Quilts

 

My mother wasn't a fancy quilter, but a practical one.  She put together and quilted or tied a large number of quilts in her life-time, mostly for her children and other relatives.  Especially during my teenage years when we were "mostly" grown, she had more time for sewing and quilting.  Much like her mother and aunties had made quilts for her and her siblings and cousins, she sewed and quilted for her own children and nieces and nephews.  I remember one Christmas break in particular when my siblings and I were all participants in the quilt creation process.  We had an assembly line with probably two sewing machines sewing the patches together while listening to Christmas music on the radio.  Mums mostly did simple patterns with square blocks, many created from leftover fabric from our dresses or other clothing that she had sewn over the years.) Once the quilt top was sewn, the "sandwich" was created with a plain backing fabric, the fluffy batting filling in the center, and the patchwork on the top.  These were all stretched onto the quilting frames put together by my Daddy, and then we all gathered around to put in our share of the stiches, either right next to or right inside the "ditch" or the patchwork seams.  Once everything was quilted, Mums would hand stitch the binding around the edges, and then the quilt was ready for gifting.  

Other times we would gather together with Aunts and Uncles and cousins for quilting showers for whichever cousin was about to be married.   The Aunts would have the quilt top and sandwich all prepared, and we would gather around stitching, visiting, and of course, eating delicious pot luck lunches with lots of goodies.    And of course, when I did marry in my early twenties, we were gifted several quilts that were made by my dear mother, and another very treasured quilt made by my Aunts and quilted by my cousins . . . and including many stitches put in by my own dear husband.

Did you grow up with any quilting traditions in your family?   Do you have a treasured quilt?

Happy Easter

 

 

Kitchen Memories

 

The Kitchen, at least in the home I grew up in, was the heart of our home.  In fact, I also blogged about our family's kitchen back in the 2016 A to Z challenge  when I wrote about childhood memories.  As a teenager I spent less time in the kitchen than I had when I was a young child, but this kitchen was still the center of our family life.   I preferred cooking over many of the outdoor chores such as milking and hauling hay, so did help out a fair amount with cooking the meals in the summer time, and of course I was almost always up for baking cookies and cakes and brownies or homemade candy at Christmas time.  I even hosted a bridal shower for my cousin who married shortly after we both graduated from high school and prepared most of the refreshments myself.  Hopefully they were delicious.  At least no one complained.  If I remember correctly my favorite pumpkin bread recipe was on the menu, along with a ribbon sandwich loaf made with home made bread.

Yes, countless batches of home made bread were baked in this kitchen, mostly by my sweet, hardworking mother.   She was famous for her homemade bread, and all of her children and grandchildren and many many others will agree!   In their retirement years, my Daddy started taking over the bread baking duties, and this photo of him showing off his skills is in the kitchen is one of my favorites.  He also made amazing carrot/raisin/oatmeal cookies too!  

My mother also spent hours in the kitchen sewing and ironing  . . . clothes and quilts for her children, and even made quilts for many of her nieces and nephews.  Yes, this photo below shows my sister using Mum's old singer sewing machine.  I think I was reading?    I wasn't particularly fond of ironing, and still am not, but my angel mother would faithfully iron many of my clothes, making sure the creases in the slacks were just right for my picky tastes.  Was I a bit spoiled as a teenager?  I actually think that I was.  She used both the traditional iron and ironing board (not pictured), but also used the green Ironrite ironing machine pictured below for many years to iron everything from jeans and overalls to sheets and pillowcases and linen tablecloths and napkins.

Do you have favorite kitchen memories?

Jobs

 

Jobs can be pretty important to teenagers.  After all, you need to have some spending money, right?  In our family we did get an allowance starting quite young, where we were free to choose how to spend our 25 cents or a dollar, or whatever the amount was.  We were encouraged to pay tithing of 10% to the church, and to put some aside in savings.   When we started 4-H at about eight years old, Daddy gifted us a young heifer calf as a 4-H project.  When the calf became a cow, the profits from the milk produced by our cow would take the place of our allowance.   Most of the time this was a rather hefty allowance increase, but we were also expected to pay for most of our own expenses such as school clothes and supplies, in addition to whatever else we wanted or needed.   Regular chores didn't earn us extra money, but helping with hauling the hay did.   I didn't have regular babysitting jobs like some other girls in town, but there were a couple of families that did call me to babysit from time to time, so I did earn some money that way.

