Southern ladies are taught at an early age to be careful about our attire. We live by the white shoes rule and still today, the United Daughters of the Confederacy don hats and gloves for their meetings. Several years ago, I was in St. Augustine, Fla., with my husband at a business conference. Attendees came from all over the country and there were many wives along. While our husbands attended meetings, more interesting activities were planned for ladies; and of course, one of them was our national sport, shopping. A group of us was browsing at a fashionable boutique, when one woman in the group, from a northern state, came out of a dressing room wearing a very attractive suit. But then, she picks up a pair of "jellies," (surely you ladies remember those plastic shoes that came in dozens of neon colors) and positively cooing, she said, "Oh don't you think these look just darling with this suit!" I tell you, I almost fainted I was so embarrassed for her! I was traveling with a lady from Jackson and we looked at each other and though we spoke not an audible word, believe me, we communicated! We left that store; both of us thankful, that our Southern mamas had taught us better than to put on plastic shoes with business attire!

This happened several years ago and fashions have come and gone, mostly gone. Have y'all looked in a department store recently for a DRESS? We did wear them once didn't we? Well, good luck finding one now. I enjoy jeans and sweaters and slacks and blouses and I like skirts and tops, too. But on occasion, I'd like to go into a store and find a really nice looking dress! I looked up "dress" in Webster's: "an outer garment for women and girls, consisting of bodice and skirt." Whatever happened to garments with zippers up the back or buttons down the front? What happened to lace-edged collars and pintucking, pleated skirts and even hems? The few dresses one can find look like a 5 year old measured the hem and they're made out of flimsy, flowered, ruffled poof or they're sleeveless and backless here at the brink of winter! Some of these dresses look more like a Halloween costume than a dress. The good Southern word for junk like that is tacky.

And I don't seem to be alone in this where-are-the-dresses dilemma. On two recent visits to Mobile I actually felt sorry for two ladies who seemed to be frustrated looking for dresses. As I was pushing hangers on a sports wear rack in Belk, one of them came up to me and asked, "Can you please tell me where the dress department is?" I pointed in the general direction of where it used to be when it was McRae's and said, "I think it's right over yonder." Later I went over there. NO. There is no longer a regular dress department.

Later, as I approached a customer service desk in Dillards, I could hear the hopelessness in another lady's voice who was apparently asking the sales associate about dresses; "you know - what we used to wear to church!" The associate had no other choice but to say to the frustrated woman, "Well, we have these spaghetti-strap formals, but I agree, you really can't wear those to church or club meeting." REALLY.

In Gone With the Wind, Rhett Butler was a blockade-runner; that is, at great danger, he forced his ship through the Yankee blockade at the port of Charleston. The war had caused a scarcity of goods and the ladies always looked forward with excitement to what bonnets, dresses, ribbons and laces, Rhett might bring from Paris. (Of course, that handsome devil brought some rifles in the hold of that ship, too.)

It appears that we need Rhett Butler back here to bring us some dresses from Paris or China or somewhere. They're sure not designing them in New York.

(Readers may respond to: jeffersondavis@ wildblue.net)