Isn't this little quilt lovely? :) This is the quilt I received today from the Spring Blooms Quilt Swap. It's made with gorgeous batiks in bright, happy colors. <happy sighes> The quilt was not signed and the box only has a return address (Salina, KS) with no name, so I'll have to dig around in my files at home to see who the maker is -- she did a WONDERFUL job! :)
I found the box on my front step this morning and picked it up and tucked it into my big carry bag of stuff without opening it. Just got around to unpacking my 'schlep' bag and opened the box. What a nice color shot of joy for a crazy day!! :) Thank you, giver (I'll find you and send you email, you can't escape the thanks from me!! LOL)
Now, to finish up with my "It's My Life' entry for today:
4. Did your grandparents live nearby? How often did you visit their homes? Did the house have any special smells? What did their couch feel like? How big was their kitchen?
I wish I could put the picture in my mind directly into a jpg to show it off! LOL I have very clear and tangible memories of both my set of grandparents homes. None of them live in those places anymore, of course (all four of my grandparents are dead, now). The house my Mom's parents lived in is being occupied by one of her younger sister's families. The house my Dad grew up in is entirely gone -- the farm was bought by the Army Corp of Engineers by right of Eminent Domain in the late 60's and bulldozed. The yard (and the huge Elm tree in it) are now a picnic ground near the lake that resulted from damming the creek that bounded the farm.
What I remember about my Mom's parents house -- it sits on the side of a hill in Betsy Layne, KY, above the railroad tracks. Between the house and the tracks is a deep creek bed. There were always OODLES of tiny frogs that came out during the night -- I think they came up from the creek? You had to be very, very careful where you stepped when you went out in the yard at night or you'd slide down the hillside on squished frog. :P They were adorable little frogs -- I was never squeamish about them, they were fascinating. :)
The house has a big porch along the entire front side that is the second level -- long stair way going up to the porch. Much life got conducted sitting on that porch. :) There was a foot path along the way in front of the property and every one who came along was greeted and visited with. Trains passed several times a day -- mostly coal trains, full of freight and coal cars. We'd always wave to the engineers who usually waved back and honked the loud horn.
There was electricity in the house but no running water -- we'd have to 'pack' water from the well next door (carried two buckets wide on a shoulder yoke; used to be the chore passed to the youngest which was usually me and my youngest uncle:). The house had no central heat, just gas stoves or fireplaces in each room. The first level was a basement where the laundry was done and such -- I wasn't allowed in there so I have only vague recollections of it. At each outside eave was an enormous drum (100 gallons?) to catch the rainwater which was used for bathing and laundry. Grandpa made sure there was always an oil slick on top to discourage mosquitoes.
Since there was no running water, eating was a big operation. There were always lots of people around at mealtime. There were many children in my Mom's family and always friends and visitors, too. I remember the folks eating in shifts -- men ate first, then kids, then the women folk. One of my aunts or I generally got to wash dishes (sometimes several shifts of dishes were done, depending on the size of the crowd) in water boiled on the stove then mixed with cold drinking water. This was a novel operation from the way we ate and washed up at home (we always lived in 'town' with all the usual amenities of contemporary life).
I remember the kitchen/dining area as small and crowded by big table, stove, cupboards...there was always a big metal bucket of cold water sitting in the corner on a high stool with the ladle hanging above it. We learned early the correct way to ladle and drink without contaminating the water bucket or ladle. :) Any waste water from dishes or such was pitched out the back door onto grandma's flowers.
My grandfather was a smoker and the house always smelled (rather pleasantly) of fresh air mixed with Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco. He rolled his own cigarettes and I have clear memories of him standing on the porch, leaning at the rail or sitting in the kitchen rolling a cigarette. My grandmother did not like the smoke and would fuss at him till he took it outside. :) I remember most of the male adults that visited smoking -- but not either of my parents. When I was quite young my grandfather's parents were still living (across the tracks on the other side of the little valley, within eyeshot) -- both of them smoked a corncob pipe. Small, birdlike folks with white hair and real wiry strength. 'Cantankerous' is how I remember them -- very iconic mountain people. . :) I think all the folks in my Mom's family were argumentative, strong willed, caring and community oriented with definite opinions about everything. LOL
Their house had a large 'yard' which included the usual grass/flower beds as well as a truck garden, a chicken house (Grandma kept hens for eggs and meat), and some land higher up the hillside that I never visited (somewhere up there was a small cemetery where ancestors are buried; we'd usually go home over Memorial Day so my Dad could help mow, weed and spruce the plot up a bit). My grandfather was as coal miner all his working life but by the time I can remember he had retired on disability as he had Black Lung (which eventually killed him).
