Category Archives: Lap Quilts

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Winter White

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Hello,
Winter has made its self present in central New York. We get a fresh addition of snow every day and it is starting to build up. The new add on’s do keep it looking fresh however and white.    It is amazing how white, black  and a bit of gray can be so beautiful!  I have had a quiet but busy week. I did deliver the twin Scarp Happy quilt on Monday and promptly started another. Some how no face contact with folks is starting to diminish the joy of sharing. I have become acutely aware how important saying “Thank You” is.   I am still a little burnt by giving 21 quilts to the nursing home and having the guard tell me to drop them on the floor while he continued to play on his phone. He said my contact  was unavailable. I  still do not know if the woman I talked with  on the phone got the quilts or they went out in the trash. That was three weeks ago.  I know that everyone is busy and Covid complicates things, but I did leave my business card in all the bags, so one hopes they could find me if they wanted to.
I did get a great deal of joy in the mail this week with two different events. My Spoonflower order arrived and I am delighted with the results. I will have to feature it in a work soon. My second delight came in the form of a package from Robert of the Pixies group. It was a new hat! It make me smile from ear to ear every time I look at it. It sure made our Zoom meeting fun as we all had new toppers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Textile Artist Stitch Club assignment for this week  was from Valerie Goodwin. I have had several classes with her and find her to be a strong teacher. We made a map of our neighborhoods using Goolgel maps as our jumping off point. It was fun and I enjoyed doing the hand work.   The purple round objects are my trees as viewed from above.

Progress Report: Scarp Happy This work is going quickly as I already had a backing done from some time in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

Crow Fabric Collage I could not make the crow that I did last week work by its self, so I made a second one yesterday. I like to do things in odd numbered groups so I will make a third feature unit this week to mix with the two done ones.

 

 

 

Autumn Fall The base is all assembled and quilted so now I can add the Tyvec leaves on top. I am doing the vanes by machine first. It takes me about 12 min to do each one.   I am about half way done with the vain work.

 

 

 

 

Black base I am doing more hand work with the wool treads that Nancy gave me. This is a second piece of black fabric that I tried to discharge last summer so there are some slight color changes in the black.   I am exploring with my stitches.

Daily Practice Because I am using the  same wool and lots of old dyed lace this work is moving along a lot faster then I expected.  Wool needs bigger stitches and that fills thing in quickly.  Fun work however.

 

 

 

New Lap Quilt

I have pulled these fabrics for my next lap quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood/ Adolescents Memories Jr High
>
> My entry into Storer Jr High was different in many ways.
> I was just Carol McElhinney , one student among many  and my parents were not known in this community . Though Dad was in the Education department at Ball State Teachers collage, he was also new .   With time  his name became know and that short unanimity disappeared, that only   changed when I married Eric and changes my last name. Then I  did get out from under Dad’s big shadow. The middle school went from 7th grade to Freshman year and there were over 350 students in each grade level. This was a another big difference .My school records from Carroll followed me and I was placed in a low level home room with Mr Dillon. He was our teacher for Language Arts. I don’t recall much instruction , but I do remember lots of sustained silent reading with book reports to follow. The report was  a simple, title, author and short plot line. Since I had really started to understand how to decode the printed word over the summer, it was a real growing experience. By the end of the first semester ,Mr Dillon moved me a different home room. That was a math home room and since I did well with numbers, it worked well for me. My new English teacher was Mrs Middelton .  I had her for 9th grade too. I do remember one incident in her class very well. We were silently reading O Henry’s short story, “Ransom of the Red Chief.” I saw the story so vividly in my mind that I burst out laughing in the silent room. I got quiet embarrassed , settled down and started reading.   But again I got so lost in the story and soon  was laughing uncontrollably again. Mrs Middelton sent me to set in the hall for the rest of the period to finish the story and not distract anyone else. Years later when Eric and  I visited Storer on a teachers’s visitation day our paths crossed again. She recognized me and told Eric the story of that day. Later that spring, she hired Eric for a teaching job there.
> My school was about a mile from our house and across the creek that ran behind our home. There was  one foot bridge  near the school   and no road crossing the creek until one was a mile and a half from home.    I often rode my bike to school early as I had a job. I was the kid who opened and ran the school book store. I would go to the office and pick up the cash box and key to open the big display cabinet were a few simple school supplies were kept. Paper, note books, pencils, compasses, rules and such, were what the store  sold. After locking up I went to Math class first period. My seat was behind John Isenbarker, one of the popular Jocks. He was a quarter back for the football team and a center for the basketball team. When we were paired to do work together I Learned how lazy he was. I had too much self worth to let the “ big man on campus”, copy my homework so he sort of black balled me. It was a big enough school that I still survived.