My first "real" job besides babysitting and hauling hay was doing some data entry work for the local telephone company one summer when they needed some extra help.  The owner of the company contacted our high school business teacher, and she recommended me and another of my FBLA friends for the job.  It only lasted a week or two until their regular billing system up and running, but I did get a taste for what it would be like to work a full time job . . . which I didn't ever have until after the youngest of my 6 children graduated from high school.  

Did you have an allowance growing up?  What was your first job or way of earning money?

Home Ec, 4-H, Hauling Hay and Historian

 Home Economics was a required half-year class in both 7th and 8th grade for girls in Junior High School back when I was in school. Most of the boys were required to take Shop or Industrial Education.  I believe that in the older grades girls could sign up for Industrial Education, or boys for Home Ec, but I actually don't remember for sure.  Mostly we just did what we were told.  

Seventh grade Home Ec concentrated on cooking or foods, and eighth grade concentrated on sewing and clothing.   I didn't really mind my Home Ec classes, but they weren't my favorite classes either, since they taught the very basics and I felt I already knew just about everything that was taught.  Some things I learned from my dear Mother, and others from the mothers of my friends in town who volunteered to be the leaders of the local 4-H classes.   We were eligible to join our local 4-H clubs when we were 8 years old or in the third grade, and had a lot of fun with the weekly meetings/classes where we baked cookies and cakes and biscuits learned about nutrition and and prepared vegetable relish trays and egg salad sandwiches and such.  We also learned basic sewing skills and so by the time those of us in 4-H reached junior high school, we had already done quite a bit of cooking and had each made our own simple dress. 

Hauling hay is a given when you grow up on a dairy farm.  Granted, I wasn't always the biggest help with the hay hauling crews, but I have been out in the hay field almost every summer since I was only a toddler.  Since I had 5 other siblings and a variety of cousins who would also come and spend several weeks to help with the hay, I usually got away without doing a huge amount of the actual gathering up of bales of hay from the field and throwing them on the wagon.  Sometimes I would be on the wagon helping to stack the bales, and sometimes I would have the job of driving the tractor or truck pulling the wagon through the hay field.  The haying season usually started in late June and lasted through the middle to the end of August, depending on the year.   Some summers we had quite a bit of rain, and it was always a challenge to get the hay cut, dried, baled and into the barn before the rain came and ruined the hay.  Watching the weather forecast was a daily, sometimes multiple times daily event in our household.

During my senior year of high school I was honored to be elected as the Student Body Historian.  I wasn't expecting to be nominated for any kind of Student Body Office, but somehow I made it through the election process and was given that responsibility.  I attended the student body meetings and put together a scrapbook that highlighted the main school events of our Senior year, including the fact that our football team won 1st place in the State Championship for our division.   Being Historian was an honor, but it was also quite a responsibility, and one that I didn't quite finish until nearly the end of the summer after we graduated and headed off to college, but thankfully I was able to get the job done!

Did you take Home Economics Classes?  

Were you ever involved in 4-H clubs? 

Have you been involved in Student Government activities during your school years?

Grandpa's Garden

 

Grandpa in his garden in the early spring

My Grandpa ALW, (my Daddy's dad) always had a wonderful garden right in the eastern part of his front yard.  Though it was smaller than our large family garden that was located in front of the barn between our house and Grandpa's house, it was always well weeded, watered and produced an abundance of peas, beans, beets, carrots, turnips, onions, cabbage and other vegetables for Grandma and Grandpa's  own use and to share with friends and relatives.  The growing season in our mountain valley isn't very long, so crops like tomatoes and corn and squash usually didn't quite mature before the first frosts came.  All of the cousins have fond memories of raiding the pea patch for a fresh and nutritious snack. Grandpa  also had a beautiful border of orange daylilies, a row of delicate sweet peas, and a huge yellow rose between the pumphouse and the driveway.

