I loved the Peach Lake times in my life. I can remember on rainy days sitting on the front room window seat bunk , which was surrounded by many windows, listening to the radio, and looking at the rain outside while cuddled up with a cotton weave or crocheted afghan blanket and reading Nancy Drew Mysteries, or the Hardy Boys which I enjoyed. It just seemed to fit at the bungalow. The funny thing is that the only time of the year I read them was at the bungalow in the Summer. I also would read them at my friends place too, the one who worked in NY during the week, and came up on weekends. I felt so safe and secure and cozy on the bunk bed or on my own bed that had such bouncy springs what a nostalgic feeling to be reminded, as I am writing this of the emotions I felt as a young girl.
Saddle shoes were in style and my sister and I had a pair, we wore them with white Bobby socks that had to be cuffed just right!
I loved the clothes in the fifties
This was just like a purse my babysitter gave me for my birthday from Saks Fifth Avenue,but mine had pastel velvet ribbons with buttons.. I adored it and wore it flat out!!
As I became older, I opted for sleeker styling
Even as a child I loved getting dressed up. I enjoyed being a girl in every sense of the word. When the movie Flower Drum Song with Nancy Kwan came out in 1961, my Mom would sing that song to me quite a bit!
Here is a Youtube video of Nancy singing that song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjWn-ueeeLw
The thing I remember I liked the best to wear from my youngest memories, was my organdy pinafores which were worn over dresses. My mother would lovingly and painstakingly sprinkle it with water from a bottle with an old dented rubber corked top with little holes in the top. It was like it went hand in hand with her iron and ironing board. She also used spray starch for that fresh polished look. I just loved being a frilly girl, and I still love organdy material to this day. Whenver I am in a fabric store to this day, I look for organdy material so I can just touch it, silly huh?! I don't know if it was the style at the time, or one of my Mom's unique jewelry statements, but she would put my gold heart shaped locket on a satin ribbon matching whatever dress I was wearing, and tie it with a ribbon on my wrist as a bracelet. I thought it was great.. I remember wearing it at about the age of four, and I may even have a picture wearing one of them as a baby. Here is a picture, below with my sister.
One of my staples in high school was pleated plaid kilt skirt with matching knee highs and penny loafers with a white blouse with peter pan collar and a button down sweater with grosgrain ribbon down the front. There was a nice store .. B Altman that sold the sweaters and did monogramming. A nice touch and so unique My initials were DEB .. I thought that was COOL!
Kilt skirt
Catskill Game Farm with boyfriend Billy, Susan & Maureen Cooney.. me in kilt skirt
One year my sister and I wore Sack dresses for Easter as I remember.. it was the style.. who ever thought of such an ugly design?!
My daughter is so like me.. we are two peas in a pod!! Even from very young she was a budding fashionesta just like her Mom and her Grandmother! No kidding, we can go shopping together and shop at different ends of the store and pick out the same items!! And, one of our favorite words "isn't that DIFFERENT?!"
two peas!
Grandma Trexler Modeled for years and so did Bart.. he had several modeling jobs with Grandma. One job was for an ice cream commercial. He said for days he ate and ate ice cream one of his favorite foods, and by the end of the shoot, he was so sick of ice cream for about a month!! ha ha ha ha ha Grandma Trexler traveled all over the world modeling and has some wonderful pictures of her adventures. My daughter Keri has a painting of her on a ship headed for some shoot she was doing. She was such a pretty woman. What you would call a true "lady".
Painting of Grandma Trexler during modeling trip
Grandpa and Grandma Trexler.. I loved this man so much, he was a true gentleman and we had a special bond. I had the honor of leading both Dad and Mother Trexler to the Lord. They both had a strong faith in God, but had not ever made a verbal invite for Jesus to come into their lives. Oh what joyous times we will all have in heaven when we reunite with those we love!
I also had a passion for Fashion magazines. Those magazines began a life-long love for clothes and accessories and decorating. My mother said even as a young child I would concoct the most unusual get ups to wear a gift I believe I have handed down to my youngest grandchild!! I loved fashion and particularly enjoyed matching everything for a coordinated look. I started modeling at the age of twelve at fashion shows in upscale stores and in-store modeling. At age fifteen I attended modeling school in New York City, and did some modeling in the fashion district and was in beauty pageants, winning first runner up in the Miss Universe Pageant for the state of New York. More on that in another article... but back to my childhood memories at Peach Lake.
One summer there was a bad storm which led to the lake flooding the whole area. The water was so high on our lane that the only way you could get through was by boat. It looked so funny with boats going up and down our lane. We didn’t experience any damage to speak of, as our house was built way up from the ground. But, I got into a neighbors boat with my father and we went up and down and he helped our next door neighbor get some furniture out of their house.
Getting back to my mother… In our backyard was a cow pasture and early in the morning the cows would graze. Many mornings my mother and I would fill a bowl of cereal, sometimes with fresh blueberries, strawberries or bananas and bring it to the tiny porch outside our back door and eat our cereal and watch the cows grazing. It was not uncommon for my Mother to just start talking to God. “Good Morning Lord she would say… what a beautiful day” just for example. I was always impressed with how she talked with God personally and she would often sing songs. This didn’t happen every time we watched the cows ... but it was so nice when it did happen.
Mom and myself in the newspapers her marshmallow icing cake was fabulous!
My mother could really cook and bake. She had a great flair for cooking and her presentation was so pretty. She also made wonderful pies and cakes. My picture with my mother was even on the front page of the food section of the newspaper with a Valentine’s Day, chocolate fudge cake with pink marshmallow icing with sliced cherries in the form of a heart and arrow, too cute! She never made us feel we were in need that I remember. One of my fondest recollections was that we would have such things when I was young such as grilled cheese sandwiches that she would put curly lettuce on for hair, sliced olives for eyes and cut and curved pimento pieces for a smile. She would use a sliver of carrot for the nose and she served it with Tomato soup or Chicken Noodle. That would be our dinner at times and I thought we were millionaires!!
Mom was the original Suzy Homemaker (remember that doll?!).
She kept an immaculate home, kept herself beautifully, had her home in order, ironed clothes, was a saver, she loved the Lord, was always doing things like making homemade soup for people who were sick, or baking a cake for a funeral, she had a great sense of style, and wanted the best for her family. I know this sounds terrible, but she would make a cake for us at the same time she made one for funerals and so my sister and I always looked at funerals as good things! Oh, and by the way she was an amazing Grandmother.
My Mom and Dad and Me
©PEACH LAKE MEMORIES 5/21/11
Peach Lake Memories is a 15 Chapter book with vignettes about my childhood memories. It is copyrighted. Please ask for permission before using any information in my book. Thank you .. donnatrex@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment