Living, listening, and things I love

Dreaming of christmas

12/22/2015

I’m dreaming of Christmases long long ago, to mix and match the lyrics of two classic Christmas songs.

My earliest discrete Christmas memory dates to Christmas Eve in 1954. I remember snuggling under a quilted spread with my younger brother Bob, while Mom read us “The Night Before Christmas.” While she was reading, we suddenly heard reindeer hooves on the roof above our heads. Santa was near. I was days away from turning three years old, and Bob was a year and a half.

The following Christmas, in 1955, I remember very clearly the gifts Bob and I received from Grandma and Grandpa Wolinski. Presents from Grandma and Grandpa came via Railway Express from Chicago, and were delivered to our home by truck following their rail journey. I recall the large pictures of Santa, Coca Cola in hand, on those trucks. Here’s an example that I like from 1953, though I don't know if this exact picture was ever actually on a truck.

See http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/xmas-ads-1950s.

For me that Christmas Grandma and Grandpa had sent a Little Ricky doll, with curly “rooted” red hair. There was also a large wooden trunk that Grandpa had made for me, covered in yellow sailor fabric, and inside were a bunch of doll clothes for Little Ricky that Grandma had sewn.

For Bob, Grandpa had made a wonderful wooden circus wagon, painted red and covered in decals. Grandma had sewn Bob a menagerie of zoo animals. There was a sock monkey, a tiger (Bob’s favorite), and others as well. That same Christmas Santa brought me a stroller, and a large rubbery baby doll in a coordinating bonnet.

Our younger brother Dan was six months old that Christmas, but I somehow don’t recall the gifts he got.

My next clear and discrete Christmastime memory dates to 1956. That was the year we briefly owned our first puppy, a silky cocker spaniel whose name, if we gave him one, I no longer remember. Mom was very pregnant that Christmas with her fourth child, Kathy, who was born a month later, January 23, 1957 (the same day as Princess Grace’s daughter Caroline.) The challenges of coping with a new puppy were apparently too much. Two weeks after puppy arrived, we were told that Mom and Dad had found someone who lived on a farm to adopt him.

Also in 1956 I got spiffy red mittens, embroidered with beads in yellow, blue and green. They looked good.

Check out the fringe on Bob's pants. Part of a Cowboy and Indian costume?

I think Christmas 1956 was also the year that Grandpa Wolinski made me a handsome wooden wardrobe to hold the clothes for my Sonja Henie doll. This was a composite doll with wonderful soft blonde hair and tiny teeth, modelled after the Olympic figure skater. She had belonged to Mom, and had wonderful clothes, including a skating outfit with little skates and a chic white fur cape.

Sonja Henie doll above currently on Ebay.

One of my favorite memories of my busy young mother dates to shortly after this Christmas, sitting on the floor playing dolls with me and Sonja Henie and her clothes, and hanging them in the wardrobe Grandpa had made.

I still have the wardrobe. Sonja Henie however went to Kathy a few years later. I think this was after she dropped her and broke off one of the feet.

Christmas 1959 stands out for me because it was the year I began to de-code the magic. That Christmas I was a second grader, days away from turning 8, and had observed a bit of how things worked. I’d seen Mom or Dad hide brown-wrapped parcels in a hall closet. I’d heard Dad hammering in the basement, and knew he was working on re-furbishing the dollhouse he’d made for me for my third birthday in 1954.

Third birthday, December 28, 1954

That dollhouse was, and still is, a wonderful, solid, hard-working wooden structure, with six rooms, which Dad built, papered and painted. The roof came off, and could be upended to make an “attic” positioned over the two floors of the dollhouse. The two floors were detachable. I could set them side by side to make two houses. The house was furnished with Mom’s old wooden furniture, dating from the 30s. There were tiny dishes and foodstuffs as well. I still have both dollhouse and furniture. They live now in one of our upstairs bedrooms, along with dolls, toys, books, my 1971 Kenmore sewing machine, craft materials, and about 20 boxes of photos.

December 21, 2015

In the early hours of Christmas 1959, after I figured that everyone was asleep, I slipped out of bed and made my way in the dark to view the Christmas tree and the gifts under it. There was the re-papered, re-painted dollhouse, waiting for me to discover in the morning!

Christmas 1959 was also the year I got my silky black haired pony-tailed Barbie. She came in a strapless zebra- printed bathing suit, with sunglasses, and those tiny high-heeled shoes. She had two other outfits: a long sleek black gown, with gathered net, mermaid style, at the bottom, and a strapless gown with a red velvety bodice and satiny white skirt, belted in gold with a matching gold belt.

Reproduction of 1959 Barbie, wearing black mermaid dress.

It would be hard to exaggerate how important this Barbie was to me. For the next several years she was my alter ego, my cherished, grown up self. Sadly, Barbie fell victim in 1961 or 1962 to Mom’s well-intentioned efforts to round up old toys before the holidays and donate them to charity, making room for the new. This was a serious blow.

By Christmas 1960 I’d totally given up any lingering belief in Santa. Weeks before that Christmas Dad had started a new job, in Bluefield, West Virginia, and moved the family there, to a large rambling two story house on East Jefferson Street at the foot of Flat Top Mountain. Mom was very close to giving birth to her sixth child, Christine, born less than two weeks later. I recall a tabletop size tree that year, perched on a cloth-covered box.

Waiting to open presents. Christmas, 1960.

The tree was put away the day after Christmas that year, although some of the other holiday trimmings stayed up a bit longer. That Christmas Dad and I went to Midnight Mass. Mom stayed home with Bob, who was sick with bronchitis, as he was in my recollection just about every Christmas until he got his tonsils out in the third grade. I recall walking through the snow from our street side parking space to Sacred Heart Church, and the beauty of the lighted bulbs on the houses as they threw bright colors on the snow. That year I recall receiving a large “walking doll” from Grandma and Grandpa, with blond braids.

Interior, Sacred Heart Church, Bluefield West Virginia. From church's Facebook page.

Christmas 1961 was our first Christmas in Charlottesville, and my memories of the specifics are indistinct. It was probably in Christmas 1961 though when I received a red-haired Barbie in a “bubble” hairdo.

Bubble-haired Barbie, currently on Ebay

I think I also got my Ken doll, with “flocked” hair, that Christmas.

Ken doll, currently on Ebay

The following year, Christmas 1962, was probably my most disappointing Christmas. I was in the fifth grade that year, just about to turn 11, and not excited with the puppet theater that was meant to be my big gift. At all. That might have been the year that little Scandinavian trolls with candy cotton hair became popular in our part of the world. I recall Mom making felt clothes for trolls for my sisters one Christmas, and I think this may have been the one. I recall taking my little troll to school in the fifth grade, and sitting on the blacktop with classmates sewing little clothes and crafting a cardboard home for it. Several decades later the troll trend returned, and my daughter acquired several. And a few years ago I gave her my large Santa troll (circa mid-60s) for her home’s holiday décor.

Small troll doll, currently on Ebay

Santa troll, currently on Ebay

Christmas 1963 was a different kind of holiday for us. Mom and Dad and our family of by then eight children took the train to Chicago and spent time with Grandpa and Grandma Wolinski, Granny Stroh, aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was snow on the ground when we left Charlottesville, and snow on the ground the whole trip. I remember sitting all together on benches in the middle of Union Station in Washington as we waited to change trains. I recall staring out the train windows as we made our way to Chicago, the lights on the houses shining on the snow, the Christmas decorations stretched across the main streets of the towns we passed.

