If my mother was still alive, she would be 100 years old today!

(The birdwatchers can "tune out" for this post! I'm currently on a plane headed for Tucson, so this was a good time to do this on my mom's birthday for the rest of the family.)

I posted about my dad back in November for his birthday, so now it is mom's turn. I originally wrote about both of them based on the names of quilt blocks, that will eventually be made for a "life sampler" representing my own life....if I live to get it made :-) For Mom, I chose 2 blocks....."Housewife" (shown at left) and "Spools".

Not many women want to be known as "housewives" any more. They consider it a derogatory term. But that was a good description for what Mom was in the days before all of our modern conveniences! I chose fabrics that show things I associate with Mom......hanging clothes on the line, making pies, and sewing. These were all part of being a housewife.

Mom was born in 1908 and she and dad didn't get married until they were in their 30's. At the age of 40 Mom had 3 small children under the age of 5, and had just moved to a large house in Indianapolis. The house didn't have any of the conveniences that we take for granted.....no airconditioning, no dishwasher, no automatic washer and dryer (we had a wringer washer when Iwas real little!), no microwave, and a lot less pre-packaged stuff. We used cloth diapers, cloth napkins, and cloth handkerchiefs....all had to be washed, dried and ironed. Mom spent her day washing, ironing, carrying clothes up from the basement to hang on the line, sewing our clothes, cleaning, cooking meals from scratch, doing dishes, etc. Sure sounds like being "married to your house" to me! I didn't learn to appreciate Mom's hard work until I was much older. When I turned 40 and realized that was the age Mom was when she had me.....I suddenly had a whole new perspective on things! When I turned 50 and dealt with things like menopause, mid-life irritability, a bad back and bad knee, I suddenly understood much about my mother that I didn't understand when I was 10! I'm surprised that she survived 3 teenage girls at all!

On top of the normal work of a house, Dad grew two large gardens, plus we had an orchard and every kind of fruit you could want, so every year Mom spent most of her day canning vegetables and fruits in a hot non air-conditioned kitchen for us to eat in the winter and than making pies and such to use all the extra.

I haven't made the second quilt block yet....the Spools block, but sewing is the thing that I most associate with my mother. She made all of our dresses and skirts, and when we were older even made several bridesmade dresses for us and our friends and made my very simple wedding dress. Once Mom let me choose my own fabrics, I loved most of the clothes that she made for me. She was a very good seamstress and put in perfect zippers and perfectly straight seams. I think that Mom's sewing was her one creative side. She often added extra little touches to make something special for my skirts and dresses. Probably my favorite thing was when I was wild about ocelots and thought that I would love to have one for a pet. Mom found some wonderful soft fur material that looked a lot like an ocelot and made me a vest and a small matching pillow. I still have the vest in the cedar chest even though I will never be small enough to wear it again!

The second thing I most associate with Mom was her apple pie! No one made pie as good as Mom's! It was my favorite pie when I was a child, but now I seldom eat apple pie (unless I make it myself trying to use Mom's recipe) We grew really good apples, but there was just something about her pies that were so good! Most apple pie tastes like it came straight from a can. I just don't even buy so called "homemade apple pie" any more. They aren't like any that MY MOM made! Her apple cake was great too and of course "yellow pancakes".....which I made sure that Mike learned to make since he is the breakfast cook in our family :-)

I know little of Mom's history. She seldom talked about her family. Her parents died before I was born and 2 of her brothers moved from Norwalk, Ohio to California early on. Her other brother George died when I was about 6. She was very close to him, I believe. Her dad owned or operated a dry goods store in Norwalk. She worked there when young.

Once she married Dad they traveled around with Dad's airport work for several years before the ended up in Kansas City where we were born. We moved to Indianapolis shortly after I was born. After I got married and they moved back to Ohio, I think that Mom really missed her friends in Indianapolis and her only friend in Huron was my Aunt June who had been married to her brother George. I don't even have a very good picture of Mom and Dad any more, which frustrates me. The color ones have faded over the years and I don't have negatives. Mom died in 1977 at the age of 69 from cancer. I wish that I had known her better and understood her while she was still alive. I wish that her grandchildren had known her. Now that I share her love of sewing, I would love to be able to show her my quilts and talk about fabric and such.