Easter Dresses

I took the kids + 1 friend of Ross' to the mall yesterday.  I remember a time in life where I panicked at the thought of having a kid out-of-sight at the mall.  Yesterday I told Ross and his friend to meet me at VM's in 45 minutes.  Watching them ride the escalator upstairs and out of my view was a weird feeling. But, times are changing. 

The girls barely made it out of VM's.  Incase you weren't around pre-2008, VM's stands for Von Maur and where G'funk (aka Grandma Claussen worked in alterations).  While the girls ooohed and ahhhed at all the Easter dresses, and an old lady played the piano by the escalator, I swear I smelled her. 

The girls were laughing and racing from dress rack to dress rack as I looked around the store, imagining her hobbling toward us with a 'sale item that was so cheap it might as well hang in the closet'.  But there was nobody.  I chalked the smell up to memories, the way VM must smell and with old ladies in the store; at least one probably wore White Shoulders, right?

But as we rode the escalator upstairs, the smell vanished.  We were entering the Better Sportswear department and it smelled like regular old Von Maur.  But downstairs, so many little girl dresses, my giggling girls, the piano playing and that smell.  I've come to the conclusion that's where she was yesterday.  Sunday afternoon at VM's.  Of course she was.  She wouldn't have missed those giggles for the world.