Chicago was cold, and windy. I stayed with my Aunt Mary Anne and her family, got to accompany my cousins to school one day, and was introduced to one cousin’s portable record player and records. I recall accompanying my aunt and family to their parish church on Christmas Day, and the gorgeous bank of red poinsettias at the high altar. I recall Grandma and Grandpa Wolinski’s Christmas tree, in the front bay of their home on Monticello Avenue, at that time still a Polish neighborhood within easy walking distance of Saint Hyacinth’s, Grandma and Grandpa's parish.

Grandma and Grandpa Wolinski, with their Braun, Kosiba, and Stroh grandchildren.

We also visited Dad’s mother, Granny Stroh, and Dad’s brother, my Uncle Lee, and his family. I recall with pride my Christmas outfit, red tights, a festive dress with a dark green top and white satiny skirt. I recall listening during that visit, and really throughout that Christmas, to Bing Crosby’s recently released version of Do You Hear What I Hear, with its haunting line “Pray for Peace, People Everywhere.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuE_DXrt2Js

Granny Stroh, with Mary, baby Susan, Kathy, first row.
Second row Bob, me, Dan.Toddler Jimmy must have been elsewhere when this photo was taken. Could that be him on the kitchen floor?

There were few presents from Santa when we got back to Charlottesville that year, but the gift of the trip was memorable.

Christmas 1964, when I was in the seventh grade, was fun for us in a new way. The four oldest – me, Bob, Dan, Kathy - decided to set up a surprise Christmas tree for Mom and Dad in the closet of the downstairs bedroom the boys shared. In the fall of September 1963 we had moved into the house on Davis Ave that Mom and Dad had built, a move that occurred basically simultaneously with Susan’s birth. The area has since been fully developed, but for some years the land behind our house was steep and forested with little to middling sized trees. Bob cut a little pine, we made decorations for it, and placed our gifts underneath. After Midnight Mass that Christmas we had our big reveal. Years later Kathy wrote a piece about this tree that was printed in our local paper. The tradition of the “downstairs tree” lasted for most of the years Mom and Dad, and later just Mom, lived on Davis Ave, albeit morphing into a bigger tree, then an artificial tree, with lights and many ornaments, and moving to the family room after Mom and Dad added to the house in 1972.

For Christmas 1964, or it might have been 1965, I recall receiving white ice skates from Grandma and Grandpa Wolinski. I had never skated on ice before, but at that time there was an outdoor ice rink on Afton Mountain, some 20+ miles from Charlottesville, attached to a mountaintop Holiday Inn. I recall several trips to this destination to use my skates. What a wonderful winter activity. I think it was also around Christmas 1964 when I received a knock-off copy of the Beatles’ first LP.

1965, with Santa

I was in the ninth grade at Christmas 1966. I had a Saturday job filing and answering the phone for the radio station Dad owned at that time, WELK, and listened while working to the songs being played over the air. I especially recall hearing Simon and Garfunkel’s haunting 7 O’Clock News/Silent Night, from their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (most of the lyrics of which I can probably still recall). Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Richard Speck, Richard Nixon – the news overlaid by the carol. Those times don’t seem that far away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgYFXCUEL4Y

What I recall about the Christmas of 1968 are some of the gifts I gave. That was the year I made an ivory colored peignoir set for Mom. For my sisters I made dolls, using Joan Walsh Anglund patterns. Kathy, Mary, Chris and Susan each got one of the Little Women. They had tiny shoes and stockings, underclothes, dresses, or pinafores or aprons. For Sharon I made an eskimo doll, with a printed parka, furry pants and little boots. Somehow all but one of these dolls came back to me when my own children were still young, and for many Christmases, on and off, I’ve displayed them in a basket under the tree.

In terms of gifts received in Christmases in the latter half of the 60s, for me it was mainly about the clothes. I especially remember a couple of wool skirts and matching sweaters in green and melon; a bright yellow jumper with a cream colored blouse; a jumper in a lime green, with matching cabled stockings.

My last Christmas living at home, Christmas 1970, was memorable. The previous New Year’s Eve Gary and I, then high school seniors, had gotten back together after a year and a half breakup.

Mom was recovering from surgery that Christmas, and Grandma Wolinski, having lost Grandpa in 1969, had come to visit. That Christmas I gave Gary fur-lined leather gloves, purchased in a store in downtown D.C. Gary gave me a Joan Baez album and a ring. Which, along with the wedding band he gave me the following June when we were married, and the band of tiny diamonds he got me for our 25th anniversary in 1996, I am wearing as I type this. Grandma was there for our wedding, but sadly did not make it to Christmas 1971.

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Thanksgiving memories

11/21/2015

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Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and this year a good number of my siblings and our families will be getting together for the holiday. Three generations, spanning sixty some years. It’s got me reminiscing about the Thanksgivings of my childhood: The family, the setting, the menu, the activities.

For the earliest Thanksgivings I can recall, in the early to mid fifties, dinner was set on a squarish table, perhaps initially a card table, later a kitchen table with metal legs, then around 1960 a maple drop leaf table, followed by a custom built table that covered a large expanse of the eat-in kitchen, with a more formal but not as large table in the dining room off the kitchen. As the family grew, from me, to Bob and Dan, to Kathy, Mary, and Chrissy, to Jim, Susan and Sharon, to spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, the Thanksgiving table of course had to continue expanding, multiplying, and tri-locating to several rooms in the Davis Avenue house built by Mom and Dad in 1963 and inhabited until the fall of 2011.

In my memories of early Thanksgivings, I recall an ivory colored damask tablecloth, and damask napkins. I don’t have any memories of the crockery. We used Mom’s silverplated cutlery, “Community” silver in a daffodil pattern. (I have that silverware now.)

And for the children there were clear glass cordials in a hobnail type pattern, filled with grape juice, like the one below, currently on Ebay.

In the middle of the table were china salt and pepper shakers, in the shape of a turkey pair. They live in my dining room corner cabinet now.

And a cornucopia, filled with fruit or flowers. The one below, with mice, was artisan crafted, sourced on Ebay several years ago.

Today, wading through old pictures, I came across two photos that must be Thanksgiving 1954. Bob is in his highchair. Dan won’t have been born yet.

The damask tablecloth is there, but the napkins look to be paper, printed in a turkey design. No mini glasses of grape juice, though there is a straw-wrapped bottle of Chianti on the table. I can also see one of the turkey salt and peppers. The cutlery is clearly stainless steel. And I can see a bit of the cornucopia, filled with yellow mums, on a table against the wall. So some of the things I remember about Thanksgiving must post-date 1954 at least.

In terms of the menu, I see a handsome turkey. There is gravy in a ceramic dish, and potatoes of some sort in a square-shaped yellow Corning Ware bowl . There is cranberry sauce in a red bowl, also Corning Ware. There is a strawberry jello mold, with canned peaches. There is a basket of rolls. These menu items will continue to appear on the family Thanksgiving table for the next fifty some years. There is also a sweet potato and marshmallow dish. And in the foreground is something that I’m completely baffled by. Is it savory or is it sweet? Could it be mashed potatoes surrounded by something? Lady fingers and whipped cream?

