Norma Mae Kuntz was the envy of sister Fanny. Norma was beautiful, tall and dressed in the most elegant clothes a girl could ever imagine. Norma was the daughter of Max Kuntz. He idolized his two girls, Florence and his oldest. He wanted to give them everything that money could buy. He could well afford it since he owned a grocery store in the town of Weirton. People liked Max so they bought their weekly food from him. The customers too would enjoy seeing the man’s beautiful children. Norma Mae would often be there and at times she would help serve customers as they came in to make their purchases.

Fanny was friendly with Norma Mae. They would sometimes walk to school together. They would share little secrets about the boys in class and who was the most appealing.

On cold winter days Norma Mae would carry a white fur muff into which her hands were cozily tucked. She had a little fur hat which called attention to the golden highlights in her light brown hair.

Fanny often daydreamed that she too would someday have pretty dresses and matching accessories and that the boys would notice her also. She wondered why some children had so much luck and why she didn’t.

Fanny and Droozy had arrived in England each with one slightly torn blue velvet dress embroidered with colorful grapes.  They wore these until a very kind generous British lady had taken them to a department store and bought them each a very attractive, comfortable cotton dress. With those two dresses the Abner girls arrived in the United States.

Droozy did not much care about clothes when she first arrived. She was just happy to be here, away from the persecutions, out of Hitler’s clutches, in America the land of freedom and opportunity. Fanny, on the other hand, being thirteen years old, was very concerned with her appearance, how she looked, what her clothes were like and how the other girls dressed. She wanted to be like all the other American girls, especially like the beautiful Norma Mae.

One day a large box of used clothing arrived from some kindly people who wanted to do something for the new immigrants. Fanny and Droozy unpacked the clothes. They smelled strongly of mothballs. There were large dresses and coats that dragged to the floor and were so oversized that they were meant for someone three times the weight and height of Fanny and her sister. They were mostly faded and well worn. Mama not being a seamstress, nothing could be done with anything in that package.

Fanny folded the worn out garments and replaced them not so neatly into the box in which they had arrived. At that very moment she was determined that some day she would be just as well dressed as her friend Norma Mae.