Miss Fisher was the girls gym teacher and I really liked her. I  experienced the  big change in the rules of how girls played basketball. In eighth grade, girls played half court and I was a forward.    We never crossed the center line.  In ninth grade after the rules changed, it was full court like the boys played basketball ,and I was a guard. I remember a fierce competition between Jo Ann Walker and myself. Jo Ann was in Mr Dillon’s class so we had a bit of a history . She was scrappy, and taller then I was. I came home with many scratches on my arms after basketball games from her aggressive attitude. This was also about the time I realized that the world was stacked in favor of boys and men. I was quite upset and angry about this. Dad and I had several talks on that subject. In the end, I went away from those talks with Dad’s assurance that I could do what ever I wanted and I would have his support.

Take good care of your self

Carol

 

 

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Mayan- Bone Dancer, NEW, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors

Technical Difficulties

Hello,

For me it has been a strange week. We suffered a technical miss hap.   Two trips to the store,  playing with cable connections and a bit of crawling around on the floor and now we are back in working order.    One forgets how much we have come to depend on this machine for so many things. I was able to make my Zoom meetings through my phone- but I am sure I used lots of Data to do that and I will pay later. There were four Zoom meetings this week. The QuEG’s group meant before the modem failure so it went well although there were not a lot of folks in attendance. FAB meant on Wed and they were my first challenge with doing the zoom on my phone. Wed eve was the Pixies and it took 20 min for us all to get in aliment and able to talk. Susan suggested that we try a create a While Voodoo character to push positive energy into the world. This is my start.

 

Sisterhood
of the Scissors meeting went well because I was at Liz’s and we just tacked it on the end of our class with Rosalie Dace from Stitching Post. It was the last class and I am feeling a bit let down about that.

I also had a new assignment with Textile Artist Stitch Club this week. The new teacher is Valerie Goodwin. I have had classes with her at QBL so that was quiet enjoyable. I can not do the assignment because that had to do  with printing out a map, and the printer is wireless. I did finish my piece from last week however.

My other big event was to hang my solo show at the Life Force Studio. It consisted of the 13 Mayan pieces. I will add them at the bottom of this blog. We also did a video but it was too long so I do not know were that stands. Learning lots of things every day as far as technology is concerned.

Progress Report: Captured This piece is 32″ w X 42″ l. It came out stronger then I expected and I think I will try some more work in this vain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bone Dancer – Mayan Series This is the last of the series and it is 20″ w X 24″ l. I only had to add the binding, sleeve and label to complete this quilt this week. I will not show it in the lineup at the end of the post, but it is there too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gold Lap Quilt This is the newest finished lap quilt for the nursing home. I am using these as a chance to put together different fabrics and play a bit.

 

 

 

 

Orange Lap Quilt This is a second lap quilt that only needs the binding and it will be complete.   This quilt is also made up of mostly hand dyed and altered fabrics.

 

 

 

 

Twin Scrap Quilt This quilt is the commission I have been working on and it only needs to have its binding attached and it too will be complete. I am all excited about doing some more scarp quilts in the near future.

 

 

 

New work – Big Leaves This is the beginning of my use of the big Labrador that did not work on the pieces that became High Anxiety.

 

 

 

 

Raven I got busy and drew in crayon and colored pencil on a bit of fabric this week. He is a bit menacing, but I like him. Not sure were I am going here, but I like a challenge

 

 

 

 

Daily Handwork I continue to applique down old lace and stitch with wool on this piece.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Muncie Neighborhood

