I MET THE PRESIDENT WEARING A $10 DRESS (ME, NOT HIM)

1978.  We were young, married a year, both working but making modest salaries, paying $278 a month for a small, two-bedroom apartment in Alexandria Virginia.  We took the bus to work, went to cheap matinee movies on weekends, seldom ate out.

We got an invitation to the White House.  No, really.  Because we had worked in the Carter Campaign, and because my husband was a political appointee in the administration, we were on a DNC list of people to be invited to something at the White House.  When the engraved invitation arrived in the mail we were very excited.  We were to attend the festivities following a state dinner, and we would be meeting the President and Mrs. Carter and their guest, Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia.  

    Two twentysomething nobodies from Rhode Island and we were going to the White House!

Dress was black tie.  Easy for my husband to rent a tux.  I had nothing to wear.   And there wasn’t a lot of money to buy something, either.  I searched the mall for a bargain.  Nothing in Hecht’s.  Nothing in Woodies.  Days went by and the date was getting closer and I was getting panicky.

One day I went into Sears to buy some paint for our bathroom.  I wandered by the ladies dresses, and saw a single rack with a big “SALE” sign on it.  I gave it a perfunctory once-over and turned to leave when something caught my eye.  A dress.  Black.  My size.  A simple, sleeveless, v-neck, floor length sheath.  Price tag:  $10.  No, it couldn’t be.  

I tried it on.  It looked damn good.  I bought it with my Sears charge card, the only store charge I owned.

In Woodies, I picked up some costume gold neck chains for more than I spent on the dress.

We were quite a handsome pair the night we walked into the White House.  It was such a thrill to be there, to meet Marshall Tito (who would be dead not long after).

It was a very special evening.

And I well remember shaking hands with the President and thinking, I’m at a black tie event at the White House and I’m wearing a $10 dress from Sears!

THE FIVE-DOLLAR DRESS

I’ve only had that kind of shopping luck one other time.  One January, I learned I was invited to the formal Blarney Ball, an annual gathering of Irish Americans who party and raise money for a worthwhile cause:  bringing children from Ireland over to the US in the summer, to get away from the “troubles” for awhile.  I wanted to wear green velvet, and I set out hunting the sales to find one.  I went from store to store, trying on this dress and that dress, and not finding any in the green velvet I was dying to wear.  Nothing was right.   The ball was only three days away and I still had nothing to wear.  I had tried on gowns in all colors and and prices, but nothing was right.

After a long day trudging from store to store, I decided to return to Macy’s to the sale rack and settle for the plain short green velvet dress I had tried on earlier.

Then, nearby, I saw it.  There was only one like it, but it looked perfect.  It was a designer dress, green, floor length, velvet skirt and rayon empire top with long straight sleeves.  Simple, elegant, and beautiful. And my size.  I tried it on.  I loved it.  I didn’t care what it cost, this was THE DRESS.

I still liked the other dress, and decided to take both.  At the register, the clerk rang up the purchase and asked me for $35.  “$35?” I said, “For both of these?”

“Yeah,” said the clerk, while chewing her gum.  “This one is on sale for $30,” she said, pointing to the short dress, “and this one is $5.”  

“Are you sure?”  I said, my eyes must have been the size of golfballs.

“Yeah, this is the last one and we want to get rid of it.”

SO, I wore a $5 dress to the Blarney Ball.  And contrary to what you might expect, almost no one else wore green velvet.