Later Thanksgivings evolved to include:

Turkey cookies, using Grandma Wolinski’s sugar cooky recipe, frosted in bright colors. (Now made for their families by my daughter and my nieces.)
A grapefruit centerpiece arrayed with toothpicks holding pieces of Vienna sausage, cheese, and olives
A pineapple centerpiece contrived to resemble a turkey, with felt head and feathers

Turkeys cut from canned jellied cranberry sauce, using Mom’s aluminum turkey cooky cutter

Gherkins and olives in a slender glass dish, a favorite of Dad’s.
Devilled eggs.
Mom’s homemade bread, made using Grandma Wolinski’s recipe and served on a wooden cutting board.
“Heavenly hash” – Canned fruit cocktail and marshmallows, with whipped cream.
Pumpkin pie.
Chocolate cream pie.

Dinner was at noon, or a bit after. At some point, no earlier than 1955 when we got our first TV, we started watching the NBC broadcast of Macy’s Christmas parade.

I do recall one or two years when Bob and I, and possibly Dan, riding in his stroller, went with Mom to watch the local pre-Christmas parade, within walking distance of home. We ate frosted animal cookies, covered with sprinkles, sent to us from Chicago by Grandma and Grandpa Wolinski. The parade location we chose was close to a flat-roofed shopping area that had a toy store, where at the age of five I won a Ginny doll wearing dungarees, with braided hair. That store also had wonderful tiny dollhouse accessories, in tiny see-through bags with a blue cardboard label. Santa of course was the main attraction.

Music features in my early Thanksgiving memories. Sometime before dinner we would listen to Perry Como singing “We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing.”

And Thanksgiving afternoon, generally after dinner, was our official kick-off for listening to Christmas carols. (Football kick-offs not so much. Dad was not a fan.) I can recall some 78’s owned by Mom and Dad, though I’m not sure what was on them. But I think the Christmas records I remember, and can still hear clearly in my head, were 33 and a third's. The Robert Shaw Chorale, Nat King Cole, Mantovani – at least for my first ten or eleven years, there were only a handful. These were the sounds of Christmas.

Also after dinner, there would be some new coloring books, punch out books, and dot to dots. In later years, perhaps a Christmas jigsaw to share.

When it got dark, we’d pile into Dad’s car and drive around to look at colored lights on stores and houses, and strung across downtown streets. We might also look at the animated displays in the large plate glass windows of various stores.

Below, touring the Norfolk Botanical Gardens holiday light display, in 2013. The closest thing I can think of to the magic of those Thanksgiving lights.

A couple of years ago Gary and I, with our daughter and son-in-law, toured a display of animated carolers, elves, Santas, and furry animals in Downtown Portsmouth, store displays retired back in the sixties. They brought to mind those Thanksgiving evenings, now decades past.

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Goals and Projects for 2015

2/14/2015

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January seems to have gone by fast, and here we are into February already. We’ve had a good amount of cold weather in Central Virginia, but really no snow or ice to speak of. This past Sunday was incredibly bright and spring-like, with temps in the 60s, and Monday although cooler and greyer was also comparatively balmy. A small clump of early crocus bloomed in our front yard, and a little bee found its way to the flowers. However, things have since cooled off considerably, and truly frigid weather is back. I guess the groundhog’s prognostication was accurate.

Last week I joined Gary and friends for the better part of a week in Corolla, on the Outer Banks. The weather was quite wintry, and the wind was frigid. Walking along the sound in Duck, south of Corolla, we spotted sea birds hovering on the edge of ice that fringed the sound. Gulls, swans, a white heron, doing their best to stay warm.

On our way home, we stopped for brunch at the home of our daughter, son-in-law and four month old grandson. It is amazing to note how rapidly a little one grows and changes, moving from a tiny infant in arms to an older baby who can hold his head up, reach for a toy, turn over. How can it be that even after raising four children of my own, this progression still fills me with surprise and delight? I look forward to future visits and new opportunities to be amazed.

So, visits to our grandson (and his mom and dad), and watching him grow, are high on my wish list for 2015. I’m also hoping that we’ll be able to visit with our eleven year grandson -- ten+ hours from here by air. And, when not together, skyping with all four of our children, and our grandchildren, of course. And with family generally.

Also high on my list is expansion of our vegetable garden. Last year, as Gary has written about in his blog, at www.garymawyer.com, we undertook to get serious about veggies. Gary, with help from family and friends, built an 8 foot fence to the side and back of our house, complete with three hand-crafted gates. The resident flocks of deers that haunt our yard just cannot jump that high. Or open a fastened gate, for that matter.

Gary built raised beds, using cinder blocks, and we filled them with soil and compost. The results were way beyond expectations. Between late June to early November, we harvested a huge amount of food. My favorite was probably the almost daily supply of fresh tomatoes. And the several varieties of squash. And especially the 15 sweet pumpkins, plus a couple the size of Jack O' Lanterns.

From late fall into mid January, we had some of the sweetest kale, collards and cabbage I’ve ever tasted. Finally the harder frosts have taken their toll. Our goal for 2015 is to further expand the fence and add raised beds. Also, to dedicate more space for pumpkins and squash, which basically tried to take over the garden in 2014. And, we want to get a jump on the growing season by starting appropriate plants indoors.

Next on my list is making things. In particular, I want to try my hand again at knitting socks. I started a pair in 2014, but went wrong at the heel and wound up sewing the result into a small baby stocking for our grandson’s first Christmas. I had a lot of fun last year knitting and crocheting stuffed animals, dolls and amigurumi (see my blog post of January 9), and I want to do more of that. I also want to do more quilting. Gary bought me a lovely panel of Japanese themed fabric that he found online, very reminiscent of fabric used in a lovely quilt we saw this past December at a quilt show by the Crescent Halls quilting group in Charlottesville, and I've been thinking a lot about how to incorporate that fabric into a quilt.

I also want to pull out my jewelry making tools, wire, findings and beads, and pick up on that craft again. I've got a nice collection of hand-made beads, acquired in years past, that I'd like to use.

Another project I’d like to get back to is digitizing our old photos. I’ve done some of that from time to time as things have come up. And after Mom’s passing at the end of 2011 I digitized many photos from my and my siblings’ childhoods, and shared with family. Now I want to grapple with the 4+ decades of our children’s childhoods and beyond.

One other thing I’m especially excited about is continuing work on our family genealogies. My son Daniel started a Mawyer family tree in 2013, using Ancestry.com, and invited me to work on it too. This year Gary and I have decided to use AncestryDNA for further clues and insights into our ancestors.

It’s strange to realize how busy “retirement” can be. Looking forward to another busy year.

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Recap of 2014

1/9/2015

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It’s been about five months since I last posted in this blog. Summer’s long days of warmth and light, the excitement of the birth of a new grandson in the early fall, then the coming of the holidays, lured me away from blogging. With the turn of the New Year, I’m feeling like it may be time to dust off my blog and write again. I want to start by reviewing my goals for last year, and thinking about what I’m hoping for from 2015.

2014 Goals

Last January I wrote of goals I’d envisioned when I retired six months previously, which I summarized as focusing on home, health, family, connecting, and making things, and I shared photos of projects I hoped to get to in 2014. Here’s a brief summary of my progress on those projects:

Sewing Workshop patterns – I made the “Hudson” pants and top, the pants in a black poplin and the top in a cranberry polyester. It was gratifying to be sewing clothes again. However, I was somewhat dissatisfied with the fit and styling of both pieces -- should have chosen fabrics with more stretch and more drape for these pieces -- and wound up donating both of them to the local Goodwill. I hope they found a good home.

