A Dress...a School

The wedding dress that I wore was borrowed from my mom's cousin. When I wore it, it was about 25 years old and had been worn by my aunt as well.

I got married in 1996 and can tell you that the Vera Wang dress of simple, smooth lines hit the main stream the following year. In '96 the "in" style was a fading spinoff of all that was beaded and poofy from the late 80's. I searched everywhere, but could not find anything close to the dress from that picture of my aunt's wedding. I remember asking a sales lady to bring me something without poofs, beads, or a gigantic satin butt bow. She came up with one dress--one! What a relief to find out that my mom's cousin still had the dress from 1960/70-something and that it would fit me.

After I was married we had the dress cleaned again and preserved in one of those special boxes with acid free paper and sent it back to my mom's cousin (sniff, wipe tear).

A few years later we found out that Sharon (mom's cousin) had a grandchild that needed a skirt for a bassinet. I'm sure it made a beautiful bassinet, but it still makes me cringe to think of it. Such a very typical Segraves move--like wiping out the starling nest along with the eggs.

Last night I checked my email and found a notice from Taylor University. Stay with me here. It will all tie together in a minute. In 1994 I applied to one university--Taylor, in Upland, Indiana. Nowhere else really appealed to me, so I put all my eggs in one basket. I was academically accepted, but the hitch was that there was no more room on the campus and would I consider going to their brand new extension campus in Fort Wayne, IN for a year and then transfer the following year?

I looked into it and found that the major I really wanted was only offered on the TUFW campus. TU offered only a minor. Also, TUFW would give me a $2000 scholarship. Done. Why in the world would I go to a school of only 500 students? That was smaller than my high school. Oh well, here I go.

Four years and a marriage later, Jon and I graduated from TUFW. Our degrees only state that we graduated from Taylor University--no mention of Fort Wayne. Good thing too. According to last night's notice, the Fort Wayne campus didn't support itself and is being cut from the apron strings. Anybody in the market for a small college in a slightly urban environment?

I feel like my dress is being cut up. I never thought I was very sentimental about that ramshackled campus (the physical defects of the campus were numerous), but I'm finding that I was just a bit more attached than I thought. I guess I'm more attached to the idea of getting the alumni magazine and finding out who had a baby or which professor retired. I want the home base. But as of May '09 it's up for bid. Another dress cut up.