My grandmothers, my sister, and me MANY years ago, I think I was around 4 years old. Shoot only 68 years ago ………………

These two women gave me their genes but left me with something even more important to me: who I am. They were DOERS. I watched both of them make a home with little or no money. I watched both of them can STUFF. They didn’t have a supermarket to buy canned goods and they had no money to buy stuff. They GREW stuff!

I loved Grandma Hattie’s (on the right) garden. Grandpa Carey took care of the vegetables as far as growing went, but Grandma canned EVERYTHING. She was always in the kitchen. She had a red pump handle on her sink. No running water – no toilet – no nothing in the house. They had a cookstove which I think burned coal ……….. I never saw anyone chop wood until I married my guy. So it had to be coal.

They had an old kerosene stove in the day parlor which ran at around 110 degrees at all times. I thought I would die.

We would go up a few times a month. They lived about 30 minutes north of us. Not off an expressway ……………… we didn’t have any back then. I remember traveling down a road off of I-47 and there was a huge corn silo. It looked like we were going to hit it head on …………… but there was a sharp right-hand turn just before you smacked up against it!

They had a wonderful post office and grocery shop. Grandma would give us change to go get her a loaf of bread (and she gave us extra for pop!)

I remember watching her cook and eating her cooking. She was a masterful cook, and I’m sure she gave me the mad scientist gene in the kitchen! She did the feeding part. My other grandmother did the “let’s make something” part.

I made quilts because these ladies made quilts. Mom didn’t make quilts until she was 60 and after I started doing it. I remember Mom coming into my bedroom on the morning of my 16th birthday with a yellow and calico print Dresden Plate quilt. It was a gift from Grandma Nannie! I was FLABBERGASTED,. I knew she made one for my sister’s 16th birthday 4 years before, but I forgot all about it!!!!!!!!!! It was the birthday gift of the century.

I still have it. It is almost in shreds. Grandma lived in California when she made it and the fabrics were rayons, etc. that don’t hold up like cotton. When Grandma Hattie passed away, my mom and Aunt Lou asked me what I wanted to keep as a remembrance of her. I asked for the Double Wedding Ring quilt she made after Grandpa Carey passed away. I got it and I still have it. It’s in much better shape because I didn’t take it to college!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They both sewed and cooked and Grandma Nannie did cross stitch and embroidery. Nobody I knew knitted. Mom was great at crocheting, but she only knew how to cast on and off in knitting.

In December 2011, I was told that my husband had late-stage Parkinson’s and Cortical Basal Degeneration. I had to quit work because I couldn’t leave him home alone. I was not prepared to sit around all day and do nothing and I had practically no money. I found cheap yarn and I taught myself to knit. Not well ………… actually the first thing I made ended up in the garbage because of way too many mistakes. But I persisted. I learned. I managed to teach myself to knit socks ………… and sweaters! And then, in 2015, right after my husband died, I started making shawls. For 6 months after his death, I did absolutely nothing except sit in my chair and knit socks. I knit socks like they were keeping the world alive. Over 12 hours a day, day in and day out ……………

I remarried 6 years ago. He has over 50 pairs of socks now. He’s proud of them.

I moved back to the country and it was a busy time for a couple of years because we had sheep and then pigs. And my husband loved having me do things with him, even if it was just handing him a tool. But I knitted at night, as long as I could stay awake.

Knitting provides me with something to do while watching TV …………. it keeps my hands busy so I don’t eat all night AND it keeps me happy. I have a tendency to be too much of a perfectionist. I knitted a sweater all last winter and just got done ripping it out because I didn’t like the neckline which showed my sloppy cast-on. I should have left it, but I tried to fix it. Big mistake. Now I can knit another sweater from the yarn! Yes, I frogged the whole thing.

And I make dolls too ………………. I love dolls and my husband will kill me if I start bringing more dolls, books, magazines, yarn, fabric, and art supplies into the house. He thinks we’re old and should quit ACCUMULATING stuff. And I think he’s pathetic. LOL