If you have been following this random blog you know the story of THE wedding dress Acts One (yet to be written up), Act Two & Four. But what about Act Three you wonder. It’s a great one! Read on to see if you agree.
I asked good friend Sherrie to write down the story she verbally told me about lending the dress to another friend and this is what she jotted:
“Wow…this is going to test my memory!!
My friend Charlotte (Char) from Radford (used to be an all girls school) was 3rd to wear the dress. Following graduation in May of 1969 Char went to join her family in Japan where her dad was stationed in the Air Force. It was there that she met Lance whose dad was also stationed at the same base and they got engaged.
Char’s dad’s tour of duty ended that summer of 1969 and the family returned to northern Virginia in July. Her wedding was planned for August! I was the only bridesmaid in the area and so we went looking for dresses in a panic because she had less than a month until the wedding. We found nothing suitable and it dawned on me since Char and I were the same size, ‘You know Char, I have a dress that might fit you.’
The dress had been cleaned and sealed after both our weddings and was at my parent’s house in Williamsburg. The weekend we went to get it was the famous ‘walk on the moon by Neil Armstrong’. It was televised and it seemed like the entire world was glued to their television sets watching.
It occurred late Sunday night our time. Joe and I stayed up late watching it, caught a few winks of sleep and left before dawn because Joe had to be at work bright and early.
We had a 1968 Fiat Spider convertible 2 seater and there was barely room inside the back of the car for our luggage so absolutely no room for a fairly large wedding dress box!
Joe secured it to the rack on the back of the car with bungee cords and it seemed pretty safe. We had driven less than thirty minutes when we heard a slapping type sound. At first we weren’t sure what it was and then we heard the sound of the release of the box going air borne.
It was so dark we couldn’t see, but when we pulled off the road it was confirmed that the box was gone.
We were on Route 143 between Williamsburg and Richmond and the road was a divided four lane highway. There were no lights, not much population, certainly nothing close to the road with any light and it was about 4AM.
We had to back up and down the highway hoping no other cars would come along, frantically searching for the box. After what seemed like forever we finally found it about a half a mile back in a ditch. Thankfully the box had not been damaged.
We secured it again using other methods than just bungee cords. I remember a belt and things pulled out of our luggage to tie it tightly to the rack. And so the dress made it back to Alexandria. while a man from earth walked on the moon above.
Aside from tacking up the hem a bit, the dress fit her perfectly.”
It would be fun to have a few of Char’s wedding photos but I am grateful to have snagged this screen shot of her (I never met her) when many of us, who were unable to attend the event, made Sherrie a Happy Birthday video. In her segment Char mentioned THE Dress and panned to this photo!
The End of Act THREE
