The Last Cotillion

Chapter 15

Five years after burying her husband, Mary began forming plans for her and John Edward to leave Ranger, Texas. Opportunities for her were limited, and she didn't like being viewed as the Widow Johnson. Following the guidelines her dead husband taught her, Mary looked for a buyer that could pay cash for the house. This played along with the first rule he taught her, the fewer questions to be answered, the better. Now that she was choosing to leave, she was forced to learn to drive, it was not without challenge and peril, but she managed. She had often observed the motions of the clutch in tandem with the shifting gears when riding with her husband, so with scratched fenders and a few mailboxes laid to rest, she somewhat mastered driving.

During her planning stage, she was sipping coffee one day at the Woolworth's counter, where Mary overheard talk about Dallas and how fashionable it was. Mention was made about a high-end department store in Dallas selling custom made designer clothes. Her counter mates discussed how one could be measured for an exact fit of any dress in the store collection. At first, Mary wondered why this was such a big deal; her clothes were always made to fit precisely. Sitting, listening to the woman brag about this store, the idea came to her. She convinced herself the dressing gowns she had been selling in Ranger would be very popular in Dallas. She just knew her designs would be well received in a city like Big D. The decision where they would move to had been finalized. With two dressing gowns sewn but not yet purchased, her samples for the store were already produced. Her experience in making a pitch to a store owner for her goods was well defined and rehearsed, she had done it before. She felt good about her plan, this gave her the necessary determination to move forward.

Just as they had initially bought it, the house was left intact. Everything that was in the house when they moved in remained. She packed clothes, cash, scrapbooks, anything and everything with their names on it. The car packed to capacity, they were off to begin again. She very cleverly covered their tracks, to such an extent she paid the funeral director a hefty sum of cash to purchase two additional burial plots next to her husband's. The sum large enough to convince the director to place a placard on the site next to Thadeus. "Baby Johnson" was all it said. The owner of the funeral home acquiesced with a smile and a thick wallet. With the house now sold and the plots purchased, all was set in motion, allowing them to start a new life. Off they went east.

Arriving in Dallas, they took up residence in a motel on Highway Eighty. Close to town, but far enough away to hopefully keep John Edward from finding trouble. The motel was small, Mary knew this would not be long term, but she wanted to approach the buyers at the upscale store before making permanent living arrangements. She set up an appointment with the chief buyer at the store the very next day. Upon her arrival and display of goods, the buyer told her the stitch work was perfection, but dressing gowns for children were out of fashion. If she would bring him something more relevant to the current culture with more color, the store would most certainly buy them.

Mary left the store determined to have her clothes sold at this downtown location, finding a fabric store on her way home, she began to comb through patterns and fabric, searching for inspiration. She recalled a magazine at the beauty shop with pictures of newborn boys dressed in light blue and the girls dressed in light pink. There it was, Mary knew what to do. She purchased several yards of material in each color, a portable sewing machine, several types of notions and thread. Her supplies in hand, she returned to her small room at the motel where she went to work making the new designs. Two days later she returned to the store with her new line of children's wear. The buyer was ecstatic to see the baby blue jumper with crossed straps up the back and pearl buttons on the bib. The girl's version was a pink blouse with an attached skirt and matching diaper covers to be worn underneath. He placed an order for two sets in several sizes. As they would carry the store's logo on the tags, Mary would never get credit for her creation.