Tag Archives: memories

Yummy Memories……

15 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in My Thoughts

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Growing up in a very small town in the 50’s and 60’s leaves you with so many fond memories of your childhood.  This town was very much like Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show.  Everybody knew everybody and their kids. 

We had our local barber,  pharmacy, dry goods store, five and dime, cafes, shoe shop, etc.  It was a thriving community and spending Saturday afternoon in town was an every week ritual for our family.  We only lived about a mile outside of town but the whole family, grandparents, aunts, cousins, everybody went into town on Saturday night.

Hubby and I grew up in the same small town, so we have some of the same memories of what it was like.  Our elementary, middle school and high school were all connected at that time.  Part of the school was two-story and had huge  windows that would be open on warmer days.  This is where the yummy comes in…….

There was a small pie factory,  Armstrong’s Home Style Turnovers , on land adjoining the school property.  If you were lucky enough to have a classroom on the front of the school building… and it was a warm day….. and the windows were open….and your teacher was in a good mood,  you could smell those pies cooking.   OOOOOooooo…. sniff, sniff…… yummy. 

Our teacher, and maybe this was for themselves as much as the students, would take orders, collect the money and send a couple of students over to buy pies.  The day old pies were a nickel and the hot ones, just out of the oven, were a dime.  That was back when a dime was worth a dime and a nickel was a nickel. 

The flavors were, apple, peach, cherry, coconut, chocolate, pineapple, lemon and  raisin.  We could walk right in the back door, a screen door that slammed shut (love that sound),  and give one of the cooks our order and the money.  What a great afternoon treat that was!  We didn’t get to do this every day but it was so special and such a great memory of my childhood.

Whenever we would come back for a visit, we lived elsewhere for 30 years,  if we found a place that sold these wonderful pies we would have to have one.  We even ran into a friend one time, who was also visiting, and she bought every one  the store had and was going to other outlets to see if they had any.  She has since started ordering them and having them shipped to her and her family.     

The factory was bought and the operation was moved to another town.  They weren’t quite the same but they still had the same wrapper.  That person soon sold it and the next person made a good go at it.  They began to be more like we had remembered and then he sold it.  Finally it sold to someone who got it right.

The wrappers are opaque versus the parchment looking paper it once was, but hey, it’s what’s inside that counts anyway.

Now when we go to our cabin or sometimes when we need to bring a dessert for a get together with friends, we buy  a  bunch of these and savor and devour them.  Mostly we buy them for ourselves and get a little selfish!!!

You are always a hit with a group when you bring these little devils.  We actually used them at our last class reunion as part of the party favors.  What a treasure! 

So here’s to the Armstrong’s Home Style Turnovers…..keep up the good work!!

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Threads of Grace……

07 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by in Projects

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A few months back a young lady from a local hospice came to our Quilt Guild and spoke to us about making something out of an item belonging to clients who had passed on.  Our finished product would be given to the loved who had provided the item. 

The program was called Threads of Grace and she brought an example  of what had been made by someone else.  The items provided could be a favorite dress, shirt, robe, blanket, handkerchief, tie,  gown, or pajamas, etc.  She asked for volunteers to sign up and she would give us a call when she had an item.

My call came a couple of months later and she gave me a soft yellow knit robe from an elderly lady.  The lady’s adult granddaughter brought it in along with a picture.

The hardest part to me was the deconstruction of the garment, not only physically but mentally.  What if I got it apart and couldn’t make anything out of it?  How do I make it represent the personality of the person who passed?  A lot of thought went into this and at times I didn’t know if I could do it!

The robe had a small inset satin embroidered collar, zipped up the front, and small scalloped trim on the pockets and sleeves.  After a few days or weeks of studying this,  I decided to make a small pillow with the grandmother’s picture on it and use some of the embellishments to add to it.

For those of you who sew, you know knit is not the easiest fabric to sew on, so the first thing I had to do after deconstruction was stabilize the fabric.  I used a fusible featherweight Pellon and adhered it with an iron on the wrong side of the fabric before I put the scissors to it.I then decided what size pillow I wanted and cut out the front and back of the pillow. 

The next step was to  transfer the picture to fabric using my scanner, printer and Printed Treasures fabric sheets for inkjet printers to create the cloth picture.  Then I sewed the trim to the picture and the picture to the front of the pillow.

