9.1

Cleaning up post party beer cans and paper plates never makes me happy, but today, the act actually made me sad, as it's the last "real" day of summer.

Granted, my sadness is nothing like what I would experience as a child, when at the end of our summer on a lake in Maine, we would pack the light blue Ford Econline van (to the gills with all the furniture my father had bought) and drive back to our home in suburban Philadelphia. I would sob from the moment we drove down the dirt road, away from the house, until we made our first rest stop (food always trumped tears).

Happily, it was a glorious end to a glorious summer - 19 of us rode up to the Owls Head Transportation Museum Vintage Motorcycle Show. It was like a checklist for perfection - a dry sunny day, curvy roads through Richmond, Dresden Mills, and Alna, every bike made it to and from the show (almost a statistical impossibility with 19 vintage bikes), over 900 vintage bikes at the show (including a 1950's Harley Flat Track racing bike that filled me with covetous lust).

Though road weary and sunburnt, we all found the strength to come back chez Here to drink and eat and talk with increasing volume (to the chagrin of our neighbors) about the ride.

(And I made the most rocking Thai Peanut Pasta:

6 Tbsp Peanut Butter
1/4 cup water
9 Tbsp Soy Sauce
6 Tbsp Tahhini
1/2 cup Seame Oil
2 Tbsp Sherry
5 Tsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Honey
4 medium cloves garlic - chopped
2 Tsp fresh ginger - minced (from a jar is fine)
1 - 2 Tbsp Hot Pepper Oil

Blend all until smooth. Add in hot water to give it the consistency of whipping cream.

Add to 1 lb cooked fettucine

Toss. Top with scallions, sesame seeds, peeled carrots, cilantro, cukes...whatever you'd like.

Some of the ingredients are little weird, but once you have them, this is so easy to make, and it makes people insane with its flavor - very rich and spicy.)

Now it's the season that I think about field hockey, and soups, and leather jackets, and all of that is good too.

Buy Local

While listing this 60's pink silk dress, I did some research on the designer, Mary Sachs. According to this site, she opened her first store in 1918, which blossomed into a small chain of stores in the mid-Pennsylvania area, and she was a generous and influential member of the community.

I see a lot of beautiful vintage clothing, made by "smaller" designers, who had a niche in their region.

Her stores were special - I'm sure the salespeople knew their clients, and that the experience of going shopping as as much of an allure as the clothing themselves.

Now it's anonymity in Marshall's, the warehouse overload of Old Navy, or the constant subtle (but not) sales pressure from fake-friendly 20 somethings at the The Limited. Sadly, there are few places where you know the person who made the clothing, and the sales folks are also your friends.

That's why I try to buy local when I can. My links include lots of people in the Portland area (and some outside) who create beautiful things. And I like to buy from them.

Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks that Portland has a great scene. Design*Sponge agrees!

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Judging from my Dorothy Hamill haircut, it was taken in the summer of 1977.

My sister is wearing a bombshell (for a 7 year old) black velvet 50's party dress (I shudder to think there was a designer label inside), and the other two girls are in pretty pink floral party dresses.

Me? I chose the secretary look. Not a sexy (for a 9 year old) secretary look. It was more the look of the secretary who has been with the firm for 50 years and secretly scares everyone because she knows all their dirt. Red skirt, white blouse with a high ruffled neck and a pink cardigan. In July. Yeesh.

We had found the clothes at a 4th of July Rummage Sale in Standish, Maine. $1.00 a bag. It on a lawn in the village (I CLEARLY remember it Nancy!). *My sister swears it was held in the fire barn, but that was a later, not so good, rummage sale. (We also disagree about who caught that bluefish at Cape May in the early 70's (Nancy just because I handed the pole over to you after it bit doesn't mean you caught it!)].

At the age of 9, I didn't "get" vintage clothing, I just knew we found some cool dressup. But I remember peplums and velvet and chiffon, and my mother and our neighbor going on about the old clothes. We kept them in a tent outside of the house and put on a fashion show at the end of the summer to raise money for ice cream.

And then they got mildewed or filled with bugs and my mother tossed them all. Those clothes, along with my 1970's Matchbox cars and my dad's 1950's baseball cards, are pretty much the only thing she ever threw out.

Hello Dollyrockers!

Here in Maine I come across lots of great wool and work vintage, and most money was "old money" so good cutting edge pre-90's pieces are hard to find.

So I considered myself extremely lucky to find a 60's Rudi Gernrich dress, even if it was a fairly conservative shift dress. But yesterday I found a rarity - a dress from the British Boutique Movement (Ossie Clark, Jean Muir, Celia Birtwell) - a 1970's wench look dress from Dollyrockers.

Here she is!