Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Master of Arts
Master Of Arts
I sit alone in the house I once shared with Linda, I look around and see her in everything around me. Every wall, every shelf, where ever there is a space to put something there is something that Linda made with a needle and thread or piece of cloth and even a few things of ceramic.
Linda first learned to sew in a high school home economics class and later when she stayed with my parents, while I was in Vietnam, my mother introduced her to other forms of needlework such as crochet and knitting. Somewhere along the way Linda picked up embroidery, counter cross stitch, quilting and anything else that could be done with a needle and thread. Over the years she tried them all and was very successful at most of them with the exception of knitting.
I don't know why knitting was not to her liking but it wasn't, the only thing she ever knitted was a turtleneck sweater for me, she worked on it for quite sometime but it just didn't turn out the way she had hoped. I thought the sweater was beautiful, it was a nice maroon color and it was warm, it was also big enough that both of us could fit into it at the same time which did not bother me as I liked Linda close to me. Linda wanted to rip the sweater apart and start over but I talked her out of it and wore it as it was, I was proud of it and loved it and it was very warm.
Linda's skill with needle and thread developed quickly and she became a master at her craft, all of her work was not only beautiful, it was perfect. Back in the early 1970's we bought an older home for our first house and one Christmas I bought her a needle point kit titled " The Four Seasons ". It was something she had been wanting for sometime but it cost $50 which was a lot of money back then. The kit when completed would be a picture 32" x 25" and take her several years to complete, the completion time was not due to the size of the project but rather the care which Linda put into it. One night I walked in and she was pulling out all of the thread from the work she had completed which consisted of about 1/3 of the project. When I asked why she showed me where the threads were not consistent so the nap was uneven, she did this several times after that but to look at the finished work you will know her persistence was worthwhile. It has been several years since I have seen the kit advertised, the last time it was valued at more than $400 as a kit, to me the finished work is priceless. This particular piece of art occupies a wall in the bedroom and when I am gone it will be passed down to one of the Grand kids who will hopefully recognize it's value as an heirloom and pass it along to future generations.
Over the next few years, between raising two boys and putting up with me dragging her and them all across the country and back, she worked on many projects but seemed to narrow them down to quilting and crocheting.
Not long after returning to Georgia Linda met up with a lady who made ceramic dolls that ranged in size from a couple of inches high to several inches high, they had one problem, they were naked and needed clothes desperately. Diane Waring was the lady who made the dolls, Linda would create, by trial and error, a pattern for each doll then crochet dresses, pants, shirts and accessories for them. Linda and Diane bonded and one of the most beautiful friendships developed between them, it lasted for at least 20 yrs. until Linda's death.
In celebration of our 25th anniversary we left the kids behind and took a trip to Gatlinburg, Tn., we stopped at a small welcome center in the Georgia mountains area and looked around. I found an older lady siting in a corner cutting octagon shapes from stiff paper, she had a couple hundred stacked up so I asked what she was doing. The lady explained that this was an old English method of quilting rarely practiced anymore, I found Linda and got her to talking to the lady, which wasn't difficult, and as we drove off the wheels started turning in her head. Not long after we returned from Gatlinburg Linda started piling up a collection of octagon shaped pieces of stiff paper and fretting over the correct design she intended to produce.
When she started this project we had a king size waterbed, this was another one of those projects that took awhile to complete but the day did finally come around. I was there when Linda took the massive quilt and spread it out on the waterbed and I watched as her shoulders slumped upon realizing she made a slight error. The quilt when spread out on the waterbed also piled up on the floor around the bed, this was just a slight miscalculation which only took a few more months to fix.
The quilt turned out beautiful and a great conversation piece, it now adorns Danny and Marie's bed, I hope that they will take care of it so that maybe one day it too will become an heirloom to be passed down thru generations.
While living in California, Linda crocheted for an organization that needed baby booties and hats, they used these items as gifts to encourage young unwed and often unemployed pregnant girls to keep their doctors appointments. She made hundreds of pairs of booties and hats from scrap yarn, she never charged them for her time or materials.
