Go Texan Parade

 Hello, Dear Ones! Have I told you how glad I am we are living back in Texas again? 

My chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy participated in the Go Texan Parade in Conroe, Texas, kicking off the fabulous Houston Rodeo. The few ladies who were in the parade wore our period dresses.

 

Here I am before we left in my period dress - dark blue with pink flowers. Mine is rather simple and would be called a day or tea dress with white under sleeves. Of course I have on my hoop! I'll bet the skirt alone weighs 6 pounds! Now I do have short hair and am in the process of trying to grow it out. It's long enough that I can pull it back and put on my 'curls'. Little ringlet curls that bounce all around. The ladies of the 1860s didn't wear bangs but I've worn bangs as long as I've had hair and I'm not pulling them back now! :)

We've decorated our 'chariot', our golf cart with our chapter sign. Mr. Precious was our dignitary as he is the Commander of one of his ancestry groups. Here you can see our ladies. We were so cute, I thought. Most of the other ladies dresses are more fancy than mine. I do sew but haven't tackled a period dress yet. Maybe one day I will jump in. I did make my little crushed velveteen cape though. If you're interested, our chapter is named for Belle Boyd who was a Confederate Spy. She was captured many times during the war but she was always released. I think she was an 'It' girl. She really wasn't very pretty but she had something!

Here I am in all of my period dress glory and a little glow of sunshine off the lens posed with me or is that a ghost? Hmm...

After a long day of parading, Mr. Precious, me and some friends retired to a Mexican food restaurant for some long overdue nourishment! I think I was so tired I was giddy! 

Be a sweetie,

Shelia :)

I'll leave you a little Note Song ~ This is a rather sad song and it's been said that this song was
banned by at least one Civil War general as it appeared responsible for
homesickness and many desertions among soldiers.

Lorena

The years creep slowly by, Lorena;
The snow is on the grass again,
The Sun's low down the sky, Lorena,
The frost gleams where the flowers have been.
But the heart throbs on as wildly now
As when the Summer days were nigh:
Oh! the Sun can never dip so low
Adown affection's cloudless sky!

A hundred months have passed, Lorena,
Since last I held that hand in mine,
And felt the pulse beat fast, Lorena,
Though mine beat faster far than thine.
A hundred months--'twas flowery May,
When up the hilly slope we climbed,
To watch the dying of the day,
And hear the distant church-bells chimed.

We loved each other then, Lorena,
More than we ever dared to tell;
And what we might have been, Lorena,
Had but our lovings prospered well!
But then, 'tis past; the years are gone;
I'll not call up their shadowy forms;
I'll say to them: Lost years, sleep on!
Sleep on! nor heed life's pelting storms.

The story of that past, Lorena,
Alas! I care not to repeat;
The hopes that could not last, Lorena,
They lived, but only lived to cheat!
I would not cause e'en one regret
To rankle in your bosom now;
For, "if we TRY, we may forget,"
Were words of thine, long years ago.

Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena;
They burn within my memory yet;
They touched some tender chords, Lorena,
Which thrill and tremble with regret;
'Twas not thy woman's heart that spoke:
Thy heart was always true to me;
A duty, stern and pressing, broke
The tie which linked my soul to thee.

It matters little now, Lorena;
The past -- is in the eternal past;
Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena,
Life's tide is ebbing out so fast..
There is a future! Oh! thank God!
Of life this is so small a part!
'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod;
But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart! 

~ written by J. P. Webster