Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sally Draper: "I'm so many people."

I just love Sally.  Not only can she mix a mean cocktail, she simply does not have time for your adult bs.  "You say things and you don't mean them.  And you can't just do that," she says early on in the show.  Truth is pretty much what Mad Men is all about, and Sally acts frequently as the show's moral compass.  "Just tell the truth," she tells Don.  But adults don't value truth the way Sally does. About Betty's domineering parenting, Sally says, "She doesn't care what the truth is, as long as I do what she says."  An older Sally, with a more nuanced understanding of truth and adult relationships, tells her father, "It's more embarrassing for me to catch you in a lie than it is for you to be lying," 

Teenage Sally gives me heart, and shows signs of growing up into a person with a pretty good head on her shoulders.  Yes, she is suspended from school when she gets caught buying beer.  But she also kisses the geeky young astronomer, and not his douchey jock brother.  She sounds like she could be a budding feminist:  "Yeah, I know, because where would Mom be without her perfect nose?  She wouldn't find a man like you.  She'd be nothing."  (She is still very sassy.)  She is tired of being asked what she wants to do in the future, but she does know that she wants to be different from her parents.  We know from watching the show that Sally is not entirely different from either Don or Betty.  But maybe, probably, hopefully, she can be something better than they are.  And in a line of dialogue uncharacteristic of both Sally and the show, she tells her father, "Happy Valentine's Day.  I love you."  Sally is possibly the only character on the show to unironically and honestly tell someone she loves them.




* That time when Sally got her period at the Museum of Natural History, and she went home to Betty and they actually shared a tender moment! | 1950s B.F. Goodrich hot water bottle from WhimzyTime
* 1960s blue plaid girl's dress | BabyTweeds
* "I wanna get on a bus, get away from you and Mom, and hopefully be a different person than either of you." | 1960s mod floral suitcase from TheNewtonLabel
* One of my favorite moments in the series is when Don takes Sally and Bobby to see the house he (as Dick Whitman) lived in as a child. | 1970s Norman Rockwell "A Family Tree" collector's plate from agardenofdreams
* Sally has a close relationship with her grandfather, who gives her driving lessons. | 1963 Matchbox Ford Zephyr from RedRavenCollectibles
*  1960s plaid poncho | TimandKimShow
* That time when Sally makes Don French toast and mistakes the bottle of rum for Mrs. Butterworth's.  And he likes it. | 1960s Old Oak Rum bottle from NWAttic
* From "Are you and Daddy doing it?" to "This conversation is a little late.  And so am I." | 1920s birth control book from HappyFortuneVintage
* Sally cutting her own hair is just one of the many ways in which she rebels. | 1950s school scissors from HilltopTimes
* large 1970s mod daisy stickers | QueeniesCollectibles
* Some of my favorite Mad Men dialogue is the banter between Sally and Roger in the "At the Codfish Ball" episode.  Of course, that ended on a rather icky note.  But Sally wore her first grown-up dress and go-go boots! | 1960s white go-go boots from SplendoreBoutique

xo
K

3 comments:

  1. Great finds here! Sally Draper is such a mid century gal!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sally is such a fantastic character. I'll miss her!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful collection! The episode Don takes Sally and Bobby to his childhood home is one of my favorites as well. It has been so neat watching her grow as a character.

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