Not long after moving into this house she hooked up with a lady named Fran who worked with an organization called " Newborns In Need ", they crocheted baby blankets and hats for premature babies, small oranges and golf balls were used to size the hats. I can't tell you how many blankets she made over the last few years, I do know that in the last year of her life she made in the neighborhood of 150 blankets. She used store coupons, loose change and even had me collecting aluminum cans to pay for the yarn.
In addition to working on the above projects, she worked on other things such as baby blankets which she sold to people who gave them as gifts, some were given freely to friends for their newborns. She made trinkets such as her wonder wallet, Barbie doll clothes and dresses for other brands of dolls and sold them at craft shows, the proceeds went to tuition for Danny and Clay.
Once in California another mother who was a Cub Scout den mother with Linda was dying of cancer and wanted to go to Salt Lake City to see her sister one more time. Linda and another den mother worked tirelessly for several weeks prior to Easter making crochet Easter Bunny baskets from plastic milk jugs and then sold them in front of the local grocery store to raise funds for a plane ticket. They bought the ticket and had enough left over to insure a happy Easter for the lady's kids and husband and give them $200 cash for whatever they needed.
These projects were close to her heart and she did them with love and as with everything else they were beautiful, not a stitch was out of place, they were perfect. Countless strangers have benefited from her artistry, children across the country born in less than ideal situations and conditions were warmed by her works of art made with love.
Now I look around and see the things she made to brighten her own world, the quilts, wall hangings, afghans, table cloths and pillow cases, the list seems endless. She would spend countless hours sitting on the back deck or the couch in front of the TV even riding in the truck as I drove on a long trip, she paid attention only to the piece she had in her hand, to her it wasn't work it was enjoyment, an act of love. For someone who could not see her own beauty she left the world a more beautiful place in her deeds and her art and in that she was a master.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Going To The Dogs
Going To The Dogs
I grew up having dogs around the house, don't ask me why we had dogs or pets at all, with five kids to feed a pet seemed like a big expense although back then we pretty much fed them table scraps and seldom took them to a vet. I don't remember that any of us kids thought much of the dogs, they were full of fleas, matted fur and sometimes didn't smell to good, just the same they were a part of the family. I remember there were Beagles and Cocker Spaniels and Grandpa Riggan had a Collie named Shep.
Then I met Linda, fell in love and married her but not until we got a few things straightened out about our future. You see, Linda was an animal lover and had there been prenuptials back in 1967 I would have been contractually bound to always have a pet, more specifically a dog, as part of the family and should a divorce ever occur she would have gotten sole custody. As things turned out I liked dogs, they could be a pain in the butt but it did feel good to have a warm wet nose snuggle against your hand as you watched TV which was better than Linda's cold feet in the small of your back in the middle of the night - foot warming was another contractual item.
Our first dog was named " Bo ", he was a beautiful half Boxer and half German Shepard and he belonged to an aging first class Boatswain Mate I worked with hence the name Bo. Bo was smart and learned quickly, we took him with us when Linda went to stay with my family while I went to Vietnam. Dad was over having dogs by this time but for his only daughter-in-law he made an exception and welcomed Bo into the family and provided him with one of his beloved Navy blankets from WWII to sleep on in the garage. When I returned from my first trip to Vietnam we couldn't take Bo with us to San Diego so we left him behind. Bo was given to a local farmer who allowed him to run free rather than stay chained to a dog house, by the time we came home for good someone had stolen Bo from the farmer.
While stationed in San Diego the second time we were given a small white terrier who turned out to be vindictive whenever left alone or ignored and after finding several articles of clothing, a blanket and several bags of garbage shredded all over the floor he was out of there real quick, so quick that I can't even remember his name.
Now we get back to Tennessee and start life anew. My cousin Jackie called one night and told Linda that a friend of hers had a dog who had given birth to a small brood of which there were three available for the taking. The dogs were Poodle and Cocker Spaniel ( Cockerpoo ) and black as the ace of spades. Jackie took the lone female pup, Linda and I took one of the males and lo and behold my Dad took the other. We named ours Snoopy and Dad named theirs Ralf.