Printed apron fabric – I made up the Country Apron. The other apron fabric is still sitting in one of my fabric bins.

Collection of small, Japanese-themed squares to be made into a small quilt – The whereabouts of these squares is a mystery. I misplaced them somehow shortly after writing the post. Very disappointing, especially after seeing a beautiful Japenese-themed quilt at a quilt show in Downtown Charlottesville this past December that brought my missing squares back to mind. I haven’t quite given up hope that I’ll stumble upon them in some unexpected location some day.

Stamped hand towels and pillowcases – For Christmas, I gave a completed embroidered pillow case to one of my daughters-in-law and two completed bluebird embroidered hand towels to my other daughter-in-law. Another pillowcase is in progress.

Quilt tops – I quilted both of the quilt tops over the summer. By hand, sitting on our screen porch, enjoying summer breezes and summer birdsong.

The pieced triangles quilt has been on our bed since I finished it.

I gave the 60s patchwork square quilt (shown above before quilting) to our daughter and son-in-law for Christmas. Our grandson seems to like it too.

Knitted hat – I knit this hat, using the Aesderina pattern by Jane Richmond that I purchased on ravelry.com, in the lovely blue and green yarn that I'd bought in November 2013 from Close Knit in Evanston. I gave it to our daughter for Christmas.

Other projects in 2014

It’s fun to notice that in addition to my wish list of 2014 projects, I did a bunch of others. In fact, among the joys I guess of making things are the continual opportunities and ideas that arise over the course of the year, and the pleasures of responding to those nudges and notions. Here are highlights.

Things for Grandbaby

Learning in 2014 that we would have a new grandchild in the fall led to several new project opportunities. First off, I wanted to make a baby blanket for the expectant parents. I settled on a Leisure Arts pattern featuring small granny squares around a large central crocheted block.

Then, I wanted to do some soft stuffed animals for the little one. I was inspired by the menagerie of circus animals my Grandmother Wolinski had sewn for my brother Bob one Christmas in the mid 50s. There was a wonderful wooden circus wagon too, with a top and cage-like slats, painted red with colorful decals, that Grandpa Wolinski made for the animals, that Bob could pull them in.

As it happened, the wagon was large enough to hold a small child. Like our younger brother Dan, born the following summer….

So, inspired by warm memories, I wanted to make some stuffed animals for the coming grandbaby. I used the patterns in Zoo Animal Friends, an Annie’s pattern book, to knit six creatures – an elephant, a zebra, a monkey, a lion, a koala with baby koala and a kangaroo, with baby in pouch.

I also used the basic animal body pattern to design and make a baby boy doll to accompany the animals.

My sister Mary offered to help with this project, and knitted a polar bear and a panda. I made a large drawstring bag to hold the animals in. We gave this menagerie to the expectant parents at their baby shower.

I also crocheted the components of a rainbow themed mobile for the baby’s room. Our daughter had seen the mobile online, and put it together once crocheted. She painted the rainbow-themed picture in the background.

Other knitting

For Christmas, I knit a long camel colored scarf in a soft wool for our son-in-law,

a scarf in variegated white and lavender for our niece Shelby,

and a cowl in a lacy pattern for our granddaughter Sydney. It was a delightful surprise on Christmas to find that Sydney had knit a scarf for me, in a warm winter pattern perfect for the cold temps that the new year has brought us.

Other sewing

As mentioned in a May post, for Easter I made a shirt for Alex's son (our now eleven year old grandson.)

Amigurumi

For Christmas this year, I crocheted a lot of amigurumi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi - a word I had never heard until stumbling on a delightful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pattern online. I started by making turtles for my brother Jim’s two youngest sons, and my sister Sharon’s youngest. Then my daughter suggested that our son Daniel was a Ninja Turtle fan and would like one as well – since, as she told me, appreciation for amigurumi was shared by adults as well as children. So I wound up making four of them.

After doing the turtles, I thought our son Alex might like a Link, recalling that several decades ago he’d been a Zelda fan. I found a pattern I liked, but it wound up being larger than I had anticipated, so I did a smaller one as well.

Lara helped brainstorm amigurumi ideas and patterns then for our son Edward and our eleven year old grandson -- Gandalfs --

for my brother Jim’s oldest son -- Harry Potter --

and for my brother Dan’s daughter -- Elsa.

Gardening

Our vegetable garden in 2014 turned out really well. The eight foot fence and raised beds that Gary built, which I mentioned briefly in my post of April 9 last year, and Gary has wrote about several times in his blog at http://www.garymawyer.com , made a huge impact. We literally harvested a couple of hundred pounds of produce. Much of it we ate or shared through the summer – from our first harvest in late June into October. Some I froze.

One of my special hopes for our garden was to grow some good pumpkins. We wound up growing, and eating, 15 small sweet pumpkins, and two quite large Halloween ones. And this winter we are growing some modest winter crops – kale, collards, cabbage – which we had never tried doing before.

Exercise

As I wrote about in a February post last year, I’ve been going to the ACAC gym regularly 3 to 4 times a week for a good while. In the first half of 2014 I began attending a weekly Egoscue class that I found invigorating and healthful. This summer, with some trepidation, I tried a NIA class. https://nianow.com/practice And I’ve been doing NIA now twice a week ever since. I love the combination of cardio, strength, music and dance. And I love the community that forms itself among others practicing NIA, and the mindfulness that is part of its practice.

I've also done some delightful hikes on the Monticello trail (http://www.monticello.org/site/visit/trails-and-boardwalk) with Gary, and with my sister Mary and her daughter Jessie. It's a good 4+ miles on graveled path and boardwalk, immersed in fragrant forest foliage, with occasional views of Charlottesville and the Southwest Mountains, culminating at the Monticello Visitor's Center. There are also side trails that take one into the woods. A good workout.

Playing with Grandbaby

Since our grandson’s birth in October, I’ve had the chance to spend time with him (and his parents) both here and at his place. It’s hard to be several hours away from him, yet we're not so far that travel is completely impractical. It had been a long time since I’d last held an infant. What a joy to hold him, to sing to him, to see him changing from month to month.

Goals for 2015

In my next post I think I’ll touch on goals for 2015. With Gary retiring from full-time employment at the end of this month, I am looking forward to seeing what this new year will bring.

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Old-Fashioned Bargain Days in Downtown Charlottesville

7/18/2014

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A Facebook posting about Old-Fashioned Bargain Days in downtown Charlottesville caught my attention the other day, and brought back memories. Yesterday I drove downtown to wander the
Mall and check out the bargains.

Old-Fashioned Bargain Days has been a summer tradition in downtown Charlottesville for decades. I can remember as a child going downtown with Mom to view the bargains in the 60’s, when East Main Street still carried traffic and the pedestrian mall hadn’t even been thought of. In my memory the sidewalks were lined with shoppers for this annual event, and tables of exciting merchandise were set up in front of almost every store. This was in the days before discount stores and shopping centers,
before continual “sales” in every chain store. Bargains were maybe more exciting then. After East Main Street was bricked over and became a pedestrian mall, Old-Fashioned Bargain Days continued.

Here’s a picture of Mom, who in the 80’s and early 90’s worked in a Christmas and gift shop, the
Persimmon Corner, on the mall, dressed in costume for the shop’s Old-Fashioned Bargain Days event.