My father's parents lived on a real farm in the western part of Virginia (Wise County, near the Pound). It was about a four hour drive or so to go see them -- I remember the trip as weary and long (child's perspective;). The highway we drove in on was high on a hillside and we could look down to see the house before we left the road and drove down the gravel county road to get to it. I have nostalgic memories of watching for Grandma's house out the window of the car and down into green valleys (hollers as we called them).
My grandfather built the house himself when he and Grandma were married. It was small but very neat and clean and always seemed fancier than my other grandparents' house to me. At least part of that was that the house had electricity AND running water. :) Also, my Grandma Hampton was a devoted house keeper -- there were glass knobs on every door (which I loved:) and it was always dusted and tidy. Not so many people moving in and out since all the children were grown and gone and there were no near neighbors. The house was built on a single level and there was an expansive porch on the front and a large patio on the back. It was nearly always warm weather when I was there and I remember most of the life of the family conducted either out of doors or in the kitchen.
There were two bedrooms -- one that was used only for company that actually belonged to my aunt (who was away at school then, later, married) and the other where my grandparents and everyone else slept (all the kids). The sound of the wind-up alarm clock ticking at night was always soothing to me. My Grandmother's nightly routine was to let down her very long hair (which was usually done up in a single braid and bunned), brush it, wind up the clock and turn out the lights.
Every bed in my Grandmother's house had a feather down mattress -- waaaaay comfy to sleep on, like clouds. :) In the morning, after breakfast, her first daily chore was to go around and make every bed up. She had a long, well-polished stick that she used to smooth out the feather mattress and then she spread the sheets and quilts up and tucked them under the pillows. I have a lot of memories of following her around as she did these chores, chattering all the while (I know I must have done because I have a very clear memory of her turning to me, laughing, and saying "My you are a little chatterbox, aren't you!" I was probably three or four (because there were no other children with us) at the time. :)
There was no sofa in the living room, just several comfy upholstered chairs and my grandfather's rocker. He sat beside the radio in one corner, listening to the news daily (we were not allowed to interrupt or disturb him:). The middle of the living room was filled by a huge (by my child sized standards) coal burning stove. Around the bottom of the stove, on it's platform, were usually a number of small figures -- a duck and three ducklings, a frog or two. In the summer these were outside on the front porch so it must have been cold weather. I learned at a _very_ young age to avoid the hot stove surface!
The kitchen was the center of the house. Grandma cooked on a wood stove (the contraption always fascinated and frightened me:). There was a pretty red and white formica and steel table in the middle of the room with many chair around it. The table had folding leaves which went up and down depending on the numbers of eaters. There was also a drawer in the center of the undertable where Grandma kept the silverware (I got to set the table usually). A couple of standing cupboards and a drysink on the side walls ... windows along one side of the kitchen that overlooked the vegetable/kitchen garden ... and a screen door out to the back patio.
The back patio was my favorite part of their house. It was a large concrete platform sitting on the ground. At the back side, opposite the kitchen door, were two enormous trees with a very large hammock hanging between them. It was big enough to hold three or four kids easily. I have many happy memories of laying in that hammock in the warm summer afternoons, enjoying the shade and watching little songbirds hop through the tree branches (gold finches, chickadees, robins, cardinals). At one side of the patio was a large fish pond, also concrete, where my Grandfather kept many large gold fish. We were discouraged from paddling in the fishpond or trying to catch the fish ... but if we were good and quiet, the fish would come to the surface when we fed them and we could enjoy their colors and shapes. :)
The front porch of the house was less often used, generally if we wanted cover (it had a roof) from the rain or such. In front of the porch were three descending layers of 'steps', maybe 5 by 7 feet or so each, that my grandfather used to display his extensive collection of pottery jugs (think 'moonshine' containers) and crocks. :) I learned many years later that my grandfather had actually _been_ a moonshiner in his youth (and had spent 18 months in the Federal prison near Richmond for that). I gather than he was a really wild guy in his youth. <grin> I do not know what came of those jugs and crocks but everytime I see one I think of him. :)
