Both the wedding and reception were held in a wonderfully historic building with huge green marble columns off-set by the delicacy of white tulips, lillies, roses and such n' ribbon and candlelight.... The bridesmaid's dresses were simple, ballet-length Lanz of Salzburg evening frocks in midnight plum tones and the groom and his groomsmen wore white tie. I was going to be just like my mother and wear my white debutante gown with sleeves added to it but fell in love instead with a heavy silk champagne-hued ballgown featuring rosettes scattered across the bodice. Food, festivity and a jazz band completed the fun scene that night while a horse and carriage completed the close to midnight evening's get-away for James and I.

Here's two pictures of that day's happy couple and a more recent picture of said couple at another wedding reception almost two decades later held this past summer in Charleston, SC with my side of the family...

Happy Anniversary to my real life prince charming, my James!

Easter Pink n' Green for 2010

Easter is probably my very favorite holiday for several reasons... this year we were really-casual with Easter but it was still so special. James was home for it, Dad was able to go with us to church again after several months of not attending due to his health condition and we shared a meal with several of our very close friends who are "family" here where we live. Worship at our church was incredibly inspiring and the reason-for-the-season always is such a joy to me personally.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well! Thought I'd share this picture of James and I taken in our yard just before he, Dad and I left for church since this year my Easter dress was iconically-Preppy to the max: color-blocked pink and green with a bow-tied waist! The minute I espied it at Belk, it was like, "that's mine!" haha And so it was....

Easter Greetings to you all and some fun reminiscing...

At a very early age, I was enjoying Easter celebrating - Savannah 1970's

One year that we went "Mod Squad" for Easter but I still had on Lacoste

I remember when we had this formal photo taken for Easter one year...

My younger brother's like, "leave me and the Easter Bunny toy alone!!!

One of my mother's Easter celebration displays in the breakfast room of one of our houses in Georgia .... Southern Preppies do love themes!

Happy Easter to you all! Throughout the years, this has always been a very meaningful celebration for our family within both the Episcopal and Scotch Presbyterian church traditions. My late mother LOVED Easter and went all-out with it from our outfits to an Easter Tree and Egg Hunt to the church service and a huge meal afterwards shared with friends and family.

I seem to run across more old Easter photos of us-children here around the house than any other photo snap shots from our past. Almost all of them are formal and have us very Prep-traditional attired but I did run across one that's hilarious! I call it the, "Easter Mod Squad" photo! Mother and my younger brother are in the usual Southern Preppy togs but I'm sportin' an Izod jersey dress and my older brother is totally 1970'd-out in his plaid flair pants and striped shirt! Maybe that was the year Mother let us dress ourselves???

Here at our church, I so very much enjoy seeing all of the children in their Easter outfits and seeing them trying to sit-still in our sanctuary after no doubt an early morning that involved eating just a few (yeah right) of the sweets from their Easter Baskets. We have a truly wonderful local chocolate shop here in town that does all of its own chocolate items and is an absolute joy to drop by but of course. I love The Chocolate Tree and get James, Dad and my Easter treats there each year. My mother always used to fix up incredible Easter Baskets and I've included an old photo that had, "Easter 1971 Overlook Avenue" written on the back of it in her handwriting so that would be from our time living in Macon, Georgia. I wish that the image was better, but you can see what was one of her Easter Egg Trees and obviously my older brother and my baskets plus perhaps the two chocolate eggs sitting out there could have been for my parents.

I miss getting a flower to wear each year for Easter Sunday Service like we used to do but time has moved itself along and things like those sweet small floral corsages, white gloves and hats and my mother's Easter baskets are now things existing within cherished memories. However, the incredible reason-for-the-season is of course still the most important aspect about celebrating Easter and I'm looking forward to tomorrow... as I do every year... anticipating the arrival of Easter morning.

Happy Easter again everyone and wishing ya'll pleasant memories, great present celebrations and future joy from all of us in my household out here on this island!

The Preppy Go-to-Hell Look... a great-read article!

Summer 2010 "'Go-to-Hell' Preppy Pants" available from Bermuda Styles

I just ran across this fascinating cultural history article about Preppy Menswear tonight and know that it would be perfect for my blog readers' enjoyment as well: "Damned Dapper: The Preppy "Go-to-Hell" Look" by Christian Chensvoid, Style Writer for the Huffington Post; Posted April 1st, 2010.

Here's the link for it: www.huffingtonpost.com/christian-chesvoid/damned-dapper-the-preppy_b_512406.html

I really enjoyed not only the information presented but the author's style of writing as well. Am hoping that more articles of this nature pop up within the Huffington Post's Style Section which is something I check out every now and then. Now if only I could get James into some great Madras Preppy Pants this summer! I doubt however that he'd wear the pants featured above in the photo- it takes a special kinda' "Go to..." attitude to sport these no doubt!