The Persimmon Corner is no longer in business, but a coffee shop, Java Java, is now located in its place.

The paned glass window remains, as does much of the interior charm, where Christmas trees loaded with lights, ornaments, and tinsel used to brighten up the shop all year round.

The enduring nature and serial repurposing of the buildings downtown is one of the things I love about the Downtown Mall.

Downtown is, and for most of its existence has been, a central focal point for the community of Charlottesville and its environs. Wandering down the several blocks of the mall yesterday, I stopped to take photos of buildings I especially like.

At the Men and Boys Shop, across from Java Java, I bought two polo shirts for Gary, at half price.

At Rock Paper Scissors I bought a leather-bound journal for $15. Rock Paper Scissors has recently re-located to its current location from a building a block down the mall. It’s now in a first floor space of a large building that I still think of as the Miller and Rhoads location.

Miller and Rhoads was one of several full size department stores downtown when I was young. Its five floors and basement had just about every sort of ware one might want, from household items to linens to mens’, womens’ and childrens’ clothes, to décor. I recall that Gary and I, as young marrieds,
bought feathered butterfly Christmas tree ornaments for our first Christmas tree on the fifth floor of Miller and Rhoads in 1971. We still have a few of them, the feathers somewhat the worse for wear. Miller and Rhoads moved to the Barracks Road Shopping Center, and later to the Fashion Square Mall, and now is gone. I miss the downtown Miller and Rhoads the most.

One thing I don’t think Miller and Rhoads had was toys. But across the street was another department store, Tilman’s, and they did. Tilman’s was an older store than Miller and Rhoads. It had long dark wood counters on its first floor, on which some wares were displayed, and other items, stored in tissue in cardboard boxes, could be shown on request by one of the saleswomen behind the counter.

Tilman’s had a hydraulic chute that the saleslady would use to insert the customer’s payment. The money would whisk along a set of tubes running high above the counters, to the office – part of which was glassed in and could be seen – on the second floor. In a minute or two, change and a handwritten receipt would be whisked back and handed to the customer. On the lower level of Tilman’s was their toy department, as I recall it a modest sized room with blond wood tables displaying a modest selection of toys – baby dolls, cars, toy soldiers, picture books, dollhouse furniture, and the like. I recall in December of 1961 or 1962 that Tilman’s had a giveaway promotion for the Christmas season – a Jackie Kennedy doll, complete with a set of lovely clothes and a trunk to put them in. She was propped in the glass display window looking out on the street, and she looked so elegant. I hoped against hope to win this treasure – it did not happen. I was too old to believe in Santa, but not too old to wish for this doll.

Near Tilman’s was a florist shop. The building still remains, but is no longer a florist. I can still recall the cool, moist, scented air in that shop, with a tall refrigerated case of beautiful and exotic blooms against the wall, colorful ribbons and baskets for arrangements, green waxy paper and long white cardboard boxes for blooms. I think Gary bought the corsage for our senior prom
at this florist, and I bought his boutonniere there.

Several blocks from Tilman’s was Leggett’s. This large department store, with first floor and mezzanine, was located where the Regal Theater now is, I think. I recall in the mid 60’s, in the 7th grade, buying nylon stockings at Leggett’s on the first floor. They came in a flat box, carefully wrapped in tissue. On Leggett’s mezzanine was their fabric department, and when I started sewing in
the 8th grade I went there to choose fabric, thread, and buttons. Leggett’s relocated to Barrack’s Road Shopping Center, and then to the Fashion Square Mall, and changed its name to Belk’s. It’s still there, still a nice store, but not the same.

There were several jewelers downtown, and today there still are, though they are not all the same ones that were then when I was young. Tuel Jewelers, however, has been in operation since 1945, and still features handsome jewelry, watches and watch repair.

Keller and George moved to a location near the Barracks Road Shopping Center some years ago. I recall the handsome interior of this fine jeweler in its downtown location, with its mahagony counters and shimmering displays. Its building still remains, handsome and refined. A used bookstore is housed there now.

The dime stores downtown were another favorite of mine when I was young. I recall especially the first Woolworth’s, which was located across the street from the Paramount Theater. It had wooden floors and a candy counter where a child could purchase a selection of “penny candy” for a nickel, delivered in a crisp white paper bag. Various wares in Woolworth’s, and at McCrory’s across the street and down a few doors, were displayed on low counters. Woolworth’s also had parakeets for sale, and goldfish. We never had a parakeet, but more than once we purchased a goldfish, carrying it home in a plastic bag full of water, doing our best to keep it alive for awhile. There was also a lunch counter, where one could get eggs and toast, or a hotdog, or a banana split. Sometime before the pedestrian mall was built, Woolworth’s moved a couple of blocks down the street. I worked there for a few months one summer, as a high school student. It’s gone now, a victim of bigger, discount stores, including the Woolco that was built in the Barracks Road Shopping Center before it too met its demise.

McCrory’s, as I recall, did not have food. But I very clearly remember shopping there at Christmas time, and I remember the Christmas trinkets on display on its counters in December – shiny glass ornaments in thin cardboard boxes, glittery silver tinsel, heavy and friable, pleated red tissue bells that one could unfold and hang from the ceiling. McCrory’s sadly caught fire and burned one summer evening in the mid 60’s. The Central Place on the Downtown Mall, an open area surrounded by shops and highlighted with a tall fountain, has taken its place. Much of the year diners can eat outside in this central area, listening to music, enjoying the fresh air.

At Christmas time a large evergreen, decorated in lights and ornaments, is put on display in the Central Place. Carols are sung, a snow machine wafts white flakes up in the air, and Santa Claus makes an appearance.

Also in downtown Charlottesville were and still are two stately theaters, the Jefferson and the Paramount. Both these venues have been renovated, and host a year-round array of live music and performances, as well as occasional movie events in the case of the Paramount. The Jefferson also
serves as an event venue. Our daughter’s wedding reception was held there.

Both the Paramount and the Jefferson are beautiful buildings. As it happens, Dad managed the Paramount in the early 60’s and co-owned the Jefferson in the early 80’s, and Gary worked as a projectionist at the Jefferson in the late 70’s and early 80’s while in grad school, but those are
stories for another day.

A relatively new event venue on the Downtown Mall is the Old Metropolitan Hall. It’s located in what was Gleason’s Bakery, a classic old-fashioned bakery featuring sugary donuts, cookies, pies, cakes, rolls, all displayed on trays in clear glass counters. Gleason’s Bakery had large display windows in front and windows high on the wall facing the cross street. The city bus had a stop right by the bakery on that cross street, and in high school we would sometimes trudge up the hill from Lane High (now the Albemarle County Office Building ) and hang out in front of the bakery, waiting for a bus. There was a piano studio above the bakery.

One thing the Charlottesville Downtown Mall has even more of now than it had in former days is restaurants and coffee shops, even food carts. Lunch and dinner opportunities abound on the mall and its side streets. Here are just a few of them.

Yesterday, when I finished walking up and down the mall, looking around in the stores, considering where to get a coffee, I rode back up the glassed-in elevator of the Market Street Parking
Garage to my car.

I’d parked my car just below the open top floor of the garage, so I got out at level 5. The sky was a bright clear blue, the sun was warm but not too hot, white clouds floated above, and from several directions I could see the low surrounding mountains. Such a pleasant finish to a walk on the
Downtown Mall, and a walk down memory lane.

