February 14, 2020
Dear Everyone:
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day to Everyone!
Winter is just about over, here in California.
We’ve already had the annual
“I-can’t-believe-it’s-this-warm-in-February!” spell, followed by dire
predictions of water-rationing if we don’t get more rain this year.
Just after the first of January, I took down the Holiday wreath on the
front door, and shoved all the poinsettias into a big green plastic bag.
I replaced the poinsettias with “snow-frosted” evergreens and
white holly “berries” and hung a snowman-theme flag in the large pot
that decorates the front entry.
The front door received the annual wreath of “pussy willows”
which evoked the first signs of spring up in Oregon where we lived as
children.
Last week, I replaced all of these winter-themed items with something
more spring-like. A
butterfly-and-flowers flag now hangs above a bank of tulips.
The pussy willow wreath has given way to one of tulips.
However, my kitchen windows still sported winter cardinals on the
curtains. I needed to
replace them with something more spring-like.
But I had to wait for the Craft-and-Sewing supplies store to set
out their seasonal selection.
In fact, you could still buy, at a discount, a lot of
Christmas-themed fabric, should you anticipate a need for them.
It reminded me of our mother who, the day after Christmas, would go out
and buy all the Christmas wrapping paper still available at a
significant discount. Of
course, she had a large house, with big drawers built into the hallway
to store many, many rolls of unopened paper for a year.
A few weeks ago, I went to the Craft-and-Sewing supplies store, looking
for spring-like fabric. What
I found was a lot of Easter-themes.
Lots of brightly colored eggs and bunnies.
Not exactly what I was looking for.
Granted I do have a garden flag with a big Easter Bunny on it,
but Easter is over a month away.
Eventually, I found some fabric with flowers on it and bought a
yard-and-a-half. A week or
so later, when I started to cut the fabric for curtains, I realized that
I had made a miscalculation on yardage.
I was off by over a yard.
Oops.
Back to the Craft-and-Sewing supplies store.
This time, I tried the section for just-plain-cotton-prints.
I found a print of flowers and leaves in shades of green and blue.
In fact, I saw the same print further down that was blue and
green. I had little doubt
that the same print was probably available in pinks, reds and oranges.
It greatly reminded me of the first sewing project I ever had, in 7th
Grade Home Economics (Home Ec) in what was called Junior High School,
before that was changed to the more politically-correct “Middle School”.
Each class was assigned to buy a certain yardage of a particular fabric
to use in making an apron.
There were three different color schemes available:
Red, blue and green.
The only store that carried these fabrics was the local JC Penney.
I found out much later that the Home Ec teacher collaborated with the
buyer at the local store to supply the fabrics and arranged different
prints for each class. That
way, when some girl left her apron out, the teacher knew instantly in
which class the silly child belonged.
The local JC Penney was also the only place to get the required uniforms
for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts; and the navy blue gym shorts and
cap-sleeved, snap-front white cotton blouses that we all wore in
Physical Education (Phys/Ed or PE.)
In retrospect, that store had quite a monopoly on local school
supplies. They were also the
only place to get the salt-and-pepper corduroy trousers and blue pleated
skirts that were required attire at the Catholic School that we used to
attend.
In the meantime, I found two other “springy” cotton prints that I
thought would do for now. I
turned the top of my bed into a cutting table the other day and started
making curtains, this time with enough fabric.
In fact, I hung the newest set of curtains in the kitchen window
this morning.
Technically speaking, they are a little bit longer than the last pair,
but they don’t actually hang in the sink, so who cares?
Love, as always,
Pete
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