Weekend Reflections

  No real weaving news to report....my experiment is ready to be cut off the loom and wet finished.  The small totes are coming along.  I'm rethreading the black mug rug warp for an overshot pattern....just how long was that warp I put on????

  My thoughts this weekend have turned to my Mom, Betty June.  This picture is from 1961 and shows four of us with Mom....my older brother was at Boy Scout Camp that day.  We were on a picnic in the Great Smoky Mountains, and this picture was taken before I slipped and fell in the ice cold water!  I'm on the left, then Fred, Carol and Joyce.  I'm the middle child in birth order, which means I can be a little sister OR a big sister.....kinda nice!  If you said "picnic" to Mom, that meant frying up a chicken and making side dishes.  To Dad, a picnic meant a loaf of bread and sandwich fixings....I just remember rock hopping and lots of laughter.  I put together a little picnic for Mom a few years back, and threw some rag placemats I had woven in the basket.  She kept the placemats.  She said I could weave more.

  Betty June loved to roller skate!!!  I went skating with her about a week before she had a massive cerebral hemorrhage.  She was 61 at the time, and the doctor really didn't think she would recover.  HA!  He didn't know how stubborn this lady could be!
  She made her own little skating skirts and tights.  She was the one that taught me to sew...patiently teaching me to match plaids.  I still can't believe she let me buy plaid fabric for my first dress!  But, I guess she figured I'd either love or hate sewing after that dress.  That was one of many to come!!!
  Sewing isn't what she did best....her Mom was the sewer in the family.  When BJ was in high school, she would see something she wanted and would describe it to her Mom.  Mamaw would design a pattern and then make it for her.  I wish I could do that!
  But, she made our costumes for us for all the different performances we were involved in through the years.  And, with five kids....that's a lot of costumes!  (By the way, she gave me her skates....they are way COOL!)

  She was so involved in our lives.  We got a wild hair in 1995 to celebrate her birthday at my brother's house in Florida.  Mom, Joyce, Carol and I jumped in my van one Friday and drove down.  My younger brother drove over from Louisiana.  Here we are....lined up from youngest to oldest:  Fred, Carol, me, Joyce and Charlie.  My sister in law's birthday was a few days before my Mom's, so we had a big time.  This is the last time we ALL got to be together.

  We used to tease Mom that Mardi Gras was just an excuse to celebrate her birthday.  She loved Mardi Gras!!!
  My sister lived in Baton Rouge for awhile, and I lived in New Orleans for two years.  She came on down to let the good times roll.  And, through the years, we often had Mardi Gras parties that just so happened to occur near her birthday.  She could Second Line with the best of us!!!  And, she had quite a collection of beads and coins to show for it!

When I became a Mom, she was right there with me.  I can still hear her laugh when I would tell her stories about what my kids had done.  It was that knowing laugh....you know....the one that had a hint of "been there, done that."  Although she is not credited with the quote, "Give them roots and wings,"  she truly did walk the walk.

  My Japanese iris are in bloom.....I think I'll cut some to take to her.  She did so love irises.

Happy Mother's Day memories!
LouAnn