The Neighborhood in Muncie was like all the other neighborhoods in some respects. My parents seemed to always select locations on the out skirts of town with farmland near bye. In this case it was just across Petty road at the north side of the house and across the creek to the west. Dad did dig a garden in the back south corner of the yard as usual. He had a nice strawberry bed and corn every year along with tomatoes and other vegetables. The creek that ran along the back of our lot was a steep five foot drop to the water from our yard. Although the water did get high in spring it never flooded over those banks. I can’t say I ever climbed down to the water even under the bridge over Petty Road. I did explore the lands on those two farm though. The area directly behind the house across the creek was a field  that was going back to nature. There were lots of adolescent trees and brambles in that area. There was also a pond that I visited many time to watch birds and dragon flies as well as listen to frogs. Beyond the that field was a field stone house . The farm widow lived there. I only saw her once . The rest of her farm was across the road and it too was going back to nature as well. There was a great old gray barn that I looked at a time or two. One day it caught fire and the arrival of the fire trucks alerted everyone to the event. We were held at bay and that was a good thing as the metal sheets exploded off the roof of the barn in the middle of the fire and flew in many directions. That was also the day I saw the widow on the stone poach as she watched along with many others as the barn burned to the ground. Across the road on the east side of the creek was another active farm. That property had five different wind breaks/ wooded areas with plowed and planted areas in between. The wooded strips were all about seventy feet wide and supported a mixture of pines and hard woods . I explored them all of course. Two had little interest for me but the other three had elements that I returned to many times. One had a section of white pines that I would visit when I want to be calm. I would lie down on the many years of pin needles and enjoy the smells and look up through the branches at the sky and just day dream. Another section closer our house had two wonderful trees for climbing and I visited that area the most. The third are was on the far east side of the land and there was a great old willow tree there . I went there several times and tried to weave willow baskets. I was not real successful with those attempts, but that did not stop me from trying.
Dad had discourages me from playing football with the boys and although Gene would let he help his when no one else was available, but Steven would not tolerate my participation at all. It was lonely. In early October walking home form school I did meet another older girl in the neighborhood. Ann Pazel was in seventh grade and she lived six blocks from my house. Her parents owned the fanciest Jewelry store downtown. Her parents tightly structured Ann’s live with lessons and such  the only day of the week that we could play together was Tuesday. She had a Parakeet and I was fascinated. Mom disliked birds because a rooster had flown into her face when she was young. So having birds around was out of the question for me. Ann was a avid stamp collector and we all spent hours sorting, examining and sharing those wonderful little images. I still have my original stamp album and continue to save every different stamp that arrives on mail sent to me. Someone will have a treasure trove to sort and enjoy some time in the future.

I will add a separate post of all of the pieces in the show.

Stay safe and keep Creating,
Carol

Childhood Memories, Diva Meetings, Drawing, Lap Quilts, Mayan - Lead Dancer, Mayan- Bone Dancer, NEW, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts

Winter work

Hello,

Now that the holidays are over and all the decorations are put away I can really concentrate on the studio clean up and sort.   It is a good time to do this sort of thing as there are few  distractions.      I am nearly done with the fabrics. For the most part I have put like colors and fabric types together. I did make some selections of things that I can pass forward  to give away. The only material  left is  my hand altered fabrics and then I will call that step done. My plan is to tackle the remaining book shelves next.
I had a Zoom meetings this week with the Diva’s and the Pixies. It is always good to talk with fellow artists. Textile Artist Stitch Club gave us a new assignment too. This is my drawing. I will use a view finder to select a small portion and begin the  stitch work.

 

 

Progress Report: Lead Dancer Mayan Series # 13 This work is 20″ w X 24.5″ l. With  this finished up, there is only one more in the series. It has been and enjoyable one for me. I am looking forward to the show next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wind Blown 3 X 3 Challenge This work is 38.5″ X 38.5″. All the Gingko leaves are raw edged appliqued to the surface thought the batting. The leaves are all silks of various types.

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap Happy I was commissioned to do one of these in a twin size. All the rows are done and I am working on the backing now.

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt. In my cleaning I found this top all done with out the batting and backing.   I added those two part and  I am   doing stitch in the ditch quilting it now.

 

 

 

Captured Threads I started this project three years ago at Fall Retreat at the Schweinfurth and it too got buried. I am doing the binding on it now and so I will finish it shortly.

Bone Dancer- Mayan Series # 14 This is the last planned work in this series. I am to the quilting stage of this work now as I have a show of all 14 coming next week at the Life Force Studios. Nothing like a dead line to push one forward.

New Work I had cut these squares and pinned them down before I found the other lap quilt, but I will build it none the less. I know I can always find a home for them.