We had to keep Snoopy chained to a dog house for a few months and during this time Linda's sister Eileen came to live with us and acquired a cat from my friend Donnie Odum. Linda couldn't stand the cat as it was sneaky and would rip a loaf of bread to shreds just for the hell of it so it wasn't long til the cat became an outside pet. It was cold that winter and I wondered where the cat went to keep warm over night, then one morning as I looked out a window I saw Snoopy come out of his house and stretch in the sun light, the cat followed a few moments later and sat next to the dog licking at it's paw. We found the cat dead in some bushes a few weeks later. Snoopy went with us to our old new home we bought, it had a nice yard with a fence and everything was great for a while til one day Snoopy was hit by a car while crossing the street in front of the house, he died as I tried to comfort him.
We next wound up with Ralf, I think Dad felt sorry for Linda. Ralf quickly fit in with us and gave us much joy. One morning Linda suddenly started accusing me of kicking the covers off the bed at night and she would wake up cold and have to retrieve them from the floor, being the sound sleeper that I was I had no defense. Turns out it was not me kicking the covers off of the bed, one sleepless night I felt the blanket slip down to the foot of the bed a little bit at a time then a little bit more, I woke Linda and told her quietly to watch as the cover slid towards the foot of the bed all by itself. We crawled down to the foot of the bed and watched as Ralf, who was laying on the floor, reached up and grabbed a mouthful of blanket and pulled it down on top of him. Another time I came home and went downstairs for a cold drink we kept in the basement refrigerator, as I walked down the steps something crunched under my feet, under close inspection the crunches appeared to be small bits of red glass. All became clear later as I watched TV and Ralf wanted to play but I ignored him so he walked over to the Christmas tree and grabbed a red glass ornament from a low hanging branch then carried it over to the top of the stairs and tossed it into the air. Ralf stood there looking confused as the ball didn't bounce like the one I threw down the steps for him to fetch - mystery solved, Ralf had evidently found a way to amuse himself while we were at work.
Like his brother Ralf died after being hit by a car.
Next came a golden Cocker Spaniel with a pedigree so she was given a pedigree name - " Linda's Lady Ginger ", we called her Ginger and she never left Linda's side. When Ginger came into heat we bred her with another purebred, she had seven pups but not without some difficulty. She had two pups and then we had to take her to the vet where she had another, he gave her a shot to induce labor on the three he said were still inside her, on the way home Ginger gave birth to another pup in the front seat of the car. The vet told us to give her ice cream to calm her down, while lapping up the ice cream she dropped another pup but ignored it and kept eating, then Linda went up the steps to get towels to clean up the mess - Ginger followed her and dropped the final two pups on the way to the kitchen.
Turns out Ginger was dumb and cuddly just the way Linda like them, we had her for several years and shortly after Clay was born I was transferred to the west coast from Florida and we couldn't take her. I know it broke Linda's heart to have to take her to the pound.
It was several years later when Danny was starting school that they decided we needed a dog so we got a Schnauzer, because of his coloring we called him Pepper. I can't say I knew Pepper that well as I traveled quite a bit back then, I do remember that he was a feisty little dog and would snap at you when irritated. Pepper came back to Georgia with us but it seems as though everybody lost interest in him and he wound up in a pen in the back yard, it was still up to the kids to feed him - a chore which they had to be reminded often. One day Danny brought him up to the house for some reason and left him tied to the garage door, I climbed into my truck to go somewhere not realizing Pepper was under the truck and I ran over him, the vet couldn't save him. This was the time where I put my foot down and said no more.
It was several years later when Danny and his first wife were living in the basement that they asked me if they could get a dog, I should have known better but I said sure as long as I was not going to take care of it. They got a rescue black Lab pup that was full of energy, they called him Bailey.Fortunately they moved into their own place and Bailey went with them.
A couple of years after the kids moved out I brought home a parrot, more precisely a Sun Conyers from South America. While at work one night I was called over to the office area where several people were watching this bright orange and yellow bird walk around looking for food. He didn't seem to be afraid of us so I put my hand down and the bird walked up my arm and sat on my shoulder, I put him in a box and brought him home to Linda. It was three in the morning when I got home, I woke Linda and told her to come meet her new friend. The bird was still in the box on the floor, Linda opened it up and the bird cocked his head and looked up at her, when she placed her hand into the box the bird climbed up her arm and lost himself in her hair where he stayed the rest of the night. He was about twice the size of a canary and because of his coloration Linda named him Mango, she went out the next day and spent two hundred dollars on a cage and other bird paraphernalia.