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Fourth of July

7/3/2014

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Seasons, holidays and holy days have ordered my sense of time from about as long as I can remember. And somehow the seasons and cycles of nature – Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter – and the seasons and holy days of the church year – Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter – as well as the saint-related holidays – Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day – the not-very-holy at all holidays - Halloween – and the patriotic holidays – Washington’s Birthday, Lincoln’s Birthday, Martin Luther King day – not to mention the wonderful shared celebration of harvest, bounty and thanks – Thanksgiving – somehow in many ways seem all of a piece, ways of noticing, honoring, attending to life in this time and place and beyond, shared with each other and with those who have gone before us.

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is one of those holidays. For me the Fourth of July is, among other things, the celebration of summer itself, in all its glorious sunshine and bounty, its buoyant breezes, its green grass and leafy trees, its morning birdsong and bright butterflies, its evening fireflies and thunderstorms.

Independence Day is also of course a recurring remembrance of the founding of this nation. Of the men and women who, building on the insights and dreams of many others, envisioned a new path for the future. Of those who came, and continue to come, after them, building on that path, continuing to chart new turns in the path, to expand the dream, to embody “e pluribus unum.”

This week I’ve been re-reading bits of Liberty and Freedom, A Visual History of America’s Founding Ideas (Oxford University Press, 2005), by David Hackett Fisher, one of my favorite historians. Just as he did with his earlier Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989), in Liberty and Freedom Fisher describes the importance to our shared citizenship of Americans’ ancestral, handed-down understandings and ways of thinking and being, what Fischer calls our “folkways.” And he describes how those understandings and ways color and shape meaning and value for us. The book is full of pictures, as Fischer uses American images and tropes, from the birth of the nation to the early 21st century, to help tell this story, teasing out diverse meanings and values that these images encapsulate.

In the final chapter of the book, Fischer summarizes some key insights:

What keeps America free is the diversity of its traditions of liberty and freedom. The tensions and contradictions in this heritage have inspired new visions of liberty and freedom and a great fertility of thought. The strength of this open system is its infinite variety. The gravest dangers to our free society are born-again apostles of one particular liberty and freedom who are incapable of imagining any way except their own. The greatest hope is that we have so many of these people, and their beliefs are so diverse.
(p. 722)

Tomorrow evening we’ll be celebrating the Fourth of July, as we generally do, in holiday fashion – dinner with family and friends, hopefully picnic-style, on our screen porch – with hamburgers and hotdogs, corn on the cob and potato salad, watermelon for dessert. We’ll recall meals like this from years long past, and those who were part of them (below, a Fourth of July at Bob and Helen's, some 20 + years ago or so.)

We probably won’t brave the crowds in town to watch the fireworks, but chances are the wind will be blowing in the right direction and we’ll hear some of them, the loud ones anyway.

We’ll gaze at the flag blowing against the porch in the evening breeze, and maybe even whisper a prayer for peace and freedom everywhere.

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Summer Rain

5/31/2014

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This morning was one of bright sunlight, cool air, and blue sky. The leaves on our tall backyard trees cast dark green splotches of shadow on the grass, shadow that dissipated after a few hours as the sun moved higher in the sky and the day warmed up. In the afternoon Gary and I picked strawberries at Critzer Family Farm, in Nelson County, a pleasant early summer sort of activity.

Most of yesterday, in contrast, was cool and grey, damp and drizzling in the early morning, with a lowering sky until late in the afternoon. The ground was wet, the grass was wet. The air was holding
onto moisture, unwilling to let it go.

Three days ago, on Wednesday afternoon, I sat on our screened in porch, knitting and listening to low, comfortable trills of thunder, rolling west to east, from the Blue Ridge towards the hilly ridge of
the Southwest Mountains that our road is nestled under. I saw no lightning, but the clouds released a brief shower of warm rain, crisp and fresh and clean, dampening the bright green foliage of trees and bushes, grass and garden. The air was fragrant with growing things. Shortly the sun came back out,
its rays making the greenness glisten.

Thursday afternoon, sitting and knitting once again on the porch, a more pronounced storm came up. Thunder began to roll in from the west in deep waves, circling east and then back again. One clap of
thunder made me jump, it was so near. And the rain began to pour out of the sky so heavily that I had to abandon the porch for several hours, to avoid getting drenched. The cats came in too.

What is it about summer rain that is so evocative? Something about Wednesday’s soft,
fresh showers got me thinking about this, and the stronger, and then greyer,
atmospheres of Thursday and Friday have added layers of associations to my musings.

My earliest clear recollection of rain traces back to an afternoon walk with Mom and my brother Bob. I must have been three at best, and Bob was a year and a half younger. Here is a photo of us in the rain, decked out in boots and slickers. Mom wears a plastic raincoat and scarf. I like to think this photo pictures the actual walk in the rain I recall. In my memory I can smell the rainy air, hear the splash of the puddles we walk through, admire the bright colors of our rain gear.

Another rain memory, walking down Park Street in Charlottesville after school, again with Bob, heading to the children’s section of the old McIntire Library, across from Lee Park. We would have been maybe nine and ten – it was a time when schoolchildren could freely walk downtown, ride their bicycles, without accompaniment. I remember the smell of the rain-splashed sidewalks, the glistening leaves, the wet red brick of the building itself.

Here’s a later summer memory, dating 43 years from this coming Wednesday. After our wedding in the Church of the Incarnation Chapel, and reception in the church hall, we left in a heavy deluge of rain, lightning, thunder. It rained for the next several hours, until we caught a Trailways bus for our
honeymoon in Nags Head, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Here’s the closest I have to a photo of that rainstorm. We are running through a shower of rice in the hall toward the deluge beyond the door.

A memory from several years later. It is dark, it is thundering loudly, maybe raining, and Gary is working. I am sitting in our rocking chair, in baby Alex’s room, holding him and rocking him, and soothing both himself and me. The storm on this occasion seemed something quite elemental.

And another baby Alex memory, walking with him in the rain around the Copley Hill married student
housing neighborhood we lived in then, first with umbrella in one arm and baby in the other, then taking down the umbrella as the rain stopped and a brightly colored rainbow arched over the trees on the horizon.

Here’s a picture of 6 and ½ week old Alex, with me, rocking.

Some years later, a family beach trip to the Outer Banks, a reunion of sorts with all of us siblings and our then young children. We were heading to a favorite restaurant down the coast, on the causeway joining Nags Head to Manteo, when a heavy squally rain began, quickly filling the beach
road with water up to the floorboards of our several vehicles. A dramatic summer rain, which when we arrived at the restaurant we ran through to settle at a long table and watch its remaining act through one of the large picture windows overlooking the sound.

Another rain memory, from just a few years back. Gary and I standing in front of our large picture window in the living room as a serious summer storm moved in. The wind was fierce and high, the sky got very dark, and a heavy rain started blowing sideways against the glass. Summer storms can be fascinating, and we basically stood there watching, transfixed. As things began to ease up, it occurred to us that instead of watching through the living room window, we should have temporarily adjourned to the basement.

And a memory from last summer. Playing putt-putt with Alex and our grandson (below, pre-rainstorm), on a warm summer afternoon. The sky darkening quickly, thunder and lightning picking up, running to the car to get out of the storm, and a heavy deluge all the way back.