 

I knew I wanted to use the embroidered collar in some way,  so here is what I envisioned.   

   

The next thing was to decide what else I needed to add and what to use. 

I love fabric roses and had made several for another project.  The knit fabric, being hard to control because of curling and raveling, gave me the idea to use the hem of the garment.  I cut it off  about an inch above the hem and ran a gathering stitch through it.  That way I had no raw edges on the petals of the roses.

I used the zipper pull to create the antennae of the butterfly and tacked it on with thread and a little Fabri-tac glue leaving the ends loose.  I attached the wings and the body of the butterfly so that it appeared 3-D.  Once all of that had been done, I sewed the back to the front and stuffed the pillow.  Whip stitched the opening and I was finished.

It gave me great joy and pleasure to make this for someone.  I know when my Daddy died, I got all of his ties and made pillows for my mother, my sister and my niece.  I never made one for myself and still have a few ties left.  Someday.

Of mice and cats…….

05 Saturday Mar 2011

Posted by in Family, My Thoughts, Pets

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This is about a weekend almost one year ago, March 18-21, 2010,  that was spent at Camp Liberty.  I had actually written it in a document because it stood out as a something I would like to remember.  Why?  I guess you’ll know the real reason at the end of this blog.

It was Thursday evening after we had returned from having dinner at our favorite catfish restaurant, Fall Hollow.  We had settled down to watch a little TV before retiring for the night.  Of course, going to the camp for the weekend is supposed to be relaxing and for the most part non eventful.

To begin with, lady bugs decided they liked our camp also.  They seem to like a couple of light fixtures, the kitchen windows and our son’s bedroom window.   The little buggers just crawl around and around in circles, fall off, turn over and die.   So when we walked into the camp that was what we found.This night while I was watching TV with hubby, I thought one flew onto the back of my neck.  I swatted it but it wasn’t a lady bug, it was a dang wasp.  OUCH!  Needless to say, I got stung.  I hadn’t been stung by a wasp in a while and this hurt like everything.  But he won’t hurt anyone again.!!

Okay, drama over, lady bugs under control and wasp flying around in another world.  Now I am sitting down ready to watch TV.  Boo is sitting beside me on the arm of the love seat  when she suddenly jumps down and runs into our bedroom.    In a couple of minutes she comes out and proudly shows us her catch.   It’s a mouse!!Thinking it might be fun to play with, she drops it and the mouse makes a run for it.  Hubby was backing Boo up and helped her chase it down.  He grabs it with paper towels and proceeds to take it outside and dispose of it.  Now we can settle down and watch TV.  Wrong!!  A couple of hours later, we repeat the same scenario.  Look mom I brought you a present.  Aren’t you proud of me?Hubby to the rescue again, (my hero) caught this little guy and outside again.   I don’t know what he does with them but I probably don’t want to know.  Back to the TV and no more mice for the night.  Whew!!!

Next day, Friday, was a beautiful day.  The river was beautiful, the sun was out for the first time in weeks and all was well with the world.  Such a nice relaxing day.  The evening remains calm and about 11 pm I decide to go to bed.  Hubby decided to stay up a while longer and watch TV.

Boo props herself on the bed with her eyes glued to the fireplace.  This is her usual position when sleeping at the camp.  About 3 am I am awakened by a noise that sounds like  EEEEK,  EEEEK and then Boo pounces on my bed.   I raise up and turn on the lamp and there she is with her prize ON MY BED!  I jump up and get hubby off the sofa (he can sleep through most anything) to come to my rescue once more.  But the mouse escapes.  They are quick little suckers.  Boo chases it around but hubby goes back to his comfortable place and asleep.

I”M UP!!!  I am not going back to bed until I’m sure this mouse is not in my bedroom, my bed  or in the camp.  Boo is still on the search.  She hones in on hubby’s shoes.  “Hubby the mouse is in your shoe“.  He looks but doesn’t see anything so back to bed for hubby.   Boo is pushing his shoe all over the floor.  I get brave enough to look in the shoe and what do I see…..two little feet.