The kids were gone and I worked long weird hours and even when I was home I was was not really there if you know what I mean so Mango filled that void for Linda. Most of the time Mango had freedom of the house and wherever Linda went Mango went. I quickly found out I needed to close the door while shaving as Mango liked the taste of shaving cream and would sit on my shoulder eating mouthfuls as I shaved. Linda also found out she needed to close the door when taking a shower, Mango would fly into the shower landing at her feet and start bathing himself. Linda sat on the couch in front of the picture window as she crocheted, Mango would fly down to the floor and walk over to the ball of yarn at her feet, after unraveling some of the yarn he would make his way to her foot and start climbing up to her shoulder where he would preen her hair or bite her shirt. She had several shirts that were her Mango shirts, they had holes in them where he had chewed thru with his sharp beak.
Mango had one major flaw, he was LOUD, I'm telling you this bird screeched so loudly that neighbors two doors down the street wondered what that noise was- and we kept the house closed up. His minor flaw was that he didn't like most other women and would attack them.
When we moved to this house Mango stayed with Clay and when Linda brought him home he took sick and died, Linda was devastated.
Not long after Mango died Linda came to me and wanted another dog, I was still working long hours and she needed the companionship. As much as I understood her needs I tried to talk her out of another dog, I had buried too many of them already. It didn't take her long to wear me down as truth be known I could never really say no to Linda, soon enough she was looking on the computer for a new face to love.
Lizzy is a rescue dog, she was about a year old when we got her, she is part Lab and part Cocker Spaniel with long black hair and I swear she has the longest tongue I have ever seen, she is also known as Licking Lizzy as she licks at everybody who comes to visit. Although we only paid $50.00 for her she cost us just over $3000.00 because we had to install a fence and lay down sod in the back yard. Given the opportunity she will escape her confines and go for a run, all of the calling will not stop her and when you get close she will just look at you and take off again, to catch her you have to get in the car find her and open the door she will come running as she loves to ride.
Lizzy is definitely not the sharpest thorn in the brier patch, she will chase a thrown ball but only bring it back halfway but she loved to crawl up next to Linda and get her ear tickled or her butt scratched.
Linda loved Lizzy and got to the place that she didn't want to take any trips if Lizzy couldn't go, Lizzy brought great comfort to Linda in her final days and knowing that she was concerned I promised Linda that I would take care of Lizzy.
We loved our pets, each of them brought many moments of happiness and frequently absorbed the stress of daily life often with only the act of laying their chin on your thigh and looking up at you with a sadness in their eyes that only they can express. They are memories from a life that seems so long ago.
So, here we are just Lizzy and I, each of us a reminder to the other of how much we loved and miss Linda. Lizzy is at least ten years old and I am sixty eight, it is even money as to which one of us will out last the other although we may find out soon enough if she continues to stop in front of me in the dark making me trip over her.
Then I met Linda, fell in love and married her but not until we got a few things straightened out about our future. You see, Linda was an animal lover and had there been prenuptials back in 1967 I would have been contractually bound to always have a pet, more specifically a dog, as part of the family and should a divorce ever occur she would have gotten sole custody. As things turned out I liked dogs, they could be a pain in the butt but it did feel good to have a warm wet nose snuggle against your hand as you watched TV which was better than Linda's cold feet in the small of your back in the middle of the night - foot warming was another contractual item.
Our first dog was named " Bo ", he was a beautiful half Boxer and half German Shepard and he belonged to an aging first class Boatswain Mate I worked with hence the name Bo. Bo was smart and learned quickly, we took him with us when Linda went to stay with my family while I went to Vietnam. Dad was over having dogs by this time but for his only daughter-in-law he made an exception and welcomed Bo into the family and provided him with one of his beloved Navy blankets from WWII to sleep on in the garage. When I returned from my first trip to Vietnam we couldn't take Bo with us to San Diego so we left him behind. Bo was given to a local farmer who allowed him to run free rather than stay chained to a dog house, by the time we came home for good someone had stolen Bo from the farmer.