Still musing on summer rain, two of our children’s old picture books came to mind. Peter Spiers’ “Rain”
(1982) is a wonderful story without words about two children enjoying a summer rainstorm.

And “The Storm Book” (1952), by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham, moves from a summer storm breaking over a young boy and his mother in their country house, to city, ocean and beyond, before coming back to the young boy and the rainbow he sees in the sky after the storm
passes.

Finally, a musical association. Judy Collins’ rendition of “Sky Fell” (click song title for link) on her 1967 album “Wildflowers,” an album I played many times all those years ago:

The rain is falling down
Along with the sky
The colors and remembered suns
Are pouring by

What will I do with the sky
When it is empty?

Come to the window
Put your arms around me again
If you don't hold me
I will wash away with the rain

What will I do with my arms
When they are empty?
. . . .

A nostalgic note to wrap up my reminiscences of summer rain.

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Memories of Maternity Clothes

5/18/2014

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I’ve been thinking about maternity clothes recently. My daughter is expecting, and it’s been interesting to do a little bit of shopping with her, and to hear about clothes that she's liking. Lara's experience in 2014 has been reminding of the clothes I wore during my pregnancies in the early 70s and 80s, as well as calling to mind the styles worn by Mom during her pregnancies in the 50s to mid 60s.

Here is a photo of Mom that reflect the sorts of clothes I recall her wearing when she was expecting one or another of my 8 sisters and brothers. Full tops and slim skirts, somewhat dressy. The fabrics were woven and held their shape. The look was polished.

In 1973, when I was expecting Alex, my first child, I knew I wanted to make some maternity clothes. I recall making at least three outfits. Here’s a white sleeveless top, full, in a woven poplin, that I wore over maternity pants and shorts. It had a gathered empire waist, and pockets at hip level.

I also made a sleeveless, bright color blocked dress in bright colors – red, purple, and yellow. I don’t seem to have a photo of this dress, but I was able to find a picture of the pattern envelope on google. It's the dress on the far left. The fabric I used was a woven, lightweight denim or chambray.

And I made a somewhat dressy dress, in yellow with white color and cuffs. I used a mid-weight woven poplin, with a bit of a sheen. I no longer have the pattern, but I think this may have been it, also found on google.

Among other occasions, I wore this dress to Bob and Helen’s wedding, which took place the month before Alex was born.

One thing I recall clearly about the dresses I wore during this first pregnancy, they were all quite short -- it was 1973 after all – and during the last month or two they somehow got shorter and
shorter.

When I was expecting Edward in 1975, miniskirts had more or less gone out of style. I recall buying a navy dress with white collar, in a soft silky fabric, and a secondhand nubby oatmeal colored dress with round neck and long sleeves, both of which were at or below the knee in length, and both of which I loved. They seemed appropriate for my law school classes and activities. Outside the classroom, I loved this long short sleeve Lanz maxidress, in a blue patterned woven cotton. Graceful and comfy.

For this pregnancy I made myself a long pink floral print sundress in a jumper style, with empire waist, a wide ruffle at the bottom, and a sash that tied in the back. I loved that dress. While I don't seem to have a picture of it, here’s a photo of a pattern, found on google, that is not the exact pattern, but is similar to the one I made.

Five years later, in 1980, expecting Daniel, and working full-time, I recall making myself several tops of stretchy, medium weight, terry-like knit fabric, with long sleeves and vneck, that I wore over pants. I used the same pattern to make some dresses – basically the same as the tops, but longer. This was a simple pattern that fell smoothly, without a bodice or waist. For casual times and at home, I liked these off the rack sleeveless cotton print sundresses, one with gathers falling from a high bodice, and one with a stretchy elasticized top. I don’t think they were maternity dresses per se, but they
worked well.

And here is the purchased knit dress I wore to our 10th high school reunion that fall.

I do not recall making myself any maternity dresses in 1982, when I was expecting our daughter Lara. But I do recall a flowered print blue and white dress in a soft rayon, with long sleeves and a ruffled bibb front, that I loved and wore a lot. I also wore those vneck dresses and tops I’d made two years before. For casual and at home, I was still liking cotton print sundresses with elasticized tops.

And I wore several soft oxford shirts with collar, button front, and long sleeves, over slacks.

It’s interesting to notice that the style in ready made maternity wear today seems to especially favor a sleek and simple look, in knitted jersey fabrics, often with ruching on the side seams to accommodate a changing shape. Rather different from what I, or Mom, wore when expecting.

One day last week, I spent some time browsing at the local JoAnns store. Their in-store pattern books dedicated only a few pages at best to maternity wear per se. On the other hand, thumbing through the books, I saw many garments that looked like they could work for an expectant mom. Sometime soon I might browse the independent pattern makers online, and see what they have to offer.

It would also be fun to hear others' memories of maternity clothes. If so inclined, please share!

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Sewing Inspiration, Sewing Reminiscences

5/6/2014

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Last week at Goodwill I came upon an exciting find – an old sewing mannequin or dressform, the kind made of thick yellowish foam with a metal-zippered muslin cover and a metal stand. I have been wanting a dress form for some while, inspired I suppose by their constant presence in one of my
favorite TV shows, "Project Runway." The price was right, and so although this mannequin is several inches wider in every dimension that I am, I bought it. While I cannot use it to fully fit a piece of clothing, since the size is off and it’s not adjustable, I can use it to take a first pass.

Acquiring this mannequin got me reminiscing about my decades of clothes sewing. I wound up spending several afternoons wading through old photographs looking for photos of clothes I had made over the years. I also went through a cedar-lined square trunk, where I'd stored some clothes with special memories, to see what pieces I had saved, and capture their images.

As I've mentioned in an earlier blog post, I started sewing clothes in the mid-sixties. Initially I made dirndl skirts and A-line dresses for myself, clothes for my younger sisters, a few silky robes and gowns for Mom, aprons for her as well – needless to say, all very sixties style and fabric-wise.

Here’s Mom, with Sharon, wearing a white satin gown and robe I made for her for Christmas 1968.

And here she is wearing a long flowy blue apron with gathered empire waist that I made her; I liked this pattern so much that I did one in blue and one in pink. I have these aprons now.

When Gary and I got together, I began to sew, and knit, a bit for him as well. Most of the things I made Gary back then have not survived, but here is a reversible vest I made him, and still have. I think I made it for him to wear for his debate club activities.

I remember too doing a green cable knit tie. And a blue sweater, a bit too loose in the shoulder and neck – that one didn’t last too long. There was also a white smock-like shirt; I embroidered its cuffs in red and green. And a long blue light-weight coat inspired by a Russian peasant or Cossack motif (not sure which), which Gary wore resplendently with his leather student cap and boots.

When we married, in June of 1971, I made the bridesmaid dress worn by my sister Kathy and the flower girl dress worn by my sister Sharon. My best friend and maid of honor Amanda made her dress.

Once we had children, I began to make clothes for them as well. As the first three of them were boys, the opportunities were a bit circumscribed. But opportunities nevertheless presented themselves. Prior to Alex’s birth, I made this soft, fleecy snowsuit, a hooded one-piece that I still have.

While expecting Edward, I knitted this hooded bunting.

I also made some sweet Easter outfits for the boys. Here is Alex, wearing a two-piece gingham jacket and short pants that I made for him.

And here is Edward, a few years later, wearing the same little suit.

