Little Hattie's Best Dress

Aunt Hattie loved to dress her nieces and nephews up in sailor suits. Here I am with cousin Ann Eggebeen in matching sailor dresses in 1963. (And what a lush backdrop Uncle Joe's glads and dahlias make!).

Here's Pete in 1968, with Grandma TerMaat in Hattie's kitchen, ready to set sail.


I think I've discovered why Hattie favored these Victorian outfits. In the formal portrait below are sisters Hattie and Margaret TerMaat about 1920, Hattie outfitted in a sailor dress. Hattie's about the same age here as the girls in my pre-school Sunday School class who love their ribbons, sequins and tulle. Current fashions favor pink and sparkle and it's hard to imagine little girls today being attracted to a serious color like navy blue, but I'm going to guess that Hattie's ribbons were red. I bet she loved that dress with the giant, shiny bow.

Family Portrait with a Reg'lar Feller

This is the only formal portrait that I know of picturing all the TerMaat siblings together. Some effort went into it as you can see that Margaret, Marion and Hattie are wearing matching dresses. And Little Connie has picked out his best tie. If you look very closely, you can see that the photographer added a little blush to the cheeks.

The tie says "Reg'lar Fellers" and depicts one of the characters from a comic strip by that name. The series, created by Gene Byrnes ran from 1917-1949 and had many spin-offs including books, radio, animated and feature film versions, assorted merchandising such as dolls, pencil boxes (just search ebay) and apparently children's clothing.  This photo must have been taken in the mid 1930s. 1936, when Dad was seven and the animated short below was released would not be a bad guess. 



I like the little Reg'lar Feller jingle that introduces the film. Having just survived a visit from Connie's grandson Max (who really resembles his grandpa!), in which he dug a hole, built a catapult, investigated a pumpkin-tossing trebuchet and devoured Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it's especially fun to see the comic kids digging a hole, messing with an old jalopy, making it fly and in the feature film, building an amphibious vehicle. Some things about seven-year-old boys and their comic alter-egos never change.