While stationed in San Diego the second time we were given a small white terrier who turned out to be vindictive whenever left alone or ignored and after finding several articles of clothing, a blanket and several bags of garbage shredded all over the floor he was out of there real quick, so quick that I can't even remember his name.
Now we get back to Tennessee and start life anew. My cousin Jackie called one night and told Linda that a friend of hers had a dog who had given birth to a small brood of which there were three available for the taking. The dogs were Poodle and Cocker Spaniel ( Cockerpoo ) and black as the ace of spades. Jackie took the lone female pup, Linda and I took one of the males and lo and behold my Dad took the other. We named ours Snoopy and Dad named theirs Ralf.
We had to keep Snoopy chained to a dog house for a few months and during this time Linda's sister Eileen came to live with us and acquired a cat from my friend Donnie Odum. Linda couldn't stand the cat as it was sneaky and would rip a loaf of bread to shreds just for the hell of it so it wasn't long til the cat became an outside pet. It was cold that winter and I wondered where the cat went to keep warm over night, then one morning as I looked out a window I saw Snoopy come out of his house and stretch in the sun light, the cat followed a few moments later and sat next to the dog licking at it's paw. We found the cat dead in some bushes a few weeks later. Snoopy went with us to our old new home we bought, it had a nice yard with a fence and everything was great for a while til one day Snoopy was hit by a car while crossing the street in front of the house, he died as I tried to comfort him.
We next wound up with Ralf, I think Dad felt sorry for Linda. Ralf quickly fit in with us and gave us much joy. One morning Linda suddenly started accusing me of kicking the covers off the bed at night and she would wake up cold and have to retrieve them from the floor, being the sound sleeper that I was I had no defense. Turns out it was not me kicking the covers off of the bed, one sleepless night I felt the blanket slip down to the foot of the bed a little bit at a time then a little bit more, I woke Linda and told her quietly to watch as the cover slid towards the foot of the bed all by itself. We crawled down to the foot of the bed and watched as Ralf, who was laying on the floor, reached up and grabbed a mouthful of blanket and pulled it down on top of him. Another time I came home and went downstairs for a cold drink we kept in the basement refrigerator, as I walked down the steps something crunched under my feet, under close inspection the crunches appeared to be small bits of red glass. All became clear later as I watched TV and Ralf wanted to play but I ignored him so he walked over to the Christmas tree and grabbed a red glass ornament from a low hanging branch then carried it over to the top of the stairs and tossed it into the air. Ralf stood there looking confused as the ball didn't bounce like the one I threw down the steps for him to fetch - mystery solved, Ralf had evidently found a way to amuse himself while we were at work.
Like his brother Ralf died after being hit by a car.
Next came a golden Cocker Spaniel with a pedigree so she was given a pedigree name - " Linda's Lady Ginger ", we called her Ginger and she never left Linda's side. When Ginger came into heat we bred her with another purebred, she had seven pups but not without some difficulty. She had two pups and then we had to take her to the vet where she had another, he gave her a shot to induce labor on the three he said were still inside her, on the way home Ginger gave birth to another pup in the front seat of the car. The vet told us to give her ice cream to calm her down, while lapping up the ice cream she dropped another pup but ignored it and kept eating, then Linda went up the steps to get towels to clean up the mess - Ginger followed her and dropped the final two pups on the way to the kitchen.
Turns out Ginger was dumb and cuddly just the way Linda like them, we had her for several years and shortly after Clay was born I was transferred to the west coast from Florida and we couldn't take her. I know it broke Linda's heart to have to take her to the pound.
It was several years later when Danny was starting school that they decided we needed a dog so we got a Schnauzer, because of his coloring we called him Pepper. I can't say I knew Pepper that well as I traveled quite a bit back then, I do remember that he was a feisty little dog and would snap at you when irritated. Pepper came back to Georgia with us but it seems as though everybody lost interest in him and he wound up in a pen in the back yard, it was still up to the kids to feed him - a chore which they had to be reminded often. One day Danny brought him up to the house for some reason and left him tied to the garage door, I climbed into my truck to go somewhere not realizing Pepper was under the truck and I ran over him, the vet couldn't save him. This was the time where I put my foot down and said no more.
