More About Me

I started sewing when I was in the 6th grade under the watchful eye of my mother.  Mama was an exceptional seamstress able to make anything from our frilly little dresses to ruffled country curtains and fancy toss pillows.  A shopping trip for Mama would be to go "window" shopping.  She would see something she liked and would go home and make the identical dresses for a fraction of the cost of the ready made dresses.  She would make Nancy and me look alike dresses full of ruffles and lace.  She would get us all dressed up and make us wear a "can-can" (sometimes two) under those dresses to make them stand out.  If we sat very long, when we would get up the "can-cans" would be embedded on the backs of our legs not to mention when we sat down our dresses would nearly go over our heads.  Do you remember "can-cans"?

I don't remember Mama sitting down and giving me step-by-step instructions but I started out with a basic sleeveless, straight dress with a zipper down the back.   I am sure she helped me with the pattern lay out and gave me some general instructions before turning me loose with the sewing machine.  Nancy never did learn to sew.  Mama said she couldn't learn to sew because she was left-handed.  I never did understand that.  Mama has always done whatever sewing Nancy needed but Mama would say, "Teresa can do her own."  If someone heard her say this, they would think that she did not want to sew for me but what she meant was that I could do the job just as well as she could.  At least, I think that's what she meant.  I feel really honored that Mama would think that my sewing skills were anywhere close to hers.

Nancy is three years younger than me and when we were little she was very shy and could not speak very plain.  I was the only one who could understand what she was saying.  So, we would go somewhere and Nancy would "jabber" something.  Everyone would ask me what she was saying.  I would listen to her and then say,  "She said she wants a cookie".  They would give her a cookie and give me one too.  It worked every time.

Nancy and I must have been pretty competitive with each other when we were young.  I remember one time, we were up on the hill.  (In Ash Hopper Hollow, there's lots of hills.  This was on the Matthews side.)  I decided to race Nancy down the hill.  Seeing there was a fence at the bottom of the hill, I figured I'd jump it when I got to it.  Of course, Nancy was taking her own good time coming down the hill but I went full steam ahead.  Well, about five steps from the fence, it occurred to me that I couldn't jump the fence and neither could I stop.  There I go head first into the fence.  It might not have been so bad if I had missed the fence post!

For some reason stray dogs used to come to our house.  Daddy would say, "Now kids, don't you pet that stray dog so it will leave."  Well, we petted every dog that came to our house.  At one time, we had a black dog and a yellow dog, both of which had a collie mix.  Then, a pregnant beagle hound came to our house that had eight puppies.  As a general rule, we listened to Daddy but we had a real weakness for stray dogs.

When Nancy and I were growing up, Grand Daddy use to give us baby chicks.  We had two pet chickens, Pinky and Penny.  One day we were sitting on the front porch steps, and I decided to see what would happen if I sat on Penny.  When I finally got up, the chicken’s beak and comb was purple.  I almost killed that chicken! She got up, staggered around, and then walked off. I don’t know how old I was, but I know I was old enough to know better because I can remember doing it.

One day after I married, I was telling Grandmother that I would like to add a 2nd rod to my closet so I could increase my storage space but I didn't know if Eddy would let me.  Grandmother said, "What do you mean if Eddy will let you?"  She continued by saying "When Horace was living, he ran the farm and I ran the house."  You see, if Grandmother wanted a shelf built, she would get the materials she needed and go at it.  So, the next day I set in on that closet, and today it has two rods in it.  I started this project with the determination that if I didn't get the  job done, at least, Eddy would have wished he had done it.