Here is Edward, wearing a crayon-patterned jumpsuit with hood. I made the white top and long skirt I am wearing in this photo as well. I don't recall Alex's outfit, but clearly he's dressed for the Fourth.

Here is Daniel, wearing Easter overalls with appliqued chickie.

Here is Alex, wearing a light green vest with matching pants and shirt.

As the boys got older, the feasibility of making them pastel Easter outfits and the like diminished. However, sometime in the early nineties, I hit on the idea of making Hawaii shirts for all three boys, and for Gary. I’ve still got those shirts; their bright flowery patterns still make me smile.

In this photo, Gary and Edward are wearing their shirts.

For Easter this year, I made a Hawaii inspired shirt for my 10 year old grandson.

When our daughter Lara was born, I got the opportunity to indulge my dreams of sewing sweet girly things. Up to a point, since dresses were not really Lara’s preferred outfits, once she got out of babyhood. But she did indulge me for Christmas and Easters.

Here is the long eyelet dress I made for her Christening.

This red-sprigged dress with matching smocked pinafore is one of my favorites.

This pink puffed sleeve dress with eyelet-ruffled pinafore was inspired by a pricey outfit we admired in an "American Girl" catalog. Lara didn’t have an American Girl doll, but the catalog was fun to look at.

And I made these red plaid and star-printed navy jumpers for her for successive Christmases.

This sweet dress with white net puffed sleeves and overskirt, black velvet bodice, and pink ribbon sash, was I think the last of the holiday dresses I made for Lara. The color choices and pattern were her inspiration.

Here is Lara wearing the dress, with Mom and my niece Jordan.

Some years later, in 2001, Lara let me make her another dress. This was for a college Halloween party. Like we did all those years ago, we chose a pattern and fabric to match her vision – a medieval gown in a cranberry red, with flowing, pointy white sleeves and a soft, cowl neck. Pulling it out to photograph it, I was struck with the realization that this dress itself is nearly 13 years old.

I’ve begun to sew a bit for myself again now. Here’s a selfie I took earlier this spring, wearing a top I drafted my own pattern for, and a pair of black pants made using a Sewing Workshop pattern.

Hopefully my newly acquired mannequin will inspire me to continue with this activity that has been part of my life for so many years.

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Easter Baking

4/18/2014

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Last night Gary and I went to the evening Maundy Thursday service, and today is Good Friday. I’ve
been thinking about Good Fridays past, and how I used to spend them. As a working mom I would generally take the day off. The children, once they were school age, would have the day off as well. Sometimes there would be a church service, sometimes if the weather was sunny and warm we'd do something outside. But especially, on Good Friday I did Easter baking.

Holiday baking was something Mom practiced in a big way. She inherited this from her mother, my Grandma Wolinski, and passed it on to me and my sisters and brothers. My siblings and I have likewise passed on this activity to our sons and daughters. And my ten year old grandson bakes as well.

Mom would start her baking early in Holy Week. She did homemade bread, from a recipe from her mother. She did sugar cookies, dozens of sugar cookies, cut out with Easter-themed cooky cutters and frosted in pink, yellow, green. She baked a delicious sweet yeast bread, shaped in pieces about 3
or 4 inches long, and dipped in melted butter, sugar and cinnamon, called “Russian Bread.” My recollection is that Mom got this recipe from a friend when they were both young mothers. It became a must at every Easter and Christmas from then on. And most wonderfully, Mom made an Easter Lamb cake every Easter. Actually, she made several, sometimes 3, sometimes more. One would be kept for
the family, the others given to friends, neighbors, the sisters who taught in the parochial school.

As I remember it, in the very early 50s Mom didn’t actually make her own Lamb cake. Instead, Grandma Wolinski would send us one that she had baked, via Railway Express. It would come along with an Easter box for each of the children, a cardboard box covered in wallpaper, holding some Easter treats in shredded Easter grass, and covered with brightly colored cellophane.

I’m not sure exactly when Mom started making her own Easter Lamb, but not very many years went by before she did. She started with a handwritten recipe that Grandma sent her, written in the blue ink that Grandma used. And just as later happened with me, my sisters, my children, my nieces, the Easter Lamb quickly became Mom’s own. The recipe is a very heavy pound cake, and the cake is baked in a lamb-shaped metal mold. The rich, heavy cake, when baked, can stand on its own. Once cooled, it is frosted in a heavy buttercream frosting, with raisins used to delineate the eyes and mouth. Grandma, and Mom, would put a red ribbon around the neck, as a reminder of the Paschal Lamb represented by the cake. They used an old-fashioned aluminum icing gun to
decorate their Easter Lambs, laboriously squeezing out row after row of buttercream frosting to resemble fleece. I did this too when I started making Easter Lambs for my family, in the early 70s. It was hard work, and led to aching fingers. Somewhere along the line I decided to try frosting the cake and patting on coconut to make the fleece effect. But so far as I know, my sisters, daughter, and nieces still do the frosting the traditional way.

So, every Good Friday, for almost four decades, I did Easter baking on Good Friday. I made Easter Lambs, I made Russian Bread, I made cutout sugar cookies. I made a pinwheel cinnamon roll using a biscuit dough recipe, derived from my copy of a 1954 cookbook, “The Betty Furness Westinghouse Cook Book” (Julia Kiene). Mom’s copy of this book was her “yellow cookbook,” and especially in the 50s and early 60s it was her key cookbook. I acquired my copy when I was first married, and it served as my main cookbook as well for many years.

At some point I also started making Hot Cross Buns and an Easter Nest coffee cake, both recipes from a 1973 cookbook, “Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Bread Cook Book.”

The two pictures below date to around 1990, I think. An Easter Brunch for family and friends at our former ranch house in Charlottesville. On the sidetable, clockwise, 1) Easter Lamb, 2) Russian Bread, 3) cupcakes made from a second batch of the Lamb Cake, 4) Pinwheels, 5) more cupcakes, 6) Easter Nest cake. (Either Mom or my mother-in-law would have taken the pictures. And I wish I still had those blue flowered slacks.)

The last year I baked an Easter Lamb, or any of my other Easter breads, using the original recipes was in 2009. That year I went gluten free for health reasons. But last year, in 2013, my sister Mary and niece Jessie, who along with others in our family is also gluten free, shared with me Jessie's adaptations to the Easter Lamb and the Russian Bread recipes. I tried the Easter Lamb, and though initially a little wobbly, it worked! What a delight. Here's how it came out:

This year Mary and Jessie will be bringing a gluten free Easter Lamb, and gluten free Russian Bread, to the Easter brunch that Gary and I will be hosting. And my daughter Lara will be bringing an original recipe version of the Easter Lamb. I know other sisters, nieces, cousins, maybe a son, daughter in law, and grandson, will also be doing the Easter Lamb.

Here is the Easter Lamb that Lara made last year at her place:

In 1972, the year after Grandma Wolinski died, Mom compiled recipes, poems and sayings, even a doll pattern, into a red spiral
notebook, and made copies for her sisters (my aunts) and her children. The recipes were ones that Grandma had written out and mailed to Mom when she was a young mother. The Easter Lamb recipe was one of those included in the notebook collection. My copy of that recipe, the one for Russian Bread, and a shorthand version I wrote out for Mom’s sugar cookies, are frail, frayed and spotted with the accumulated splatters of decades, roadmaps of my Easter baking of years gone by.