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A woman’s thrifted leather jacket from 1971 tells a heartbreaking love story: ‘I wish to hear Dianne’s side of the story so bad’
A vintage aficionado recently came across one item of clothing that tells a heartbreaking story.
Maya Sommer (@thinklessaboutmen), a vintage clothing curator, shared a video on TikTok in which she discovered items within a leather jacket she thrifted. What was supposedly just an article of clothing quickly evolved into something more — something with a really emotional backstory.
“I still can’t really process what I have in my possession,” she begins. “I found this leather jacket at a thrift store on Tuesday, and I bought it excitedly and quickly because it fit me really well. When I got home, I went to try on the jacket, and I felt that there were some things in the pocket.”
Maya comes across a pocket journal with an entry from Thurs., Nov. 11, 1971.
“‘ONE Week has passed and Dianne has not called or wrote me,'” reads the excerpt.
“‘Monday, November 22, 1971: Today would have been our 9th anniversary. And 10 yr. together. I got drunk by myself,'” reads another entry.
“I did not know that that would be the last time I see her.”
As Maya flips through more pages of the notebook, she comes across a particularly affecting one.
“‘Dianne and I made love this morning before she went to work,'” Maya reads. “‘I took her to breakfast and then to work. I kissed her before I left her off. I did not know that that would be the last time I would see her.'”
Compelled to find out more about where this jacket came from, Maya looks through other pockets.
“At this point, my heart was racing, and I could feel the heartbreak that was stored in this jacket,” she says. “So I reached in to find out if anything else was in there, and I found these three silver dollars from 1921. Then, I reached into the other pocket, and I found this little shot-size bottle of Seagram’s Canadian whiskey from 1966.”
Maya unearthed the contents of another pocket in the back of the jacket, too. There, she found a “daily reminder and desk calendar” with what appeared to be the same entries written in the pocketbook she initially found.
“‘I hope I never finish this book,'” Maya reads. “‘Maybe Dianne will be back before I do.’ Starts May 13, 1971, finished May 4, 1972. This book actually contains the same entries as the little book, but he put them into this day planner so that he could figure out the timeframe for everything… at least, that’s what I assume.”
“It says: ‘First time in 10 years not with Dianne at this time of year,'” Maya adds. “And then the New Year strikes, and the January 1st entry just says: ‘Why?'”
As someone who feels so passionately about vintage, Maya considers herself lucky to have come across a piece with such a deep history.
“It’s just a dream to be able to know the actual history behind a garment,” she explains. “And this just feels like it’s on another level. It’s like a time capsule from 1971, and with such poignant diary entries from this previous owner that I just can’t believe it.”
“you just dragged our hearts into that story so fast we forget the jacket”
Commenters were taken by the heart-wrenching story behind this jacket. Many wonder what happened to Dianne, if she’s OK, and if the owner of the jacket ever saw her again.
“I wish to hear Dianne’s side of the story so bad,” @_momomo_4 wrote.
“That picture was taken at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Florida,” @arilipkin said of the Polaroid, presumably of Dianne. “I used to go there with my family as a kid.”
“This is so special. This is so sad. This is so emotional,” @austin.tronzo replied.
With all of its melancholy relics, this jacket, it seems, has lived a full life and experienced a great deal of love and loss. For a vintage curator, to own such a deeply lived-in article of clothing nonetheless seems incredibly special.
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The post A woman’s thrifted leather jacket from 1971 tells a heartbreaking love story: ‘I wish to hear Dianne’s side of the story so bad’ appeared first on In The Know.
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