Sunday, August 19, 2007

More nostalgia

I went to one room schoolhouses until the middle of fifth grade. This picture is of the schoolhouse that I went to for third and fourth grades. This is the whole 8 grades and the teacher. The school we went to for first and second grade closed because there were only 5 students left, me, my 2 brothers and 2 neighbor boys. They decided to hire a driver to pick up us 5 and take us to this school that only had 7 students left. The reason they chose this building is because the toilets were inside and the other one had an outhouse. I am the taller girl with my hand me down too large sweater. I loved that sweater. It was a cross between purple and rose color. I thought my teacher was old enough to be my grandma but I guess she was only in her 30's. When I was in my early 20's I took in sewing. One of the ladies had several children and sometimes I delivered the work back to her house. She had a quilting frame set up in one of the large rooms. I had never seen a quilting frame before. I started machine quilting right from the start. I came from a non-sewing family and took home ec. in high school where I learned to sew clothes. I never stopped sewing from that time on. I made all of my own clothes plus lots for others. I made a flannel shirt for this lady's husband and put the buttonholes on the wrong side. She laughed about it and said he would adjust, and we became good friends over the years. A few years ago one of her granddaughters was expecting a baby and I decided to give her a quilt, the one below.

8 comments:

Joyce said...

I went to a similar school. There were 15 kids, 5 of us from my family. My funniest sewing mistake was making a shirt for my BIL for Xmas and putting on two left arms. The fabric was the same on both sides and I hadn't learned to mark the wrong side with chalk. They all had a good laugh at my expense.

Elsie Montgomery said...

How do you feel when you look at these photos? I see the innocence and vulnerability of childhood, and am so glad we don't know the future... what a mess that could make of all these gentle smiles! But it might make you smile even wider if you knew then that you would have such a passion for color and for quilts (and I'm suspecting for life)!

thanks for sharing!

mzjohansen said...

That's one of the best TATW I have seen ! Glorious - yes, exuberant - color ! I love the photo too - simpler seems better to me most of time !

meggie said...

I love the photo from school! Look how happy you all look. I agree the teacher does look a little old.
I think that is a wondeful quilt for a child, a beautiful Rainbow!

Tonya Ricucci said...

That's definitely a small school. I love this TATW - gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

Feeling Simply Quilty said...

I graduated with 85 kids in my class and I thought that was a small school in Oklahoma. That's a wonderful story. You and I like lots of color, beautiful quilt.

Melody Johnson said...

Wanda, I am so thrilled to visit with you daily on the blog and to see pictures like this. Wonderful!
What a great history lesson. Was this in the same town you still live in?

Eva said...

Isn't it absurd that female clothing is buttoned opposite of male clothes? What function does that have at all? Is the reason to reach the wallet more easily? As the finance crisis shows, there should have been "wrong" buttoned suits for men, I guess.