 

 

 

Daily Handwork I started this last week and I am adding yarns and ribbon to the surface at this point. I am keeping the colors simple and closely related. It is meditative to work on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories – Moving to Muncie Indiana
The move to Muncie was a big change for all of the family. Gene and I did not help with the actual packing up of the household. That job was carried out my Mom and Dad with the help of uncle Paul. They drove our stuff to Muncie and unloaded it. Gene, Russell and I came in Grandpa Howard’s truck. In the late afternoon one day, Grandmother and Grandpa loaded us up and we started driving east form Grandview. The three of us had a good time raising our selves above the cab and yelling into the wind for a while. But as the sun went down it became colder and colder. I remember Grandmother rotating us into the cab to warm up before we all fell asleep in the sleeping bags in the bed of the truck. The new house was in a housing development at the end of Brook Drive. It was a yellow brick ranch style house with a garage on the far south side at the end of the drive. There was one other competed house diagonally across the street where the Baloue’s lived. The adults  both worked at Ball State too and their was a son, Steven,  was Gene’s age. Many lots were not developed, but a few had craw spaces dug. There were no girls over 4 for five or more blocks in all directions. There was a big old Shingle Oak in the front yard on the west end and behind the house was a brook. Our street T-ed int Petty Road and beyond that road were fields. Across the brook was a abandon field that was going back to nature and beyond that a stone field house. From the  drive way one would walk up one step  between floor to ceiling windows on the left and a yellow brick flower box on the right , to arrive at the front door. Opening the front door one entered into a short landing with three exits. To the right was a wide opening to the living room that ran along the front of the house. If one went strait ahead there was a phone on the wall to the right and a door way to the kitchen. On turning left one went down the hall to the bath on the right across from Gene’s room. Strait down the the hall brought  one to my room, with Mom and Dad’s bedroom door just to the right. Their sweet had a small bathroom with a shower, stool and sink. I loved my new all white room. I had two windows that faced east and a third that faced north. The big old yellow typing desk, that was in my room in Carroll, did not make the trip, but most of the furniture that my parents had built did. They built desks for both Gene and myself out of doors that were used as the writhing surface. Four screw in legs were the corners, and Dad built slides for the drawers. The drawers themselves were brown plastic wash tubs that slid in on the slide tracks. I also had great bulletin board on that was on that wall. In the corner at the east side was my newly inherited chest of drawers with a large mirror over it. Mom and Dad got a new bedroom set and I got the old blond wavy cut one with big X drawer pulls. I thought it was so “Hollywood”. In the front north east corner was my new bed. Gene and I both got new three quarter beds. That was a fashion that did not last long and Mom grew to dislike as she could not purchase sheets to fit. She had to cut down and re sew doubles to fit. Later that fist fall I got a blue swivel rocker that lived at the end of my bed in front of the closet. My book shelf lived inside the closet at one end and the play cupboard that Grandfather Howard had built me was at the other. Back down the hall was the kitchen/dinning area was behind the living room on the west side of the house. There were double sliding glass doors at the far end of that are and they opened onto a poured cement patio. At that far end was a set of folding doors on the right that opened to the living room. Beyond those doors on the right was a door to the garage. Opposite that door was on to the laundry room that included a sink and a stool too. At the end of the short hall was a door to the den. There was a door to the patio from there as well. Mom and Dad both had desks in that room. The house served us well and I enjoyed it until I moved away my senior year in college to live in a house with seven other girls.

 

Childhood Memories, Drawing, Lap Quilts, Mayan - Lead Dancer, Mayan- Bone Dancer, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Squares a Dancing

New Year

Happy Hew Year to all.
I sure hope that 2021 brings more freedom and joy to everyone.     May we all see a little clearer, love a little more deeply and value what we have missed the most this year.  I look forward to hugs and laughter with lost of smiling faces all around me.     Good health and wonder to all.

I tried to finish up lots of little details as part of my preparation for the new year  and  a fresh start.
I did complete my English Robin as the Textile Artist Stitch Club assignment. I learned that I need to pin and pin a lot even though the instructor, Mandy Pattallo did not. My robin got very fat as the part spread out while I worked.
The Pixies had a on line meeting as usual. We had an assignment to draw something to represent what we did on Christmas day. I always associate Christmas with Pamagranits, so I purchase and eat them that day. They were on sale in our grocery,  so I purchased two. One is gone and the second is almost finished now.

 

 

Progress Report: Lap Quilt This work is 40″ w X 46″t. It is made up of mostly fabrics that I altered in some way. I printed on most of them. It was fun to use my fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cold Moon Rising The work is 46″ w X 28″ t.    I changed the title of this work as I learned that the  last full moon of December is called a Cold Moon.   The branches are all wool yarn that I zig-zagged down. The birds themselves are made from various blacks. Several from the bottoms of pants that were shortened, some of velour and a bit of felt. By using a variety of fabrics for the birds I think it adds more interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing I finally got to put these fellows into rows this week. It will be a very handsome lap quilt I think.

