True Blue--and Loyal, Too!

            In September (2019), my daughter and I attended the Chicagoland Elvis Meets the Beatles Festival. On Friday night after the opening performances, a masquerade ball was scheduled to cap off the first night’s festivities. My daughter already had a suitable dress for the occasion, but I needed to go shopping.

            One day, I met her for lunch. After discussing the trip and our required attire, I decided to strike out for the local thrift and consignment shops, hoping to find an inexpensive but elegant dress for the occasion. Laura had mentioned a few nearby shops where she had had good luck in the past.

In the first shop, I found a dress I liked but sadly, it was a size too small. It was blue with a silver glittery vertical pattern with geometric shapes. I was quite blue at the sizing, as it would have been perfect for the ball. In thinking of how to describe this dress to my daughter, I considered the blue color. It was not midnight blue. It was not teal or aqua. It was the color I think of when I think generically of blue--true blue. This usage made me wonder about the origin of the phrase “true blue” since I was thinking of it in terms of describing a color, but “true blue” also means “loyal.”

Of course, I whipped out my Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to investigate. The entry for “true blue” referred me to “blue,” where I found two different meanings. Firstly, true blue is “often taken as the colour of constancy or unchangingness (? with regard to the blue of the sky, or to some specially fast dye). Hence true blue (fig.): faithful, staunch and unwavering.” Secondly, “true blue” refers to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig party which in the 17^th century adopted the color blue to distinguish it from the royal red. These definitions melded the aspect of the color blue with the idea of fidelity.

I know that blue in centuries past was a popular color because it was easy to make from the indigo plant. At colonial reenacts at Charles Towne Landing, we have seen women making the blue dye from indigo and dyeing cloth with it, so I decided to dig deeper. A Google search led me to the web site, “The Phrase Finder.” There, I found a connection between blue cloth made at Coventry by the Covenanters, or the Scottish Presbyterians, and the aspect of devotion to their beliefs. Blue was chosen not only in contrast to the royal red, but also because of the colorfastness of the blue dye—true blue.

Ultimately, I found a suitable pumpkin orange dress with silver sparkles for the masquerade ball, and we both ordered masks to match our outfits. In the long run, it did not matter that the true blue dress was too small. Our flight to Chicago was significantly delayed by weather. When the ball was in full swing, we were in Milwaukee where our plane had been diverted until the weather passed and Midway opened again. We made it to the festival venue about 2 a.m., blue that we missed the fun, but grateful finally to reach Elvis!

 The (dis)Mayed Masked Mom Marooned in Milwaukee.