PassingOn Collections

A young professional steps out

by Argerie Vasilakes

My mother would have worn this suit in the mid-1950s as she finished her student career at Flora Stone Mather College in Cleveland, Ohio – what later became Western Reserve College, and then Case Western Reserve University. The text books – inscribed with her familiar handwriting – were required reading for her degree in English. She enjoyed reading William Cullen Bryant, Tennyson, and other late 19th century poets. For a class assignment, she wrote a critique of Christopher Fry’s play, The Lady’s Not for Burning, not long after it debuted on Broadway.

The inset shows her with other bobby-sock-wearing first-year classmates. What a difference a few years would make, when she donned this impressive suit to seek and win a high school job teaching English and drama. The contours of the outfit’s style seem to express the strong and resilient spirit of women stepping into new roles in society. As for my mom, she was the only one of three sisters who went on from college to a professional career. Her students loved her, according to notes of appreciation tucked away with her dusty books. That’s the legacy she left me: to make a career for myself that I would be serious and passionate about. Now, after seventy years in the back of a closet, her suit reappears to remind me where I came from.

About the Memorial Item

Made from beige wool in the early 1950s, this jacket and skirt ensemble were designed by “Boykoff” and sold through “The Halle Bros. Co.” in Cleveland, according to its label. The jacket is cut in a classic hourglass silhouette with padded shoulders and a nipped waist. The notched collar leads to a row of three fabric-covered buttons running down the center of the jacket. The jacket flares out slightly at the hem creating a peplum effect. Inside, the jacket is lined in a pinky-beige crepe. The knee-length, straight skirt is partially lined and fastens with an original metal zipper and button above. 

In the jacket’s inside seam, a small tag reads, National Coat & Suit Industry Recovery Board, Manufactured under fair labor standards, assuring that this garment was made by workers who were not working excessive hours and who were being paid a fair hourly wage. There are many moth holes in the jacket and a few in the skirt. The ensemble is offered for sale, as is. Mend it, use it in a period play, or take it apart to make a sewing pattern.

For Sale: $50 as is

posted December 2025

Tootsie Roll Bank: A Lesson In Generosity

by Priscilla Callos

In the very back corner of my office cabinet, in one of my house’s few remaining hiding spots, lives a cardboard Tootsie Roll bank with a white plastic top. The sides are creased and cracked from decades of being gripped too tight, popped open, dumped out, scavenged through; but still, it holds some of the same pennies my grandfather would give us when we wanted to play poker with him. (We “little ones” could not be trusted to play with quarters.) 

My paternal grandparents were infinitely generous people – with their love and resources, with their time and stories and advice and care – because they believed in their bones that blessings needed to be shared; that goodness is too good to keep to oneself. Whenever I open that cabinet and spot the brown and white container at the back, I think less about my streak of lost poker games and more about the giving spirit my pappou and yiayia modeled for me.

About the Memorial Item

This classic 1980s Tootsie Roll bank is a cylindrical container made of painted cardboard and plastic, designed to look like a giant Tootsie Roll candy.

Not for Sale

posted December 2025