X is for XCP !

Mrs. Matlock has assigned the letter "X" for our class assignmet this week which might pose a problem for some students. I, however, am not one of them. I thought of "X" for an x-ray....but no I'm not going to write about that. Then I naturally thought about a xylophone but I'm not going to even take that on since I have a zero interest in instruments because I'm so tone deaf!

Sooooo what does that leave for me to write about that has an "X"?


My alma mater of course!

I attended the best Catholic high school in Arizona and my memories of that experience will forever be in my heart and mind. Xavier High School was opened in 1943 with a total of 17 ambitious and pioneering students. Xavier is an all-female private school with a rigorous curriculum that includes everything from aviation and architecture to zoology. There are honors and AP classes taught by a staff with Master's degrees and Ph.D's.
Xavier had the designation of "high school" from 1943 to 1980, and then Xavier became a "college preparatory" after meeting the criteria to qualify for this distinction. When I attended, Xavier was called Xavier High School (XHS), but now it is known as Xavier College Prep (XCP). As I write about Xavier, I will refer to it as XCP because that is the school's official name now.

The first photo shows the entrance to the school which is a bit different from when I was a student. The cross and the name are much higher on the building now because the boys from Brophy (the boy's college prep school not far from XCP) kept stealing the X when I was a student in the 60's.
This is an old school pennant that I found in my high school scrapbook. You can see the school crest on the pennant.
I snapped this next photo from my yearbook so you can see what XCP looked like when I attended. Notice the "high school" wording is lower on the wall. The school has expanded with many new buildings to the west, south and east of the original campus. I would need a tour now because I'm only familiar with the building in this photo.
My 1966 yearbook! I have such warm, fond memories of my high school days, and I would have stayed longer than 4 years if it was permitted!
This is a photo of me (long, dark hair in a flip) at the Sophomore/Senior Tea held on May 4, 1966. My classmate and I are being served by a sophomore.
This photo is from the yearbook and it shows the senior class officers. I'm on the left standing near the lamp shade. I was the secretary of my senior class and I still have some of the minutes that I typed to read at the meetings. Notice our gloves and high heels!
Here is the cover of our events calendar for my senior year. The class officers planned activities and we used the calendar as a reference and guide for our planning.
AHHHHHHHH, yes! Good ol' fashion homecoming! OURS in '65~~O-Our, U-Unlimited, R-Roaring, S-Spirit. XCP girls were cheerleaders for Brophy whose colors were red and white. My senior homecoming was held on October 29, 1965, but I couldn't go because I had pneumonia! Yikes!
Our senior Christmas dance had a Christmas Carousel theme. An invitation is shown below and a teddy bear favor is below the invitation. The dance was held on December 29, 1965, in Scottsdale, AZ.
The next photo shows a program from a Glee Club concert on December 18, 1965.
The shoe with "I kicked in 10" was for an ad campaign for our yearbook. My class ring came in the small envelope and we could only wear our rings at the end of our junior year and all of our senior year.
The Spring Sing program was a singing celebration for the entire student body with each class performing songs or a dance for all to enjoy.
The program on the right was from a show titled "Fashion by the Yard" The Home Economics students modeled the clothing that they made in class during the year.
Paradise Plantation was a program from our Junior/Senior Banquet held May 5, 1966. Since the banquet had a southern theme, our menu consisted of Salad La Louisiana, Southern Fried Chicken, Cotton Balls, Black-eyed Peas, Short'nin' Bread, Magnolia Buds, Planter's Punch and Dixie Delight.
The "Memories" program was from our senior presentation depicting our 4 years of high school. The seniors participated in songs and skits and it concluded with our class singing our class song Climb Every Mountain.
Here is a copy of my invitation to my 20 year high school reunion. You can see the XCP crest below the Brophy crest because we had our reunions together.
This is a copy of my invitation to my 40 year high school reunion which was, again, held with the alums from Brophy.

Here is my 1966 senior photo that was included in the yearbook.

This is a Xavier gator (the alligator is the mascot for XCP) luggage tag. I bought it when my daughter was a student at XCP from 1994-1998. I also bought Christmas angels, XCP dolls, sweatshirts, a stuffed gator, and many other things during her 4 years of high school. Somehow I think that I bought these mementos more for me as a way to reminisce about the good ol' days at XCP.

Well that concludes my paper on the letter "X" and my trip down memory lane. This is linked back to Alphabe-Thursday for the letter "X". Visit Mrs. Matlock here and check out XCP here.

W is for Weddings

Well we only have 3 more weeks of school for Alphabe-Thursday and then we start on some summer activities that Mrs. Matlock has planned for our class.


This week we are working on the letter "W" and what could be more appropriate in June than WEDDINGS! I have vintage photos of weddings, recent weddings, wedding dolls, and magazine articles on weddings and wedding dresses. Please click on each photo to enlarge for a better and clearer picture.

This first wedding photo was probably taken in 1919 when my mother was 5 years old. She is the little girl on the right with a big bow and a bouquet almost as big as she is!