 

 

Scrap Happy I worked away on this project this week . I am at the machine quilting stage and about half way done with it. I am sure I will complete this project this week

 

 

 

 

Lead Dancer- Mayan Series #13 I am working away on the out lining of the parts of this figure. I think I am about half way done with this step and will surely get to the quilting by Monday.

 

 

 

Bone Dancer – Mayan Series # 14 I spent a few hours this week with the cutting and fusing of the shapes for this project. I think I am getting anxious to complete this series so I put in extra time.

 

 

 

 

Fall Last week I painted the tyvec to use as leaves on the colored base. Well when I finally placed the first leaves on the base . It was awful! So they will become the start of something new. I tried cutting and pinning ginkgo type silk leaves on the base and I like that a lot more. So I am going in that direction now. I plan to stitch a few down before I go any further with this idea.

 

 

New Work I got asked to do a commission by the son of a friend. It will be a twin quilt for a child. I pulled out the leftover squares from the summer quilts and I will start there.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Church Camp
The summer between seventh and eighth grade was different than past summers with the grandparents. I was older and there was more freedom in both households. I did get to wash and dry dishes in both places too. At Grandma Esters’s I was too old for Vacation Bible school, but old enough for Summer Church camp. It was held at the Rose of Sharon Church, out in the country, with bean and corn fields on all four sides. The camp lasted a week and was an overnight event. Old Army tents were set up on the church grounds, with the boys tents west of the church, next to the cemetery, and the girls tents, east of the church, next to the parking lot. Grandmother had an old army cot that I slept on in a small tent that I shared with one other girl. Grandmother and I prepared for the event by making pajamas out of cotton duck. Grandmother also make me a corduroy robe to wear over the top. At the camp we had bible classes in the mornings and sang. Each afternoon was a special event. For the afternoon of the first day we all piled into the Church bus and rode to Burlington to the public swimming pool. I was a bit mesmerized by the older kids as they played a wild game where the girls would get onto a boy’s shoulders and the pair would charge another pair. The girls would try to knock one another off into the water. I was also surprised by Kathy Paterson, the minister’s 17 year old daughter, who wore a two piece swimming suit. We did have a good time in the water that day. After dinner we had a little Bible study and sang around the camp fire, mostly Psalms. Then it was time for bed. The bathrooms were in the church and one had to leave the tent to wash up and finish preparing for sleep. I was so very proud of my new self made pajamas, that I went to the bathroom without wearing my robe. On my way back to the tent, I was walking along the side aisle of the chapel to the back door when Kathy, stopped me. She then proceeded to lecture me on how inappropriate it was for me to be out of my tent in only my pajamas. I ended up in tears as I ran back to the tent. My tent mate, also a bit of an out cast, was not very sympathetic either. After I cried myself out, I lay awake a long time thinking about the situation. I realized that I was more covered in my floor length cotton Pajamas then Kathy had been in the pool that afternoon That was really the start of my questioning religious philosophy. We went roller skating one afternoon, and had base ball games too. One night some kids went “Snipe Hunting”. I at least did not fall for that nonsense. It was pleasant for the most part.
Later that summer Aunt Hertha tried to teach Mary Helen, my cousin and me to knit. Mary Helen did get it, but me… Well lets just say I had several more teachers before I really got the hang of it. I babysat for Aunt Marty Ann too. She had two girls. Sharon, who was three and baby Sally. Sharon love to play tag. She often fell down in her hastes .Her cheerful response to that action was “ Oops-see -daisy” as she got up and ran again. It was always fun to play with her.
Another privilege of being older was that I got to go out with my cousin Ronne Lambert . He was a year older. He had a car and one afternoon we went to the county fair. His sister Ann was in 4-H and had cookies and an apron in the show. We rode the Ferris Wheel and the Merry go Round. It was enjoyable. Ronne and I went for one other outing to Columbus Junction at night. We rented a motor cycle and drove around town for about an hour. It was fun as we did go past my old house and the school as part of the trip. When we got back to grandmothers, we sat in the drive talking about our dreams for the future well into the night.

