Sunday, May 14, 2006

I remember Mother and the four-gored skirt!


I remember many things about Mother. I remember the floral drapes and sofa slip cover she made for the living room in my first childhood home. I was about seven at the time.

I remember that she always insisted she was incapable of making decent pie crust, but she took great pride in her cakes. She loved angel food cakes. She made many of them much to my disappointment as I loved devil's food cakes.

I remember her contagious laugh and how Daddy would tickle her, sometimes chasing her around the house in order to tickle her, just so he could hear her laugh. He called her Butch back then. Why I don't know.

I remember that she did not like dogs in the house, but she put up with them, one after another, dog hair and all, to please Daddy, my sister and me. We three loved dogs.

I remember the time Mother made matching dresses for my sister, me and herself. I remember how proud she was of them. Then there was the four-gored skirt that she made. For some reason memories of that four-gored skirt have surfaced in my mind on this Mother's Day.

I was about eleven when I joined 4-H. My project for the County Fair that summer was to make a four-gored skirt. Either Mother lost patience with me as I fidgeted with the four-gored skirt and her treadle sewing machine, or I lost interest in the four-gored skirt and her treadle sewing machine. Anyway, she ended up doing most of the sewing of the four-gored skirt. She was ever so proud of her sewing accomplishment, too, and she was most confident that the four-gored skirt would receive the much sought after blue ribbon at the County Fair.

When the four-gored skirt did not receive the much sought after blue ribbon, Mother sulked about it for a good month. She could not understand how a four-gored skirt put together by an adult who knew how to sew would not qualify for the much sought after blue ribbon intended for children. I can imagine that, as a way of comforting herself, she might have entertained the thought that the 4-H competition at the County Fair was in fact rigged.

What would youngsters do if their mothers never pitched in at the last minute and covertly finish for their child that science project for school or that 4-H project for the County Fair? What would we do without our moms to take over?

15 comments:

  1. *L* I love the 4-H story. It is the same here. When our girls were in 4-H there was almost always a mad scramble at the end to finish the project.

    Sadly, there were occasions when it was obvious some judging was rigged. Very sad, what kind of message does that send to the kids?

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  2. Moms are always there in a pinch. That's what Moms are good at. They give you just enough rope and then step in when you get all tangled up.

    Mom had one of those sewing machines with the foot treddle. I wonder whatever happened to it. I have my Grandmother's sewing machine and I can sew with it but it needs a part to make it work again. Maybe I can find it on ebay or something.

    Nice story Susie, I love the pictures of your Mother as a child from one of your previous posts.I have a few of my Mom in her late teens and boy was she skinny.

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  3. I seem to recall with my own children my pitching in at the stroke of midnight to help with a paper or a science project that was due the next day or very soon thereafter.

    I also seem to recall that it was the stroke of midnight when they decided to get started on the paper or the science project.

    Kids!

    Mallory, thanks for stopping by. Come again, please!

    Jenni, as always, I can count on you to leave a thoughtful comment.

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  4. Vivid, I can just picture it. "Butch" is pretty hilarious!

    I'm reminded of how my grandmother, who lived across the hall from us, baked her own bread. Just the smell was enough to make you hungry even if you hadn't thought you were...

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  5. Hi Gangadhar from India. Thanks for stopping by. Yes, moms sacrifice a lot for their families. They are the glue that holds it all together, too.

    Darius, isn't it funny the close connection between our memories of moms (and mom figures) and our memories of food. Whenever I think of my paternal grandmother, I think of her famous baked beans (made from scratch)and her delicious cinnamon rolls (also made from scratch).

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  6. One thing that I don't miss about having younger children is helping them with homework and science fairs and the like. I dunno; maybe that's because I was a teacher with enough homework of my own and somebody else's just made me grumpy.

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  7. You seem to have had such a good, loving relationship with your mother, as you describe it here and on my blog.

    Glad you posted this!

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  8. This story of your mother serves
    as a reminder of all those wonderful
    home-made dishes and cinnamon rolls
    from my childhood. My mother was and still is a wonder cook.
    Of course, there were special outfits,
    but the one I remember most was made by my mother for Easter Sunday.
    Keep them coming. I truly enjoyed this story.

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  9. I am really behind in responding to your comments here. I apologize. I have been caught up in other things and time has slipped away from me.

    Thanks, Ganga, Anvilcloud, Barbara, Sharon, and Darius for stopping by to see what I am up to.

    Hey, I do have a story in the works about my cousin Jimmie and me when we were little. The name of it is The Truck Stop Rascals. That should give you an idea what the gist of the story will be.

    Don't give up me. I am still alive and kicking. I'll come through one of these days.

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  10. God help me in the best way that I can to treat my mom in the best way that I can. i dont ever entertaiin the thought of her been no more. She is the sweetest and the strongest lady I have ever met. Even after dad left her for another woman and later died, she still remains ever faithful. God bless her for me
    you have a great blog. take care.

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  11. That's so funny, isn't it... the project takeover phenomenon.

    In fourth grade, we were learning about the missions of California (california history) and we were required to construct a model of a mission we chose, using only sugar cubes and toothpicks.

    I highly doubt any one of my classmates did that project entirely on their own. Myself included. I can't believe that the teachers didn't know that, either.

    Thanks for the post; it made me laugh.

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  12. AMARA and NOSURFGIRL, welcome to my blog. I was really surprised when I discovered your comments to my post about my mother and the four-gored skirt. The post was a month old. I am afraid that the nice weather has given me reason to leave my computer and this blog for another day as I enjoy the outdoors and nature.

    AMARA, it is great to have someone visit my blog who lives clear across the world. I tried to leave a comment at your blog, but I was unable to access it. I will try again tomorrow. It appears you are in the process of redesigning it at the time. This is probably why I could not access it.

    NOSURFGIRL, you made a model (with mom's help) of a mission using sugar cubes? Now that's a project you could really sink your teeth into. :-)

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