Cleaning the Den Part II

“Hey look, look at this! I can’t believe she kept all of this,“ I exclaimed.
Big Sister crowded in next to me, “Look, it’s the clown costume. And the hat! She saved the hat!“ It was indeed the clown costume, made by my mother when Big Sister was a toddler for Halloween, and recycled for me a few years later. There were pictures in the family photo albums of each of us, clad in the shiny silver one-piece suit, puffy red buttons running up the front, tiny, cone-shaped hat on top of our heads. And, of course, the clown makeup: painted on red nose, rosy cheeks, and white triangles around the eyes. She had saved our most favorite clothes and shoes, stuffed carelessly in the garbage bag, lost for years in the crammed closet. I could remember most of the outfits and how much I had loved them.
“It’s the shoes, my red shoes!“ I yelled, holding up the little red patent lace up shoes that were featured in many pictures of me as a child. I could remember one particular photo, Big Sister and I standing together, dressed in our stylish and garish seventies clothing, shirts tucked firmly in and pants pulled up almost around our chests. I’m smiling in the picture, no doubt because I’m wearing my snappy yet stylish red shoes with the striped red and black laces! How I adored those shoes!