Category Archives: Things

He painted clothespin men…

Memories, Things

I’ve written a bit about Jeremy here and there. We met on a student exchange. He lived in Yorkshire and I lived in Illinois. We were friends for several years and even talked of marrying someday. We visited back and forth for several years.

On one of his visits to Elgin we picked up a clothespin ornament kit from Lee Wards. It held paint, a paintbrush, clothespins, glue and felt as well as directions on how to assemble the ornaments. One evening — the evening before he was to go back to England — we assembled the ornaments.

Now if it were me, I would have made the faces basic. Two dots for the eyes, one dot for the nose and a curved line for the mouth. Not Jeremy. He was an artist. He gave the faces large, expressive eyes. He gave the faces freckles and cheekbones that blushed. He made even added knees to some of the ornaments. Arms occasionally wore wristwatches.

Being the not-an-artist of the pair I was assigned the task of gluing the felt clothes to the clothespin people — which turned out to be quite fun. We pretty much stayed up all night, but the results were awesome.

Jeremy fashioned several of the clothespin people after people in his life. Strangely, I was not turned into a clothespin person. Nor was my mom. But the rest of the family was as was his family. A couple times over.

He made a nurse that actually does look like his mom and a doctor that looked like his dad. His dad was also the hiker and I think Mrs. Claus was his mom. He made a policeman that could have been his brother Nick who was trying to become a British Constable. He made a cowboy that looked like my cousin Bob who was living with us at the time and who made our life a little hellish at times. He made a boy scout for my brother Kevin and a sailor for my dad. And no relation, but a common interest — the lumberjack held a bra (it since has been mostly lost).

A couple of years ago, after a decade or two of hinting, my mom finally gave me the ornaments and yesterday I put them on the tree.

The video below is about the artist L. S. Lowrey — an artist Jeremy introduced me to. The song was popular back then. Whenever I think about my clothespin men and women I think about this song.

College Correspondence

Humor, Things, ,

So you know Clare’s getting ready to go to college — right? I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before.

Well, back in her Sophomore year, when she took the PSAT, she gave the colleges permission to send her emails and snail mail. They took her up on that. She’s basically had to change email addresses because of the huge amount of email she has been getting from the colleges. At first the emails had subjects like: “Clare, we want you!” and “Your efforts have been noticed, Clare!”. This year they’ve gotten more desperate: “Re: Did you get my email?” and “Clare, we haven’t heard from you!” This week they say things like, “Time’s running out!” and “Hurry! Only one more day to apply to X-college”. Today they say, “Your application is overdue, Clare!”

She finished applying to the colleges on her list weeks ago, [actually she only finished part of the process, but knows what colleges she’s applying to], but the constant reminders are worrisome.

But the email is the least of it. Last spring we recycled half a 50 gallon container of college correspondence. On Sunday, in order to fit the Christmas tree in the living room, we did the same. But this time we took pictures…

Naked Tree

Events, Things

There is a naked Christmas tree sitting in our living room. Buck naked. Not even a string of lights to hide its prickly bits. I’d post a picture, but my blog might be considered to have mature content if I did. So use your imagination.

Normally by this time on the Sunday after Thanksgiving the tree would at least have lights. Instead of stringing lights and hanging ornaments, I’m sitting on the sofa with a notebook computer on my lap and a glass of wine at my side.

Besides a naked tree, the room also boasts boxes and boxes and boxes of Christmas paraphanalia. We started puting the decorations around the house, but there’s a Steeler’s game on — the guys are watching that. Clare’s in the middle of a good book. And I have my wine.

Tomorrow is another day.