Thursday, February 16, 2023

More Musings From My Mind

~  This past Valentine's Day brought back a memory I haven't thought about in y-e-a-r-s.  Back when I was in 8th grade, I went to a Valentine's Day dance.  For the occasion, my mom helped me set my hair in a currently fashionable style which was very different from my usual every day coiffure.  When I arrived at the dance (with my girlfriends as at that age we weren't actually having "dates" with boys yet), the boy who I "liked" and who said he "liked" me, too, took one look at me and said, "Why does your hair look so funny?"  I spent the rest of the dance crying in the restroom.  Do you have a memory of something that happened in your own younger years that you'd handle in an entirely different way now?
 
~  In the past, I've fainted many times because of the unmanageable pain of endometriosis.  (Sure am glad that's all in the past now.)  Have you ever fainted?
 
~  I had an aunt who was a fantastic baker.  One wouldn't think something as simple an an oatmeal cookie could be so much better than any other oatmeal cookie, but my Aunt J could prove differently.  She raised four children of her own who I know benefited from her baking expertise, but she also sent boxes and boxes to nieces and nephews away at school and to other friends and family.  My uncle often said if he had been wise, he would have invested in 3M because she used so much packing tape on a regular basis.  Sadly, these days the cost of sending goodie packages to anyone is so prohibitively expensive, one almost needs to take out a small loan in order to do it.  Do you frequently mail packages to anyone?
 
~  I have a wide gold wedding band that I've been wearing since the day way back in 1963 when hubby and I said, "I do."  In order to remove it from my finger, it was cut totally in half once years ago when I was bitten by a black fly (nasty little devil) on my ring finger which swelled up like a balloon.  I remember my mother received a new wedding band and engagement ring around her and my dad's 20th anniversary because both of her narrow rings had worn completely through in the back.  Do you still have and wear the same wedding ring or rings you received when you were first married?
 
~  I call myself primarily a quilter now, but the first handcraft I learned was knitting.  I don't know exactly how old I was when I asked my grandmother to teach me to knit (around ten years old?), but I was a dismal failure at it.  Years later in college I had a housemate who was an accomplished knitter, and she gave me the push to try it again.  My interest was immediate and I was obsessed with yarn and knitting needles until many years after that when I took a basic quilting class.  I still knit a bit (mostly socks), but I do more quilting now.  If you have a creative hobby (or business) you pursue, what is it and when did your first interest of it start? 
 
Thoughts and memories, questions for you.  I'd love to hear anything you might care to share. 

11 comments:

DFW said...

~ Childhood 'group date' memory, which I believe was on Valentines day as well. Outing w/my church group. I think we went roller skating then to a 'nice' restaurant (I think it was Western Sizzlin). A current crush sat by me. My meat was so tough & as I was cutting it a piece slipped & flew across the table & landed in one of the chapperones lap. Needless to say, I didn't eat anything that night.

~ Fainted once - in Burger King. I was around 17 or 18. It was after a long day at the beach & I guess I had some sort of sun stroke after coming into the cool fast food restaurant.

~ I occasionally ship a gift. Yikes, it IS expensive.

~ I still wear my wedding band & engagement ring. Added a ring guard in 2001 on our 20th wedding anniversary. Hubby surprised me with it at our friends wedding - Cades Cove, TN. He also also had the 'preacher' renew our vows. Everyone in attendance all 20 of them, was in on the surprise. Note: I don't wear them during the day or hardly at ALL during the summer. Too hot & humid here in the south. My hands & fingers swell terribly.

~ Quilting. Started in 2012. I remember playing under quilts my Grandmother & her friends were quilting - they were hung from the ceiling. I still use one of her quilts. I made a scrappy duvet cover for it. Hubby says it feels like a weighted blanket. Grandma collected 'scrap' from the local gin mill which is what she used as batting in most of her quilts. I believe if I took that quilt apart, I would still find a pieces cotton seed that the gin missed. Probably why they were scraps to begin with.

This was fun.... Thanks Mama Pea.

Mama Pea said...

DFW - Great sharing! I have to ask: what is a "ring guard?"

www.self-sufficientsam.blogspot.com said...

I was strange in that I never put much emphasis on what other people thought of me and I still don't to this day.
I fainted once when my son was rushed to the ER. I was just glad it didn't happen while I was driving there!
I still mail packages to my grands as they enjoy them so much. I just sent them a Valentine's surprise package with Rice krispie treats. One of my grandsons is allergic to nuts so I have to be careful what I send. I do try to make it as light as possible. Did you know if you send books or magazines you can use the Media class postage which is much cheaper.
As for the wedding rings...I was married twice and both rings got thrown in their faces! LOL!
My career and family took all my time so I never had much time for creating although I did a lot of home and farm maintenance; repairing fences, gardening, canning, riding horses, painting around the farm and inside the house,and decorating. Once I retired and didn't have the farm and the animals, I started crocheting, cross stitch and I taught myself how to knit. I also hook wool rugs, and now I quilt too.
This was an interesting post! Thank you for sharing!

DFW said...

Mama Pea .. A ring guard is an extra ring that has a few diamonds surrounding the engagement ring. I always wear my band first, then my engagement ring then the ring guard. My engagement diamond wasn't very big & therefore my ring guard doesn't really serve a purpose except for sentimental value, but it was a nice gesture(sp?).

Anonymous said...