 During his last years after Grandma was gone, when I was a teenager, he still kept up the garden.   I'm pretty sure my Daddy helped out a lot plowing or tilling it up in the spring, but the garden gave him purpose and exercise, and others still benefited from his generous gifts of produce. 

I don't really remember much about my Grandpa VW's garden ( my Mom's dad), though I know had one most of his life.  My Mom has talked and written memories of helping in the garden, and most families who had the space in those days did keep a vegetable garden during the depression and World War II years.  My memories of Grandpa VW's yard are of the luscious fruit trees!  Peaches and Cherries and probably pears and berries were in the back orchard behind the house.  I remember going for a visit in the summer time to pick and  bring home a bushel or two of cherries for bottling, and in the fall Grandpa would usually bring us a bushel or more of peaches.   What a treat, as our cooler valley only produced the apples and plums and strawberries.  We always had plenty of bottled fruit in the cellar.

I'm grateful that I have always had a spot to plant a garden and berries and sometimes even fruit trees in every home that we have lived in during our nearly forty years of marriage.  It is a lot of work, I will not lie, but gardening brings me a lot of joy, even in the years when it doesn't produce as well as I would like.  This year I've already planted peas, potatoes, spinach, lettuce and 5 brand new raspberry plants, and the apricot tree is already in bloom.  Spring gardens make me happy!  The old homestead with both my parent's home and my grandma and grandpa's home is now sold and the buildings are all gone, but I am lucky enough to have salvaged a few of my favorite plants that are now growing in my own yard . . . some of my mom's spring daffodils, and my grandpa's yellow roses and orange daylilies. 

Did you parents or grandparents have gardens or orchards?   

Do you grow a garden?

Grandpa's yellow rose bush

The old homestead circa 1955

Future Business Leaders of America

 

Future Business Leaders of America, or FBLA-PBLA was one of the major activities of my high school years.   The club was open to any students in the 9th through 12th grades.   In order to join we needed to be enrolled in a business or business related class, which was one of my interests.  I first enrolled in type classes, where we learned to type on the IBM  Selectric typewriters.  I also had classes in shorthand, and during my senior year was in the Business Block which was two full class periods of studying office procedures.   Our Business teacher was the State Chapter Advisor, and had also been my 2nd grade teacher in elementary school.  She and her family were also members of our local Ward or church congregation, and her eldest daughter was one of my group of friends.  I've always looked up to her and her family as examples and mentors in my life.

During the year we would  participate in regional and statewide business competitions and also be invited to attend the State and National FBLA Leadership Conferences.  Over the years I participated in events in Spelling and Parliamentary Procedures and Business Office Procedures.   My first times flying and staying in hotels in large cities were when we attended the National conferences in  Washington DC  and San Francisco in 1978.   I was actually able to participate in the competition for Business Procedures in San Francisco.   The competitions and activities allowed me to meet other high school students from all over the country and we were able to see many of the sights in these cities.  In Washington we toured the White House, the National Mint, Mount Vernon, and explored the Mall with the Washington and Lincoln memorials and the reflecting pools,  Arlington National Cemetery, The Library of Congress The National Zoo, and other many other sites. As a bonus, my older sister was able to join us as one of the chaperones on the Washington DC trip. In San Francisco I had my first dinner in China Town. I remember that I ordered Almond Chicken and loved it. We also explored Fisherman's Wharf and rode the boat to Alcatraz Island. 

I'm certain that my business classes and FLBA experiences helped prepare me to be able to find and at work part-time typist and office jobs throughout my college years, and to find the data entry job that has led to my current job at the local community college Admissions Office.  

Are any of you kind readers past or present members of FBLA-PBLA?  

What clubs or activities did you participate in  during your high school years?

Were you able to travel to new cities while you were in high school?