Period costumes are becoming part of our Jubilee 150 celebrations, and especially period-costume balls.
Strike up the tunes of yesteryear, to thrill us one and all
For here’s chance to show your gear; the period-costume ball.
So come adorn, in best of taste, this jubilee affair.
There’s whalebone, love, around your waist and ribbons in your hair.
So, as we dance and jump and jig, nostalgia now assails,
For some may wear a farmer’s rig and some the townsman’s tails.
And let’s remember country balls, though ruthless Time may tramp…
The supper rooms and gingham gowns and kerosene-type lamp.
We took a horse and buggy home from those romantic dances
How manfully I took the reins while, you, love, took your chances.
And while the old horse waited there, so calmly in its traces
Sweet passion lit your bedtime eyes and trembled through my embraces.
Now let some old accordion make a friendly, wheezing tune
There’s starlight glow on Torrens Lake, North Terrace has a new moon
Your eyebrows, faintly Latin, to my senses seem to call.
So swirl in slinky satin at the period costume ball.
Alas… while not revealing names, no costume can disguise
Some garments were for slender frame and not for those our size,
And while the waltzes spin and thrill, I brood within the hall,
Remaining there a wallflower still at the period-costume ball.
Max Fatchen