Mama Pea,
Your memories of cookies sent via mail reminded me of when my family lived overseas and we would receive lots of homemade goodie packages from the States. Everything was carefully packed in unbuttered popped corn. And the goods usually made the transatlantic trip unscathed. Plus, we kids could eat the packing material too--and we did! Popcorn as a packing material makes so much better sense than those white packing peanuts of today!--M

Michelle said...

Oh goodness; WAY too many memories from my younger years that would be handled differently today! I was afraid of 'rocking the boat,' mostly, I think, because of my parents' rocky marriage and divorce when I was four (hence, in my mental development at that time, it was all my fault). Far less 'fear' now!

Never fainted, or come close.

I got a care package from my paternal grandma when I was at boarding high school. SO excited to get it; SO disappointed that the chocolate chip cookies were spoiled! How can CC cookies spoil, you ask? Put BLACK walnuts in them and send them to someone who has never tasted black walnuts; I thought the nuts were rancid (and maybe they were, but I still don't like black walnuts). I do send packages, but not frequently.

I've never worn jewelry, so no wedding ring to worry about. (And I've never been approached inappropriately for lack of one.)

My current creative hobbies are spinning and knitting. My step-mother taught me how to knit, crochet, and counted-crosstitch when I was a girl, then I laid all aside for decades. Once I got my Shetland sheep, the desire to spin their wool sprouted, but I refused to learn to spin until I relearned how to do something with yarn. So I downloaded a tutorial from the internet and relearned to knit. I supposed training horses in dressage is also a creative hobby. I have loved horses as long as I can remember; saw a performance of the famous Lipizzans of the Spanish Riding School as a grade-schooler, and started dabbling in dressage myself over 30 years ago.

JustGail said...

Fainted once as a child. Came close a few times but was able to sit or lie back down before it happened.
I don't recall the last time I mailed a package.
I still have the wedding rings. I took them off to clean many years ago and the tugging and pulling to get them off made my finger swell and I could not get them back on. The I put them in the jewelry box so they'd not be lost and I kept forgetting to try them again. If my hands are super cold, hold my hand over my head for a few minutes while massaging from finger tip to hand I can get them back on, but I'm not sure it's the wise thing to do. So I don't. The anniversary ring needs a thorough cleaning so bad, but I fear it might not go back on if I get it off. So a soft brush and soapy water from the outside is all it gets.
I do a bit of sewing, quilting, various embroidery techniques, and have tried knitting, tatting, crochet, and spinning. Would love to combine knit and purl stitches in the same item - I suspect I'll need to find someone to show me in person as books or video just hasn't gotten it into my head yet. Embroidery was the first thing I learned from Mom when I was about 12 or so.

Mama Pea said...

Sam - Almost fainting because of having to rush your son to the ER would have been totally warranted! I know it most likely was not pleasurable at the time but I had to giggle when you wrote that you threw your wedding rings at your ex-husbands! Yes, I do know that you can use the special rate of Media Mail when sending such things as books or other reading material. Thank goodness, 'cause book are generally heavy! Glad you enjoyed this post. :o)

DFW - Thanks for the explanation! Now I know. :o)

Anonymous M - Edible packing material! Yum! I've noticed that we haven't received any ordered products with those awful styrofoam-like peanuts in quite a while. Now it's primarily brown paper crunched up which I love because I recycle it as kindly paper for starting wood stove fires.

Michelle - A very interesting comment! Yes, black walnuts DO have a peculiar taste. One of things that you either love . . . or hate? I'd love it if you blogged sometime about attending a boarding school. I've not ever known anyone who had that experience. You are a multi-talented lady what with all your animals and lovely handwork.

JustGail - I understand what you've explained about your wedding rings. My mom stopped wearing hers in her later years when she was sick. She gave them to my daughter who was her only granddaughter. If you ever have the urge to learn more about knitting, go to a local yarn shop. The people there are usually more than helpful and in my mind, it's much easier to learn to knit sitting next to a person than via the Internet.

Tim B. Inman said...

You made me chuckle about memories. I've been playing with my 'Big Boy Toys' this winter - my lathes mostly. I'm pretty advanced with it all by now. But how did I get started on the lathe? Well, when my brother and I were about 9 and 10 (I'm the oldest; we're only 13 months apart) we were apparently driving Mom nuts. One winter day, my Dad came home with an old used wood lathe. He put it in the basement and showed us how to use it. What did we turn? Mom and Dad were bowlers, and they brought home used maple bowling pins from the lanes. So, for the rest of the winter - and to this day actually - we've been making smaller round pieces from bigger ones. It kept us from under foot, and we enjoyed the sport. Mom seemed more relaxed. It has grown from there. Cheers!

Mama Pea said...

Tim - How important what we learn in childhood!! Makes one wonder if you would have ever developed your interest and expertise working with wood if your parents hadn't brought home that lathe. (An acquaintance of ours is a wood worker and over the years he's made and sold many different wood products created in his workshop. I once asked him, "What are you making right now, Jim?" He replied with a deadpan face, "Sawdust.") :o)

Jean Ellen said...

When I was pregnant with my second child, I took a tour of the White House. It was a blistering July day and there was a long wait line. The sweat was pouring down my back. When we finally got inside, the air conditioning was blasting in the doorway and I guess the change in temperature made me feel faint. I told one of the security guards I needed to sit down. He brought me a barf bag in case I needed it. Thank goodness I didn't.