Alice Wickliffe Turner West (1905-2001)

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Alice is my paternal grandmother, known as "Dada." She would turn on the record player, hold me in her ams, and dance around the room—all the while singing with the music "Dah—da-da-da."

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Whilst visiting Dada years ago, I found a box of old photographs in the basement. Naturally, this one caught my eye straight away, so I pulled it out and asked her who it was. She laughed and told me it was her college picture taken around 1923-24. She held it and stared at it for a long time. As with most things in her life, this particular picture came with a great back story:

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"In those days it was expected that all 'decent' women wore their hair long. You can imagine how dealing with brushing, combing, and pinning that stuff up every day was a real nuisance! One Saturday morning, commiserating over breakfast in our dormitory, my best friend and I decided we'd had enough, so we marched ourselves downtown to the local barber shop. We proudly told the barber we each wanted a 'bob.' The next thing I can remember was hearing 'Whack, Whack, Whack!'—I'll tell you, getting that mane off the back of my neck felt absolutely wonderful!" Dada vigorously swept her hand across the nape of her neck while reliving the memory. 

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"Afterwards, we noticed a second-hand clothing store across the street. We ran over, sporting our new quaffs, and found this old beaver coat hanging on a mannequin. We looked at each other and said simultaneously: 'We'll get our school picture made in this!' It was priced at 50 cents, so we pooled our change and bought the coat to share between us. Honestly, we were so young and stupid—that coat was ratty and tattered, but we thought we were so glamorous.

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