VICTORIA--Past Pages

I first met Victoria in the wilderness of my life when I lived for two years with my family on a few acres of undeveloped land in New Mexico in the late 80's. During THAT recession we had suffered a reversal of fortune (as it is so poetically phrased), and had retreated to a piece of ground that we owned, and which felt to me like a godforsaken place.




My husband hated me using that phrase. But I could feel my brain alter and my cells morph beneath the unrelenting desert sun. We were eight miles from a tiny town and "convenience" store, and forty-five miles from the city. My soul swelled up with the soreness that comes from trial, hardship, and isolation. I watched myself change, the way you observe a pregnancy changing you physically, a little at a time, and you know that you will never be the same again.




How wise a choice it was for city people to start over like pioneers I can't say. We lived too far from the highway to afford phone lines. Our nearest neighbor, a stranger, was a quarter mile away. Our large family occupied a single-wide mobile home that I have since joked was like living in a major appliance! We only went without electricity for a week. Without running water for a year. Mary Jane Butters would be so proud of me! (Be sure to look her up if you haven't heard of her.)



While the rest of the family would leave in the early morning, my trailing toddler and I would take care of business at home. Once each day we took the two mile round trip pilgrimage to the post office. Letters were my social life, and there was often one from a good friend or family member. Some form of joy usually arrived in the daily mail. Enter Victoria Magazine!




Like everyone else, I first found the publication on the newsstand. Thereafter, it arrived like manna from heaven. I would squirrel away in a soft corner and savor each phrase of text, pore over each beautiful photograph. I'm sure this is where I developed the habit of reading a magazine from first page to last without EVER peeking ahead until it was finished. When the magazine went away it was like losing an old and true friend.

The wilderness days were long past when Victoria stopped publication. I got on line and acquired every missing issue of my collection. I now carry the resurrected version of Victoria in my vintage shop, and am so happy to have it back! I have rows and stacks of issues around my home. I would no more think of throwing them out than I would a long lost friend.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the world! Ciao! for now!

Jacqueline

I've joined Kathy at A Delightsome Life for her first
Victoria--A Return to Loveliness blog party! I hope you will too!