Category Archives: Musings

Grandma’s Tablecloth

Memories, Musings, Reading, Things, ,

I’m reading a book, Wish You Well, that takes place in Southwestern Virginia in the early 1940s. In it the great-grandmother of one of the protagonists sews her a “feed sack dress”, a term new to me. Of course I asked Professor Google and was surprised to learn that feed sack companies made feed sack material dual purpose. The first, a container for the feed, the second a dress or apron or other cloth-made item. The material was not just white or off-white with lettering printed on it, but floral, or striped, or otherwise decorated. I remembered a cotton tablecloth my Grandma Patrick had on her kitchen table and wondered if it could have been made out of a feed sack. I was lucky to be given it and used it on my table for a while. I had no idea where it was, but today I serendipitously came across it while going through boxes for a different reason.

The tablecloth has a pattern of different types of flowers on a gray background with a crochet trim. The material is is soft to the touch, but strong. I’m willing to bet it was made from a feed sack, but of course no one is left to confirm my suspicion.

I’ve decided that it should not sit in a plastic bag in the storage area of my attic, but be displayed somewhere in the house. It’s now covering a too-dark bedside table in the purple guest room.

Craft Item from Illinois’ Sesquicentennial Celebration

Memories, Musings, , , ,

I was 12 when my home state of Illinois celebrated its 150th anniversary of its admission to the Union. I don’t remember much about the celebrations, but I do remember making this leather patch/necklace in Girl Scouts. I’m going to guess that the colored yarn represented feathers on a Native American headdress, but I could very well be wrong. Maybe they were just for looks.

And while we’re on the topic of Illinois — I just listened to the state song of Illinois (called Illinois) and remember singing it in school. I remembered the lyrics at the beginning, but near the end is this stanza:

Not without thy wondrous story, Illinois, Illinois,
Can be writ the nation’s glory, Illinois, Illinois,
On the record of thy years,
Abraham Lincoln’s name appears, Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois, Illinois,
Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois.
Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois.

Stanza from Illinois’ state song

I knew who Lincoln and Grant were, of course, but I had to look up Logan. This sentence caught my eye:

In 1853, John A. Logan helped pass a law which prohibited all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state.

Wikipedia (see also https://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht329602.html)

This man is honored, not only in the Illinois state song, but has two statues erected of him — one in Chicago and one in Washington DC — and has cities, towns, neighborhoods and at least one college named after him.

I’m surprised no one is talking about this.

Retirement so far

Musings

I’ve been retired for over two years and I’ve not done much to show for those two years. I’d expected, by now, to have been finished with my to-do list, or at least well underway with it. Instead I can hardly manage the day-to-day mini to-do lists.

There are still boxes under the guest bed full of things I brought back from my mom’s. By now I should have sorted them.

By now I should have at least learned how to use the 8mm and Super 8 Film Reel Converter Scanner and transferred all the Green/Patrick videos to YouTube and shared them with family. I’ve not even opened its box that I bought in 2018.

What have I done? I’ve read a lot. I’ve played a lot of games on my phone (and more recently Nintendo Switch Lite). I’ve baked a lot of bread. I’ve worried about oh so many things. I’ve not slept well.

Sometimes I think I should not have retired. I got more done when I was working. But I knew that was going to happen, didn’t I?

So many people ask me how retirement is going — it’s not going. It’s at a standstill in a rut at a dead end.