I rarely recall a time that her sewing machine was not in the hallway of our house...she made all of her clothes and mine as well, so the machine was usually in use.
I *LOVE* that my grandmother made all of her own clothes as well as her daughter's clothes. Would that I could accomplish that!
Most of her days went like this....after working an eight-hour day at the Charleston Army Depot she arrived home around 4:20 pm and had a meal on the supper table by 6:00 pm. After supper she would take the evening newspaper and lie down on the sofa 'to rest her feet.' She never got past the front page before she was fast asleep. (While she was napping your Daddy and I would be cleaning up the kitchen. One week I would wash and he would dry, the next week he would wash and I would dry. Every night we would get into a disagreement about something STUPID!)
I have to interject that I can see this! My aunt and dad were a mere 16 months apart--close as twins!
After the commotion, Mama would get up and pull the sewing machine from the hall into the living room. Between 8:00-9:00 pm she would begin sewing and she would sew until midnight and 1:00 am. Daddy always went to bed early and your daddy and I had to be in bed about 10ish. Mama felt this was 'her' time. From her sewing machine she could see the TV and she LOVED Jack Parr and later Johnny Carson on late night TV....Parr and Carson were much funnier than the late night folks of today. I can remember waking to her laughing, I mean belly laughing, to these two guys. There was no way that I could listen to her laughing that I didn't start laughing too. It was infectious!!
Yes, it was!! I remember this very well about my grandmother's laugh.
And after several nights of this routine, in the morning would be the PERFECT outfit, freshly pressed and on a hanger. And I was ALWAYS so proud when someone would compliment my outfit and I would say "thank you, my mother made it for me." She was my hero!
I think it's so nice to realize it's not only 'ladies of leisure' who have the time to sew or do other creative things. Sometimes you have to create opportunities for creativity in pockets of an otherwise busy life.
This email also reminded me that my grandmother would generally sleep in most mornings, and my grandfather would get up, begin cooking breakfast, and take her some coffee once she needed to get up and ready for work. So sweet.
And I realize I come by my nightowlish tendencies quite honestly.
Annie Dillard wrote that 'how we spend our days is how we spend our lives.' Those thousands and thousands of hours my grandmother spent on her sewing created clothes for her family throughout the decades (not to mention the items she knitted and cross-stitched and crocheted!). All the little minutes of life *do* add up. And I've got an enormous quantity of vintage patterns--nearly all of them used--to prove it. Such treasures.
Lesson du jour: there will never be any perfect time or place to start creating or fulfilling your talents in any 'hidden arts.' Do it today!
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