Please stay safe and have a good New Year

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Lap Quilts, Mayan - Lead Dancer, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Winter Moon

Holiday Greetings

Hello,

In this holiday season one misses  the family more then usual this year. Covid’s forced isolation,  has effected us all in many different ways. I find I value my friends even more now that I can not go see them. The Zoom meetings and email do help, but I miss the human contact. When we are all past this trial and we can hug one another again it will be even more sweet to do so. For now memories of days gone by will have to help us through the days and long winter nights. I enjoyed writing my cards this year and though more about what the recipient would like to know about my life then just doing the usual news letter type of thing. I hope to hear from the friends too. As the days inch longer, I will value the light and warmth they bring with more appreciation.
The Pixies were the only group that meant this week. We all had a good talk and enjoyed the commentary a lot. There was a new assignment from Textile Artist Stitch Club. Mandy Pattallo did a step by step demo on how to do a Christmas Robin. I think my bird got a little fat, but I enjoyed learning her fabric collage technique.
I did get a little gift for myself this year. I purchased a face book “Pastbook” of my images from 2016 to the present. I am quiet delighted by the wide range of images and enjoy reviewing my past work all in one place.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Scrap Happy – Ethel Scarps This is the second one in this group. I guess they all look a lot a like, but they are all going to different homes so that is OK. I only need to add quilting and do the binding now and this one will be complete.

Lead Dancer – Mayan Series #13 I just stitch steadily away on this piece. I have learned that it works best if I try to do the center areas first and work out from there.

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing These blocks are all dismantled now. So I will soon begin to assemble them into a quilt top.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt This top is all ready to layer and quilt now too. This one has only two fabrics that I did not alter in some way as a part of it. I like how satisfying these little works are.

 

 

 

Winter Moon I am still in a crow mood I guess and this moon rise with trees will be the base I build on. I zig-zagged down the wool yarn branches of the trees on the far left and far right so far.

3 X 3- new I though I would try a third piece in this assignment from the Sisterhood of the Scissors. I  also  wanted and excuse to try the Painted Tyvec leaves that were mentioned in the summer issue of Quilting Arts and this seemed to fill that bill. Painting the Tyvek was fun too.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories – Changes
I was having growing pains,  and not at all  sure what was appropriate behavior any more. Lee’s mom set up a boy/girl party in the fall. There were about a twenty other kids from seventh grade invited. It was in the afternoon and we listen to records and danced- sort of. I liked the punch and the donuts, but…. It was awkward for me as I became aware of the beginnings of “clicks.” I did not belong to any of them and felt like an outsider to folks I had played with and been friends with for years.     Added to that discomfort   was the face that I did not know how to dance. I stood on the sides most of the time and felt inadequate. Later my friend Lora, who had an older cousin, taught the two of us how to dance so I did not let that problem fester. I did have a Birthday party of my own in the spring. It was for only girls and that was a bit better.  But Martha Annaburg, Lee’s cousin, still played the “click card” by telling everyone what to do, so even that is not one of my favorite memories.
It really was year of not being quite  a full participant in anything. We did go to band class with the high school kids in the high school building. But we were not part of the winter or spring concerts. We were allowed to march with the full band, to swell its numbers, in the parade in the spring. I was so happy to get White Bucks to wear with my first band uniform. It was a big event as about 15 different bands came to town to  all marched in the afternoon parade. In the evening all the bands appeared on the baseball field to play “76 Trombones”- with all the trombones in the front.     And yes, there were 76 trombones performing.  The seventh and eight grade choirs was a bit better. We did get to preform two numbers at each of those music concerts I mentioned. I recall leaning Little Drummer Boy as it was a new Christmas Carol at that time.
At the end of the seventh grade the seventh and eight grade had a big dance called the “Spring Fling.” Again it was the first one the seventh graders were allowed to attend. Grandmother Ester made me a pink Dotted Swiss Dress for that event and I got new white Mary Janes. I also got to wear a very special pink fluffy coat that had belonged to Aunt Shirley. The coat had big cuffed three quarter length sleeves that just wrapped across the front- no buttons. Mom let me wear her long white gloves too so I thought I was hot stuff. The lights in the gym were low and there were lots crape paper streamer decorations. I was quite impressed. There was punch and cookies in one corner were it seemed like the teacher/ chaperones hung out and loud music. I don’t remember doing much dancing except with Lora. I did do one dance with Chris Moore. I was quiet enamored of him by then as I realized I really like boys with brains. Later, near the end of school year he did kiss me in his basement between the sheets that were hanging to dry there. That might have grown to a big part of my life, but   because Dad graduated from the University of Iowa, and Gene and I went off spend our last summer in Iowa.  It was  six weeks with the grandparents while Mom and Dad went to California looking for jobs.    They did not find anything they were happy with so they went and checked out Ball State Teachers College in Muncie Indiana.      That was a fit so they purchased a lot and designed a new house before they came to pick Gene and I up.   Then at the end of summer we packed the house and  moved to begin a new chapter in our lives.

Please stay safe and enjoy the holidays
Carol