You could be a part time model

To start with, I'd like to post a sort of photo response to my sister in law Annisha. She had posted a photo of my niece Jocelyn in a va-va-voom sort of pose and was wondering where she got it from. I have to tell you Annisha, I think all girls go through this phase. I once thought myself, "Where does this come from?" And then I dug a little deeper. It may have something to do with being the oldest, I'm not sure, but I do know that my sister Luisa still has this reaction to me sometimes. I would have added an Olive glamour shot, but hers are usually sans clothing.My mom made a great deal of our clothes when we were younger. My mom has a great sense of style and she made some really great things. The hard part was that we had to go to school. We wore boots and capes and straw hats and I recall quite a bit of velvet. She bought us shoes from a really old lady named Mrs. Clark if I remember correctly. She had a shop in Salinas and in the backroom she had civil war era children's shoes. They laced and buckled. They went very well with the style of clothes my mom made and we always received a lot of compliments from people. We also traveled to San Fransisco to buy straw hats. They had velvet ribbons, flowers, fruit. They were beautiful and now I can appreciate the amount of time that went into dressing us. We looked "historical" and my youngest sister Alex was in the newspaper once and a lady drew her and sold cards(blond babies get all the attention!). My mom continued her job as personal stylist as I grew up. We had so many different types of shoes, kids at school would ask if my parents owned a shoe store. Something Pete has often asked of me in the present. She had our clothes pressed and waiting when we woke up and did our hair everyday. I'm amazed at this for two reasons. The first being the time and effort. I am happy if I have made sure Oscar brushed his hair and is wearing socks before he leaves for school. The second is that my sisters and I never led an uprising. I do recall one time going to the fair, I wanted to wear this sweater that i had received for my birthday with jeans and my mom was not really cool with the outfit. "WHY?,"I complained(teenagers always talk in all caps) "You look just like everybody else," was my moms reply. That's what I wanted at the time. But I credit my mom for showing us how much fun it is to be an individual and to not be ashamed to do your own thing and not follow the crowd. I wonder how Siobhan will sort this out for herself. She wants to be "different" but today that means shopping at Hot Topic, which is what everybody else is doing. I've always let the kids decide what they will and won't wear as long as it's not a novelty t-shirt that says "I Heart Frat Boys"
Now, if we really want to be schooled in fashion we should have a talk with Kenny Loggins. I mean my dad. If this Members Only jacket could talk, the tales it would tell. My favorite memory of this awesome piece of history is when we were at the mall in San Jose and my dad was doing his best at looking cool. Jacket hooked on the thumb, thrown casually over the shoulder. Flipping a coin, strolling along when he fell into a mannequin. I miss that jacket. My dad has had quite a few really good looks but as I've told my sisters, you'll have to wait until March. My dad is a shopper though. A really good one. Which was good because my mom would buy the Sally Socolich Bargain Hunting in the Bay Area book every year and we would spend some weekends driving around San Fransisco seeking out deals. This is where I get it from Pete.
My step dad has a good "look" as well. I like to call these the sculley shades and I felt really happy when I met my father in law and saw he was a fan as well. John has a bit of an edge though, he always has fishing line tied to his so he can also wear them hanging around his neck. This was on their wedding day. My mom has "the stare". Pete says that he has seen my mom do this and I apparently do this very often. He always wonders what I'm thinking, it's probably how he would look in these glasses and a Members Only.