This next photo is from the 1930's and my mother is on the right again sitting next to the flower girl who is standing. Notice that my mother is the only one with her hat tilted in a different direction!
My mother is on the right again sitting next to the flower girl. This photo was probably taken in the 1920's when carrying gigantic bouquets was in style. Can you imagine being able to afford those flowers today??????
This photo is of my husband's grandparents, Pauline and James. It was taken in 1922.
My grandparents are in the next photo which was taken in 1913. My grandmother was 15 and probably not too happy to be marrying a man she hardly knew. They were married for 43 years before my grandfather passed away.
This photo is of my parents and it was taken in 1943 right before my father left for Europe and WWII. My parents were together for 55 years before my dad passed away. My mother, who lives with us, will be 96 years old in September.
Here is my mother's wedding dress and veil (top part of the picture) from 1943. She has kept it all these years and I will, in turn, pass it to my daughter so the dress will stay in the family. I can't believe that I let my daughter play "dress-up" in this gown!! What was I thinking??????????

My 1978 wedding announcement

My 1978 wedding

My daughter and her husband on their wedding day

This bride doll is from my childhood. She wasn't originally a bride doll but my mother bought the bride dress when she had the doll restrung. The face on this doll is still as clear and as pretty as ever.
Here is a 1952 or 1953 photo of me (on the right) with my cousin holding our dolls. This is the doll from the previous photo.

Here is a vintage ad for wedding dresses. I believe it is from 1932.

I bought a series of 4 bride dolls from Ashton-Drake with an interesting story behind them. Each doll is related and they all have on a variation of the same dress.

This first photo is of Elizabeth with the dress from the 1900's.

Here is Betty (Elizabeth's daughter) in the dress with a 1930's style.

In this photo, you see Beth (Betty's daughter) in the dress with a 1960's style.

Finally there is Lisa (Beth's daughter) in the dress with a 1990's flair.
Each dress over the span of 90 years seems to have the bottom lace in common.

Here is the magazine rendition of the first 3 dolls wearing the dress. Trust me, the magazine photo is much better than my individual photos of the dolls.
Here are all 4 dolls but the picture is rather small. Hopefully you can click to enlarge.
This is linked to Alphabe-Thursday for the letter "W".

V is for VINTAGE

Our teacher, Mrs. Matlock, has assigned our class the letter "V" for this week as part of Alphabe-Thursday. I thought of many things to write about, but I finally decided to post photos of some vintage items that I have. The things I'm writing about are quite varied, so relax and enjoy the photos of a time gone by when fashion had a whole different look, magazine ads were quite stylish, cars were cheaper, childhood toys were simple, and history was being made.


This first photo is of a vintage booklet printed in 1938. The lady on the cover reminds me of Donna Reed with her fresh dress, nice smile, and perfect hair. The man has on a tie and so does the little boy which would probably not be on a current cover of any book for today's homemakers! Even the dog seems to be smiling in this idyllic family setting. This 1942 vintage ad shows a sailor skating with a pretty girl dressed and coiffed for the occasion while drawing attention to razor blades being sold for either a dime or 27 cents!

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you know that my mother saved many sentimental things. This photo shows the 1948 calendar when I was born. My birthday is May 12, 1948, and you can see that sour cream peach pie was the pie of the month. I also have calendars like this from 1949 and 1952 but I don't know why my mother saved these two specific years.
Ahhh, speaking of vintage toys....you can see doll shoes that belonged to my Vogue Ginny and Jill dolls (two white with straps, pink, red and the white strap heels). The black shoes and the cream-colored shoes with bows belonged to other vintage dolls that I had (actually I still might have the dolls that match the shoes but they are packed away).
I never heard of Vera Borea but apparently she was a countess that brought haute couture on her visit to America. Interesting fashion indeed.
I chuckled when I saw this vintage 1932 ad for "little women or larger-hip figures". Did Paris designers actually think that some women were fuller and shorter than their slim, tall model counterparts?
I've always liked this graduation card from 1966 which was the year that I graduated from high school. Could this actually be vintage???? Yikes!!! Does anyone else remember flips, heavy bangs, headbands, gloves (which were a MUST) and puffy sleeves on delicate dresses? Lord, give me strength!
The next two photos show hats that I think are so striking. Apparently high crowns, ribbon and feathers were important in some vintage fashion.

This vintage photo is of my grandmother (second from the right) and it was probably taken around 1910 or 1911. More fashion of the time but not from Paris!
This next vintage photo is of my mother and her brother, Peter, taken between 1925 and 1927. Wavy hair and sack dresses must have been popular then.
My 1966 Ford Mustang!!!! My parents bought this car for me when I was in college. I drove this car for many years and I still drive it occasionally! My husband really likes this Mustang and he has had a lot of work done to it. I wasn't happy about it because my baby blue Mustang isn't totally original anymore, but so many people have told me that my car is worth more money now. I hope that my grandson likes it because it will be his car one day.
A car for $535!!!! Hmmmm, seems vintage to me! Notice the cartoon ad in the background. It is for a Mickey Mouse animated cartoon with the original mouse character as Walt Disney drew it so many years ago.
This next photo is a small portion of a vintage table cloth that my mother embroidered in the 1930's. She spent quite a bit of time working on this and I wish you could see all of it. The table cloth is quite large and her work is very precise.
A cute vintage Valentine with two darling children sharing hearts and flowers.
My father saved quite a bit of WWII history because he was part of it. He served in North Africa during WWII and he was a very proud veteran. I have many vintage newspapers, but this one stands out. It was printed as an extra edition on December 7, 1941 in the territory of Hawaii. The news was transmitted via "transpacific telephone" by the associated press and the paper cost all of 5 cents! I wish that I had taken a better picture of the newspaper but I was in a hurry.
Thank you for going on my vintage and historic journey and please visit others participating in Alphabe-Thursday. This is linked back to Alphabe-Thursday for the letter V.