Tuesday, December 25, 2018

I got sick (and Merry Christmas if that's your thing)

I started getting a sore throat on Wednesday, but thought it might be a response to the changing weather. I went to donate platelets, and they suggested I wait, as I wasn't well. And then I got worse.

I canceled my plans to go to the Tri-Tatters meeting. I didn't go do my last-minute shopping. I didn't even go to my Dad's and K's house (or anywhere else) for Christmas. I stayed home, rested, drank hot tea, and finished my knitting projects. At least I could handle those (they're presents so no pics until next week).

I've gotten a start on wrapping, but there's more to do. I gave C his present and he gave me mine. Needless to say, I don't feel very festive this year.

I am going through my hot tea stores. C went to spend Christmas with his family, so he hit the store first to get me soup, etc. I was going to be with my family, so we had pretty much cleared out the fridge of leftovers.

Here's the snowflake I made for the Tri-tatters' exchange (Lizbeth metallic, silver) and the one I gave our next door neighbor (size 40 silver grey Lizbeth). It's a free pattern, Editha.
silver
silver grey cotton with beads

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Family Trip this past summer

This past summer, my dad, stepmom, and I went north to visit his sister and other relatives. She's his older sister so it was kind of 'visit while we can'; not that she's in bad health but she's in her 80s. Plus it had been 10 years since I had visited. We drove.




We stayed with her, in the condo she and her husband bought after they sold their house to their middle son (a house meant for a family, not an older couple). It's a nice condo; 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, detached garage.

None of us are as young as we used to be, so we broke up the trip and overnighted in Kentucky. We were able to walk to the Cracker Barrel for supper; which was nice, because getting up and moving after all day in car felt great.

We got to Aunt J's. She'd made hamburger stew (delicious btw). We went to a booth run by a local farmer and bought some ears of freshly picked corn (it was the height of corn season). She drove by the house she and her husband lived in when they were first married. And the house a mobster built (two separate houses, btw).
teeny tiny tomatoes

We drove by the banner for her late husband. The town has banners for all the citizens who have served that they hang from the lampposts. They have more banners than lampposts, so they have to rotate the banners. We saw the other sights of the town, including a ghost ad that was discovered when they took down a building. The fence was later added, 'for modesty.'

We spent part of a day in the Cahokia museum. Not enough time, of course, but a decent amount.




RG collects shot glasses so I asked if they had any at the Cahokia gift shop. They did not; but they did have this small glass toothpick glasses. Close enough.

We went to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. That was a bit of an adventure to get to. One, there's construction in the area so we had to find a route as GPS kept trying to send us through the construction. Two, they'd moved the entrance to the museum. Last time I went, the entrance/exit were at the base of the Arch. Now those are strictly exits and the entrance is halfway to the courthouse (1 of 2 or 3 buildings that survived a fire in the 19th century). Dad stayed in the museum, while Kathy and I went up in the arch.

On the way up, we were with 3 college students, one of whom had fears of enclosed places and heights. At her request, I did my best to distract her with conversation. One the way down, we were with a family group who had a daughter with a fear of heights and elevators. Both girls were incredibly brace to face their fears that way.

I did get some great shots from inside the arch. They've changed the procedure a little bit. You get your reservation to go up and the time you'll be going and which side; either at the entrance or at the base of the arch. When it's time, you go to the ticket person and you get in line going down the stairs. Personnel go up and down the line to put people in groups of five; handing out plastic cards with car numbers on them. Each car has five seats and there are twelve cars in each leg.







At the base of the stairs there's a short film about the Arch and a bit of history at the time and since. I couldn't see it very well, so I missed a lot.

Stand on a different set of stairs, with doors on one side. Stand between the doors and off to one side. The doors open and the people who've come down exit, then up the stairs.

Once you're at the top, you're in a more or less triangle shaped room, with a floor 'cutting' off one angle. There are windows and wide window ledges on either side. You can look out over the river or over St. Louis.

Aunt J doesn't have internet and I really felt a need to check my email, so Dad took me to the library to use their wifi. We'd rented a car for the trip and he wasn't used to certain elements. He sat on the panic button. I eventually noticed the noise (from inside the library) and turned it off. I apologize to everyone who put up with that until I heard it and stopped it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until we were about to leave that I thought to ask about their geneaological resources. I didn't do more than scan the materials and then Dad and I looked at his yearbooks and found his picture.

I was hoping to find another postcard, so we swung by the museum. That's when we met that cousin and got the offer of the use of the scanner.

Dad and K swung by for me to get some breakfast and dropped me off at the museum, before it or the library opened. I ate my breakfast and waited for the cousin. Once she let me inside, I got started. She also showed me where our trees intersect. (below are different pictures of Grandma, Dad's mom)




One of the other volunteers took me to the little Italian deli to pick up some lunch. I had some kind of pasta salad. It was quite tasty.

When Dad and K came to get me after I was done, we went down in the basement. They had the drum Dad danced on when he was Chief Kahok. It was up on a shelf, in storage, so we didn't get a good look, but we saw it. They have a very nicely arranged museum. They've put a lot of work into it.

