Butterfly Earrings

On hot and humid days, I like to wear light tops with no sleeves.  (Bat wing arms be damned; I'm going to be comfortable.  That that skin/fat flap in the breeze.)  One of my most comfortable blouses has butterflies on it.  So I like to wear earrings that go with it.

I bought a pair of "dangly" earrings some years back that had butterflies on them.  At some point within the last year or two, I lost one.  They were cheap (under $10), but I was upset that I lost one.  I really liked them and I could never find another pair that matched the original.

When I put on my butterfly top this morning, I was thinking about all of this.  Then I remembered a pair of earrings I got when I first got my ears pierced.   This took me down memory lane...

I got my ears pierced the summer before I went into 5th grade, back when 5th grade was still in elementary school.  The two fifth grade teachers, Miss M and Miss D, were very cool and very (1970s) fashionable.  Miss D was going to be my 5th grade teacher and she wore some of the coolest hoop earrings I ever saw.  I wanted to be like Miss D.  

I petitioned my mother to get my ears pierced.  While she had pierced ears (and some cool earrings, but not as cool as Miss D), she didn't do so until she was in her 20s.  Her mother had not approved of pierced ears.  (Just like I didn't approve of my son getting his ears pierced.)  My mother wanted to wait until I was older.  However, that summer family friends of ours who had moved from our town to California were coming to visit.  Their younger daughter (who shared my first name) wanted to get her ears pierced.  So it became a "thing."  The two of us would both get our ears pierced together.

We did one summer day at a jewelry store in the next town over (I think).  I remember it hurting a little, despite the fact that some kind of numbing agent had been applied.  (I think it hurt because my friend's mother wanted to take photos at every step...maybe that's where I picked it up?)  I got tiny gold (ball) studs, like most people did.  But I also convinced my mother to buy me a pair of butterfly (stud) earrings.

I couldn't wait until I could take out the tiny gold balls and replace them with the butterflies.  (I think I had to wait 2 weeks.)  I loved those earrings.  However, as my ears healed, I was anxious to wear hoops.  They pulled at my ears and hurt a bit, but I wanted to and did wear hoops, just the like the cool teachers did.  (Believe me, the 5th grade teachers were so cool.  I can still remember the full names of both of them.  I can still see how they looked all those years ago.  Miss M with her frosted hair and Miss D with her peasant skirts.  To me they were the epitome of fashion and cool.)

All these years later I have a LOT of earrings.  Earrings of different sizes.  Earrings of different colors.  I have studs, hoops, dangles, drops.  You name it I probably have it.  Over the years I have lost some.  I have donated some.  But I still have my original butterfly earrings.  And today I'm wearing them.  As I do I remember Miss M and Miss D, my friend, my friend's mother and family and my mother.  From the 1970s to the 2020s; they are still a cool pair of earrings.