When fall comes it always brings warm memories of time spent with my mother. That's probably because for those few years before starting school it was just Mama and me time. My Daddy was at work and my sister was in school. I spent my day mostly following mom around, staying underfoot and in general getting in the way. I was a very clingy child ~ sometimes I don't know how she made it.
We had the most wonderful set of books called My Book House. I believe there were 12 volumes. The first book was nursery rhymes, the second was a little longer stories and so on and so on. I just loved the books, I mean truly loved them. They were originally purchased after my sister Joni was born in 1955 and they were kept in our bedroom and these were the ones our bedtime stories came from. I so wish I had a set now, at least the first two.
Back to those days at home with Mama.
I can clearly remember some of those days. Like the day she found me sitting on the bathroom sink covered in her beautiful red lipstick. Oh the shock on her face.
Then there was the time I remember walking around with my head stuck up her dress as she tried to move from room to room to clean the house. It was one of those wonderful June Cleaver cotton shirt dresses all pleated at the bottom and cinched at the waist with a matching belt in a soft blue green. Mama seemed so tall to a little kid like me. Well she was tall. Mom was 5 ft 9 inches tall and very thin. I was always a little thing taking more after my fathers side of the family. I'm only 5'3 now and seem to be shrinking. I'm sure by 70 if I live that long, I will be a whopping munchkin at 4'8".
Oh and how could I forget Mama just having finished mopping the kitchen floor and me being the helpful little girl I was taking out the brand new FULL GLASS jug of milk, which in my defense I might say was very heavy, and immediately dropping it on the floor where it promptly shattered. Ewe-wee she was not smiling and I received a nice reprimand for that one. To tell you the truth I can still remember feeling so sorry for her after having just mopped the kitchen.
But there's also lots of memories of picking up pecans outside and going to the our small little country county fair only a few miles from home. When the fair came, which was every October they actually had a kids day where school closed and students got in free that day. My Mom was a wonderful seamstress. She made beautiful tailored clothes for herself and little dresses for us. She had a very classic style. The clothes she bought or made for herself were never extremely trendy but so stylish that you could look at it twenty years later and still love it. I remember her entering a couple of her creations in the fair and receiving blue ribbons. She also entered crochet and knitting projects with the results producing more blue ribbons. I loved going to the fair grounds before it opened while Mama set up displays or helped with the band booth or work at the front office. Then a couple of weeks later Mom would be back at the fairgrounds again helping to set up the Halloween carnival for the school. A few days before halloween they would have a carnival inside one of the buildings were they had all the little booths that you could win all those little plastic toy spiders and such at. There was always the fortune telling booth with the gypsy where they would put the little cellophane fish in you hand that would move because of the heat of you hand ~ ewe spooky. What a wonderful time that was. By the time I was about 9 or 10 all this stopped and she spent more time at home and didn't socialize to much anymore.
I guess I got a little sidetracked because this post on Mama all got started because I was thinking about the book story set. There was this other set of books, that I always associate with the book story set because they were always with them. They were black and white pictures or drawings of crafts to do with children. I can remember pulling those down every week countless times and asking can we make this? What about that? The answer was always the same - Not today. Mom never had cared for crafting and my desire to make silly little crafts never left. I'm so grateful to my Mom for teaching me how to sew. My sister never wanted to learn and never did. It was a real bond for Mama and me one that I cherish to this day. Unfortunately between her being left handed and me being right handed and also a little klutzy and impatient I never could learn to do more than a chain stitch when crocheting. Oh how I wish she were here to make me a Afghan now. The yarns are so soft and so beautiful. I'd even be willing to try her patience and attempt to learn again.
I hope on these last two days of October you're enjoying fond memories of your childhood too.
Love and hugs to you all...Tracy