One morning, Dad, K, and I went to Horseshoe Lake. K and I took pictures of birds and flowers. It was a bit of a mizzly day so there were very few people out there. There were some people fishing but I could count them on one hand with fingers left over. We also drove around to the most distant campsite. We literally drove by cornfields to reach it. Very creepy.



I took my temperature scarf with me and I worked on it a bit. I also tatted a cross for Aunt J, in a red similar to her beloved St. Louis Cardinals. She watches game shows and baseball and that pretty much it. There's a channel that shows old game shows. It's kind of neat sometimes.

All the cousins in town came for a visit one evening. Both of Aunt J's sons, one daughter-in-law (the other son is divorced), some of their kids, and at least one of her grandkids. Plus Aunt V, Dad and Aunt J's stepsister came over one evening. She had to leave early because she was going to Colorado to visit one of her grandchildren.

Eventually we headed home, overnighting in the same hotel.




Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Busy, busy, busy

I'm not sure where to begin, so I'll just jump in.

I couldn't wear my usual State Fair Village of Yesteryear clothes; the sleeves were too tight. So I started researching clothes >1815 CE for comfort and ease of use/wearing, plus ease of 'finding'. I found that women started wearing sweaters in the 1930s, plus knee highs (I wasn't even going to think about wearing nylon in NC when the weather might be sweltering, and I don' have access to silk stockings). I already have black, low-heeled Mary Jane shoes. I'd purchased a ~1930s burgundy cloche at the thrift shop this past summer. I didn't need it (at the time) but I thought 'what the heck' and 'if I need this, it will be hard to find.' I got lucky and found a mid-calf black skirt with pleats starting 2/3 the way down. It's almost straight from hip to the knees, then a grosgrain ribbon, then pleats the rest of the way.

One last thing; my hair. I was NOT getting a bob, or even cutting it. And my hair hits my waist. I got a brilliant idea; I looked at 1930s era college yearbooks. Those are real women, wearing their best hairstyles; not what Hollywood or New York or fashion magazines say women are wearing. That, plus a blog essay on 'how-to for long-haired women for 1930s hairstyles', lead to me wearing a low chignon. I had so many hairpins...I'd take down my hair and then find 3 more.

Look at that picture and go, 'Grandma?'
My dad's mom, when she was about 16

Alas, my edging tree fair entry did not win. And thanks to a migraine hitting Sunday afternoon (the day I was planning to submit my entries) I didn't get 2 of my entries in (bag/necklace and beanile necklace). But the tree wasn't due until Monday noon, so CD took it in for me.

my tree; too bad sliding it into the frame wrinkled the fabric

At the fair, we rode the sky tram for the first time. It was really nice and just a little high. And I'm not comfortable with heights. So I took pictures to distract myself. Lots and lots and lots of picture. 135 pictures riding in 1 direction and 198 in the other. Some pictures are so close together they look like I had the camera on sports shutter speed. The first ride was still daylight and the trip back was after dark.





Examples

I did teach at Palmetto Tat Days. Anitra and I handled the early bird class. Early bird starts at 6:30 am. There have been years I've been awake to take that class. And some years I showed up but wasn't really awake. The usual teacher couldn't make it this year, so they needed someone else to fill it.

I'm much more of an early bird than Anitra, so I was in slightly better shape. She was teaching her snowman earrings (so cute) and I taught TotusMel's Infinity Knot. As usual, it was lots of fun.
Martha Ess's broomstick teapot

Infinity knot earrings

Hurricane Florence sucked. No real surprise.

Trip to see Dad's family was good. We met a cousin we didn't know we had (the relationship is a bit distant) and I got lots of family photos. Aunt J has 2 photo albums, organized by sibling for my Grandma and her siblings. It started with some very old, old photos.
that's my great-great-great uncle, I think. Caroline, his sister was my grandmother's grandmother.
After that, each section had photos the sibling as early as the organizer (maybe Aunt J) could find, then spouses, children, and grandchildren. There's also some stuff like death certificate copies, etc.

Aunt J doesn't have internet, so dad took me to the library one day so I could check my email and stuff on my tablet. As we were leaving, I thought to ask about their genealogy collection. It was in the basement and Dad and I looked for his picture in his high school yearbooks.

We left by the basement door, which took us by the town museum. While I stopped to sign in, Dad talked to the two volunteers. Of course, they asked why we had stopped by and Dad told them he grew up there. After a bit of discussion, the woman figured out how we're related, biologically. There's a closer relationship by marriage involving her brother-in-law and a great-uncle by marriage, I think. I don't recall the details.

She offered to let me use the museum scanner to scan the photo albums. The 'cost' would be my time and the museum getting a copy of the pictures. Dad had planned to have breakfast with his oldest nephew the next day, so he could just drop me off at the museum and I could work on it. Except, they changed the plans to go earlier. I talked to our cousin and she agreed to meet me there before the museum opened to let me get started.

Except for a brief break for lunch, I scanned pictures from about 9 am to 3 pm. If you include the documents and the identifier pages, there's over 550 pictures. My grandma was one of seven kids. And all but one had grandkids.

Grandma and her siblings will be a different post, I think. In fact, I think the pictures and stories from the trip deserve their own post.