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The Slice: Bridesmaids and their dresses

The Slice asked.

Gretchen Cleveland answered.

“Yes, bridesmaids dresses really are that bad,” she wrote. “The year Katherine Heigl’s movie ‘27 Dresses’ came out, I had been in five weddings the previous summer. In an effort to give life to those dresses again, I rallied my friends for a night out and told them to put on the $400 bridesmaid dresses they were told they’d be able to wear again, but never had the right occasion to do so.

“Here was our occasion. When we walked into the movie theater, people turned, took a minute to take in all the dresses, and then laughed and applauded as we made our way to our seats. Then the entire movie theater engaged in what can best be described as a bridesmaid support group. Descriptions of dresses, accessories, and bridezilla stories commenced and we all had a good laugh before the movie.

“Needless to say when I got married a few years later at age 30, I told my friends and sisters to find a black dress, any black dress, to assure they ended up with something they liked, was in their budget, and that they would, indeed, be able to wear again. Next to deciding to marry my husband, it was the best wedding decision I made.”

Summer vacation road trip memory: “It was the early ’70s,” wrote Karen Botker. “My favorite was a four-hour trip, in a station wagon, with mom, dad and grandma in the front seat, my sister, older brother and I in the back.

“All three adults smoked, but they kept the windows down to keep the car cool. We could breathe, but probably looked like something the cat drug in from a storm. We did this every year.

“The station wagon year was memorable because of the flat tire suffered, in the middle of nowhere, on a 90 degree day.

“We had to unload the ENTIRE wagon portion of all our luggage and kitchen supplies, et cetera to get to the spare tire.

“My grandmother was not a gracious woman when it came to inconvenience.”

That might be an understatement.

“There were more swear words coming out of her mouth as she sat on a suitcase, with a cigarette in her hand, hair perfectly coiffed, than out of my father’s from the trunk. Those were good times and the memory still makes me smile.”

Today’s Slice question: What is Spokane’s most closely guarded secret?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Maybe Spokane residents could imitate actor Paul Ford in “The Music Man” and refer to themselves as “River City…zians.”

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