It was several years later when Danny and his first wife were living in the basement that they asked me if they could get a dog, I should have known better but I said sure as long as I was not going to take care of it. They got a rescue black Lab pup that was full of energy, they called him Bailey.Fortunately they moved into their own place and Bailey went with them.
A couple of years after the kids moved out I brought home a parrot, more precisely a Sun Conyers from South America. While at work one night I was called over to the office area where several people were watching this bright orange and yellow bird walk around looking for food. He didn't seem to be afraid of us so I put my hand down and the bird walked up my arm and sat on my shoulder, I put him in a box and brought him home to Linda. It was three in the morning when I got home, I woke Linda and told her to come meet her new friend. The bird was still in the box on the floor, Linda opened it up and the bird cocked his head and looked up at her, when she placed her hand into the box the bird climbed up her arm and lost himself in her hair where he stayed the rest of the night. He was about twice the size of a canary and because of his coloration Linda named him Mango, she went out the next day and spent two hundred dollars on a cage and other bird paraphernalia.
The kids were gone and I worked long weird hours and even when I was home I was was not really there if you know what I mean so Mango filled that void for Linda. Most of the time Mango had freedom of the house and wherever Linda went Mango went. I quickly found out I needed to close the door while shaving as Mango liked the taste of shaving cream and would sit on my shoulder eating mouthfuls as I shaved. Linda also found out she needed to close the door when taking a shower, Mango would fly into the shower landing at her feet and start bathing himself. Linda sat on the couch in front of the picture window as she crocheted, Mango would fly down to the floor and walk over to the ball of yarn at her feet, after unraveling some of the yarn he would make his way to her foot and start climbing up to her shoulder where he would preen her hair or bite her shirt. She had several shirts that were her Mango shirts, they had holes in them where he had chewed thru with his sharp beak.
Mango had one major flaw, he was LOUD, I'm telling you this bird screeched so loudly that neighbors two doors down the street wondered what that noise was- and we kept the house closed up. His minor flaw was that he didn't like most other women and would attack them.
When we moved to this house Mango stayed with Clay and when Linda brought him home he took sick and died, Linda was devastated.
Not long after Mango died Linda came to me and wanted another dog, I was still working long hours and she needed the companionship. As much as I understood her needs I tried to talk her out of another dog, I had buried too many of them already. It didn't take her long to wear me down as truth be known I could never really say no to Linda, soon enough she was looking on the computer for a new face to love.
Lizzy is a rescue dog, she was about a year old when we got her, she is part Lab and part Cocker Spaniel with long black hair and I swear she has the longest tongue I have ever seen, she is also known as Licking Lizzy as she licks at everybody who comes to visit. Although we only paid $50.00 for her she cost us just over $3000.00 because we had to install a fence and lay down sod in the back yard. Given the opportunity she will escape her confines and go for a run, all of the calling will not stop her and when you get close she will just look at you and take off again, to catch her you have to get in the car find her and open the door she will come running as she loves to ride.
Lizzy is definitely not the sharpest thorn in the brier patch, she will chase a thrown ball but only bring it back halfway but she loved to crawl up next to Linda and get her ear tickled or her butt scratched.
Linda loved Lizzy and got to the place that she didn't want to take any trips if Lizzy couldn't go, Lizzy brought great comfort to Linda in her final days and knowing that she was concerned I promised Linda that I would take care of Lizzy.
We loved our pets, each of them brought many moments of happiness and frequently absorbed the stress of daily life often with only the act of laying their chin on your thigh and looking up at you with a sadness in their eyes that only they can express. They are memories from a life that seems so long ago.
So, here we are just Lizzy and I, each of us a reminder to the other of how much we loved and miss Linda. Lizzy is at least ten years old and I am sixty eight, it is even money as to which one of us will out last the other although we may find out soon enough if she continues to stop in front of me in the dark making me trip over her.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)