SHORT STORIES: The Brassiere

I was married in 1946 when I was 21 years old. My husband, Ralph, had just been discharged from the Navy and we were moving to Florida from Boston. Ralph had been offered a position with New York Life Insurance Company.

We spent our wedding night at the Copley Plaza Hotel. The next morning we were to take a train to St. Augustine.

I had packed a small suitcase with just my underwear and nightgowns. It was impossible to get a good leather suitcase because of the war effort, so mine was a glorified cardboard one and the clasp did not work very well.

I decided to wrap my brassieres around the teacups that we received as wedding fits, as I was taking that on the train with me. The other suitcases we had checked.

As we were running through the train station in Boston, my suitcase flew open and my possessions fell out onto the floor. Ralph was hurrying ahead of me, so I hollered to him to come back to help me. We hurriedly gathered up everything back into the suitcase and snapped it shut.

As I started to proceed to the train, a man came up to me and said, “Madame, is this yours?”

I saw him holding my brassier with a teacup wrapped inside. I could have died of embarrassment!

I took the cup and brassier, thanked him, and ran to catch the train. I think my face was red all the way to St. Augustine.

Helen Hampton is a member of the writing class offered through the Cerritos College Adult Education Program. It is held off-campus at the Norwalk Senior Center.