Saturday, January 26, 2008

Woman in a Purple Coat

In preparing to share my own story about the color purple I found this during a google search:

When I was a small child, my favorite color was purple. It didn’t require any deliberation for me to make that choice; purple was self-evidently the most attractive color in a box of crayons—anyone could see that. In fact, I remember being perplexed at people whose favorite color was something other than purple, and downright shocked when someone claimed not to like purple at all. But the early days of childhood were ones in which we were too young to make serious value judgments. Everyone had a different favorite color, shape, animal, or song, and all choices were equally good. -Joe Kissel


This pretty accurately describes my childhood opinion on the greatest color ever - purple. Miles got a really cute book for Christmas called Miles Crocodile Sings the Colors of Jazz. It's a very cute book and it came with an audio CD with songs sung by Miles Crocodile. One of them goes like this..."what is my favorite color? purple! purple! the one I love so much? purple! purple!" The boys love to sing along in the car. Anyway, it reminds me of when my dad bought me a purple coat. He found it at a great deal (like $10), and he was not one to pass up "a great deal." He was so happy to give it to me and proud of his perfect gift. I was 22 years old. "Oh, Dad, it's purple..." I said in a not so happy voice. Remember, I was 22 years old. My dad had just given me a purple, puffy coat. He replied, "yeah, I know purple is your favorite color!" How sweet it is to remember this. Sure purple had been my favorite color for many years, but not necessarily by the age of 22. I teased him. My sister-in-law also was the lucky recipient of a puffy coat that day - a hot pink one! We both teased him, but we did wear them. Once. In my parents front yard. At the time I couldn't believe Dad had bought me a purple puffy coat, but I love thinking about this now. I may just have to buy Ella a purple coat one day. Before she is 22! Maybe next year. I donated that purple coat not long after he gave it to me. Now I wish that I had kept it. Would I wear it? No, no, no. I'd just have it. Something sweet given by my dad. Just to look at. And remember.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's such a great story!! I love the pic you included with the post- it's beautiful.

Betsy said...

Thanks, I needed to hear that. I have a horribly tacky set of gold little boy charms that my Dad bought me for Christmas last year. I'm going to find a chain for them and wear them next time he is here.

Anonymous said...

You know who else likes purple? That's right ... Prince.

Mom of 4 Maniacs said...

Ahh...Prince...yes...and I love him. I also love the book dedicated to it.

Unknown said...

My dad thought my mom's favorite color was purple for the longest time. He would give her weird random purple gifts for x-mas and b-days. Finally, she had to tell him that no, purple was not her favorite color.

Rebecca said...

My grandmother's favorite color was purple. When I see it I think of her.