I grab the shoe and march to hubby on the sofa.  “The mouse is in your shoe!”  Hubby….”Are you sure?”  I take another look and say…..”YES!  I see his little face.”  He takes the shoe and goes outside and returns with the shoe and no mouse.  Poor Boo is confused and once he puts the shoe down she continues to look.  She takes her place on the bed once more and I decide to sleep on the love seat the remainder of the night!!  What a night….it was like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Okay, next morning I get up and take our sweet little Corky out.  He is old and not quite as quick as he use to be, so we go with him and watch for anything that might decide he would make a good meal.  I glance over to the river and guess what I see?  A bald Eagle flying down river.  We knew  he was around here and had only seen him one other time  but didn’t get a picture. 

I ran into the camp, got hubby, the binoculars and the camera and we ran back out to the point, hoping he had lit on a tree .  Sure enough about 100 yards down stream he was on a tree and there he sat for a few minutes.  Hubby got this picture and then he flew away.

It was such an awesome moment.  We look for him every time we go down but so far no more sightings.

This made up for the lady bugs, the chasing of the mouse for two nights and getting no sleep.  This is why we love the river and the camp.  Our animals and wildlife keep  us entertained.  Who needs TV??

Mamas and Papas……

22 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Family

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Aren’t grandparents wonderful?  At least mine were. Read on and you’ll see why!  

My maternal grandparents were a constant in my sister’s and my life.  We lived next door until I was five, then behind them on another street, then half a block away and finally across the street.  I saw them every day until I got married and moved away.  We stayed at their house probably more than  our own. 

To all the grandchildren they were Mama and Papa but to just about everyone else in town they were Aunt Dora and Uncle Tom.  Mama was a tiny 4ft, 11in tall and I think the most she ever weighed was 98 lbs and that was probably soaking wet.  Papa was probably 5ft, 11in tall and always slim.  His signature look was a bow tie.

Our parents both worked so we would go to their house in the mornings, when school was in session, and wait for the bus until I was probably in the fourth grade. Every afternoon we would come back to their house and there was always some goodie waiting for us.  It could have been a left over biscuit with syrup, a homegrown baked potato, parched peanuts that were also grown by them, iced cookies or tea cakes, chocolate or caramel pie, or a cake like chocolate or banana are just a few of the things I remember.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it! 

Mama always kept busy as did my Aunt Hazel, who lived with them.  Mama taught my sister and me how to crochet and sew by hand.   Aunt Hazel taught us how to embroidery and make paper dolls from grocery bags.  I remember watching Mama piece quilts and make soap in a kettle outside. 

She would plant all kinds of flowers around her home, tell us all about them and collect the seeds to plant for the next year.  She always had a fresh bouquet in the summer such as roses, lilies, and zinnias  She would also help us set up a playhouse in an old wood shed and gave us old dishes, pots and utensils to make mud pies. 

Mama used to make all her dresses on a treadle sewing machine and when I would beg to sew on it, she would take the belt off and let me sit there and push the treadle up and down like I was sewing.  I have that machine today.  She told me her father gave it to her when she was 16.  There are entirely too many memories of her to mention in this post but I credit her with teaching me so much of what I love to do now.

Papa on the other hand was such a character and so full of mischief.  He had this little grin on his face like he had just gotten away with something and probably had.  He had a huge garden and would pay us to help him hoe the rows….. a whole dime….. and we thought we were rich. 

There was a small, small store (we actually called it “The Little Store”) a short distance from his house and he walked us there to spend our dime.  We could get a candy bar or salted peanuts and a RC cola for a dime.  Papa would usually get peanuts and put them in his cola and then drink it.  We would copy him, thinking it was “cool”.  He grew all their own vegetables, watermelons, cantaloupe, strawberries, and peanuts. Again he would pay us a dime to help him stack the peanuts so they would dry. 

He taught me how and where to dig for ground worms for bait, how to bait the hook and fish.  He slapped his leg when he laughed, which was a lot, rolled his own cigarettes with Prince Albert, chewed tobacco and taught us to spit off the porch. VERY lady like, right?  By the way, my son never knew him, but he slaps his leg when he laughs just like Papa.

I loved them so very much and have such vivid memories of growing up around them.  They lived in a very modest house and didn’t have a lot of money but they were rich in so many other ways, it was worth more than any amount of money. 

They told us stories of their childhood and of my mother as a little girl and her brother and sisters, had feather beds for us to sleep in, a wood stove to warm their house and all the love they could possibly give to their children and grandchildren.

I hope I am remembered as fondly by the members of my family someday, but Mama and Papa’s shoes are big ones to fill.