Some days are just ugly by nature. Today is one of those days. Light showers are predicted, and it will stay in the 50’s. I will be cozy and warm at home.

My finger still hurts. I figure it will hurt for a while. Right now it is a useless limb which objects to my hand being used at all. I have to keep stopping because typing is a problem.

When I was a kid, Clothes were divided by function. I had school clothes, my uniform, and school shoes. The rule was I had to change as soon as I got home into my play clothes and my sneakers. I had church clothes, usually a skirt and blouse. I never wore that outfit anywhere else. It was a once a week outfit. My school shoes, though, were for Sundays as well. I had special outfits like a new Easter dress every year and usually new clothes, in wrapped presents under the Christmas tree.

In college, I had to wear skirts or Dresses, no pants, until the winter of my sophomore year. That was about the coldest winter in a long while. We had fierce winds and snow. Walking to class between buildings was like taking your life into your hands. The winds buffeted you. Your legs and feet froze. That was when the rule changed. We were allowed to wear pants. The dress code disappeared forever.

In Ghana, I had to wear a dress every day. Only yama yama girls wore pants. They did their business mostly in the cities, proverbially on street corners. I brought with me several dresses, skirts and blouses,, but in a short time I had dresses made with Ghanaian cloth. They were all I wore. Ghanaian women wore beautiful dresses, often two piece dresses, made with local cloth in vibrant colors. Their more formal outfit was three pieces, a top, a long skirt and a matching cloth wrap around them about the middle. They were beautiful.

When I went back to Ghana after so many years, acceptable clothing for women had changed. I saw far fewer women wearing traditional cloth. The ones who did were mostly older women. I was sorry for the change though I understood it. Pants were now acceptable, but I knew that ahead of time so I had brought pants to wear, but while I was there, I had blouses and dresses made from the beautiful cloth I had bought in the market. They were my connection to my memories of that earlier time in Ghana. I love those clothes.