January 29, 2013

Treasure Hunting in Owerri

Hey friends,

It's been longer than I wanted, and I apologize for being away for this long. BUT I'm back and I have to share my treasure hunting story with you.

Long long ago, in 1935, a beautiful baby girl was born somewhere in Nigeria. Fast forward to her teenage years, where she worked as a secretary to a handsome journalist who was in the fight for Nigeria's independence. Alas, this fight landed him in a prison cell and the young lady assumed the duty of taking care of him during his imprisonment. Upon his release, the journalist professed his love and the pair were married in 1950. Through the years, they had six children: 3 boys and 3 girls. The couple stuck together in good times and trying times. When he lost everything to the Biafran War, she stayed by his side. When he recouped, she was there. Their marriage included jaunts to different parts of the world. They celebrated numerous occasions in style.

It is 2013. They have recently reached their 62nd wedding anniversary. They have 21 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. The couple's first grandchild, a girl, enjoys looking at old pictures of her grandparents. She sees how beautiful and stylish her grandmother was as a young wife (SHE STILL IS, mind you). And so, on a trip to visit her grandparents, she tells her grandmum that she'd like to see and have some of her vintage clothes. After a little persuasion, the treasure hunting begins...

Locked up Trunk Box

Ah-choo! Dusty, innit?

Ah, nice and clean :)

Oooh, pretty!

Mustard (?) pants. It's got a matching jacket somewhere

Trunk box manufactured by...

Grandma's 25th Wedding Anniversary Dress. The year was 1975.



Me holding up my grandma's 25th Wedding Anniversary dress.  Does she look 40 in the photo???

Just thought to share a few photos. In all, I collected about 10 dresses from my grandma. It would be awesome to wear this or another anniversary dress not pictured to MY wedding, don't you think? I plan to dryclean everything I took, take better photographs and share the dresses among my sisters and cousins. :)
Any dresses I wear will be photographed and posted.

What heirlooms have you gotten from your family? Please share.

Hugs,
Berry.

5 comments:

  1. So cool. Such a cute story about your grandparents.

    Those mustard pants are it. Would love to see what you do with it.

    Back in the day, I used to rock some of my mom's vintage clothes from the 70s to school and would get a lot of compliments. Unfortunately, the last time I was in Naija, I didn't think to do raid her trunk boxes to get some more. I'd kill to be able to get my hands on her other clothes.

    Onakachi.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks!

    The pants don't fit meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee *wails and sobs* I'm giving them to my sister.

    Oooh, I want to see. Vintage is AWESOME! It's amazing how a lot of fashion from way back is still relevant now. That's what you call true STYLE. I tried on some of her dresses and 2 of them will be worn in the next week and half! Can't wait to post the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awww....so cool! I was probably 12 when I last raided mom's closet...clothes and shoes from the 70s were so well made. Sadly, I can no longer fit my 6' 4" amazonian self into them :-)...good times!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jealous. :)
    I keep sparking for my momsie because she didn't save her clothes. And from looking at photos there are things I definitely would have wanted. And I'm the size she was at my age too. *SMH*

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear from you about this post! Let's all learn and share our worlds.