101 YEARS OLD AND STILL PARTYING

                                       101 YEARS OLD AND STILL PARTYING
                                                 Tommye.Wieland Allen
    Amazingly, she really is 101 years old and still traveling and partying several times a year.  Not only that, but she is often the center of attention because of her age and her love for activity.  Lately we have limited her activities to the wedding events of family members which occur several times a year.  Yes, with her length of age and her ability to still survive traveling, she continues to be a part of the celebrations of her many admirers. 
     She's lost a bit of the beauty of her youth so she's not much to look at these days, but after 101 years of traveling to 570 big events and lots of small events attached to the big events, for her to still travel and party, let alone still survive, is amazing to everyone who encounters her.  Her appearance has faded from her original coloring a bit and the elasticity with which she used to easily adjust to circumstances has relaxed considerably, but she still adjusts to the festivities attached to the events to which she has received special invitations months ahead of the events, while the event is still in the planning stage on the bride's wish list.  Yes, she keeps right on trucking, as people say.  She enjoys being the honored guest and that thrill keeps her going at her advancing age. 
     She doesn't dance anymore like she used to do at the receptions.  Because of her advanced age, after she makes her appearances at the weddings and receptions, she is quite pleased to just rest in the special place set aside for her after having done her duty of giving special blessings to the marriage of the bride and groom.  Her blessing is almost as desired as is her valued attendance at the weddings.  She is always an honored guest and her presence at the festivities warrants all the many oohs and aahs from everyone who is alerted to her presence and her remarkable age.  Her history is quite well known by then to all of the wedding guests. 
     This famous old girl, although faded and again in need of repair, has already had nine "facelifts."  She is a blue lace garter which has been worn by 570 brides in her 101 years of traveling and partying.
     Her first event was in 1919, her attendance having been as a gift especially made by Marguerite Trowbridge for her college roommate's wedding in Denver, Colorado.  Her appearance at the wedding was a special surprise gift for Marguerite's roommate.  Then her second wedding came after the suggestion was made by the roommate that she return the garter to the maker for her own wedding, to the delight of Marguerite who married Robert Jarrett Allen in June of 1920.  After that event the garter had a ten year rest until Marguerite was attending a wedding shower and the talk among the female guests began to be about the tradition of "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue."  That began her legacy of traveling to weddings as an honored guest after Marguerite offered her blue wedding garter to the first bride. 
     At that time the garter was bright blue satin and the lace was still pristine white and those colors lasted for about 20 years.  Inside of a blue satin pocket attached to the garter by Mrs. Allen she placed a 1919 six pence coin commemorating its beginning of its many trips down the aisle for the first time in 1919.   Since the garter fulfilled the tradition of being something old, something borrowed and something blue, that solved the problem for many brides who usually considered their own wedding dresses as fulfilling the "something new" requirement in the tradition.  The garter, as I said, has 101 years of history as of this year.  She has traveled up and down several hundred miles of church aisles, and has attended many receptions where she danced on the leg of the brides.  That was before she got too tired as the evening's dancing progressed,  Understandably, because of her fragility and age, the tradition of the throwing of the garter was discouraged many years ago because of the age related condition of the heirloom garter.  During the last few years she has only been worn during the ceremony and then she has been retired to her ornate silver box to be boxed up and returned to me for her eventual trip to another city in another state.  She will be the honored guest at the wedding of one of Mrs. Allen's great granddaughters in Arizona three months in the future.  
    The garter had one mishap.  The 1919 six pence was lost during the wearing, possibly after being thrown by the groom to a group of attending eligible men as is the common tradition, and the coin was replaced by a 1956 six pence.  The father of the bride searched many coin dealers for a 1919 six pence to replace the original one, but none was to be found.  He settled for the 1956 one, which was agreeable to Mrs. Allen.  Somewhere in the garter's travels a bride added a 1919 penny to the box and another bride added a different garter to be thrown to the group of unmarried young men for the tradition of whichever guy catches the garter is the next one to be married, per the same tradition of the bride throwing her bouquet to eligible women.   
    This famous old garter, although now faded and again in need of repair, has been worn with pride by 570 young brides.  Since 1970 it has been limited to being worn by women who are relatives of a former bride who also wore it.  I am the custodian of the garter, being the wife of the Stephen, the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Allen.  It has been discussed by family members that maybe the old girl is too tired to continue to travel and party; but as long as a relative of a former bride who wore it requests our fulfilling of her important family tradition she will keep on traveling in her ornate silver box inside of a cardboard box via U.S. Postage into the waiting arms of an excited bride and her mom.    
    In her first 50 years, the garter had the reputation of there never having been a divorce of a bride who wore the garter.  However, that reputation died a long time ago.  The garter has been delighted to grace the leg of brides on second marriages with no condemnation from the garter for the bride having chosen the wrong man for her first time down the aisle.  She still enjoys the attention and is such a sentimental gal that she blesses every marriage, first, second or even more as if it were the first marriage.  
    I feel honored to have been selected by Marguerite Allen as the caretaker of the garter.  It has been endearing to converse with the brides and mothers of the brides for the last 30 years and hear over and over again their exclamations that the bride cannot, absolutely cannot, get married without wearing Marguerite Allen's wedding garter.  As long as I keep on trucking, she will keep on trucking.  Then my daughter can decide what to do with her.  Until then, it's one wedding after another for the old girl as long as she holds together.  She's pretty resilient, kind of like the woman who first made her, Marguerite Trowbridge Allen.