Glovers' glee

I'll be very interested in learning tomorrow whether anyone took any specific notice of Mrs. Obama's beautiful green gloves (probably nobody will mention Mr. O's, which obviously were not of the one-size-fits-all variety). It's sad that the department stores stock beautiful leather gloves in both subtle and bright colors, and they're always marked down at the end of the season (for me! just for me!). I wore my bright-yellow ones to death. I suppose that no gloves are made in this country these days; just as with prescription drugs, we probably must import them. My mother used to take us twice a year to the V*** Glove Shop to be fitted for cotton gloves and for leather ones. Oh, those scallops! Of course, there were also string-knit gloves trimmed in leather (for driving), plus leather gloves that were not for dress and immaculate kid gloves in the various lengths proper for evening occasions. This was a nineteenth-century survival, to all appearances, and one of the two elderly spinster sisters would measure and then advise on the proper gloves. There were forms on which to display the gloves, and I suppose they were ancient as well. I remember that the tiny shop also sold fine ladies' handkerchiefs. Perhaps they sold silk stockings also. Sometimes I can't believe how much of our childhood was straight out of the ninettenth century.