The Green Thing... and Other Things

While getting my Rita Fix today, I discovered another really wise philosophical position on Being Green... you know, the modern definition of being green, like taking the bus to work or making a compost pile instead of using your garbage disposal.

I believe in the concept of good stewardship of the earth.  I'd much rather take the bus and read, if it wouldn't take me twice as long to get to work.  I pack my lunch four days a week in a reusable lunch bag and take things in reusable containers. 

I have reusable mugs for tea. 

I grow lettuce and tomatoes in the brief Wisconsin summer, and I shop vegetable stands and farmers' markets when I find them. 

I took a carbon footprint test this weekend.  Oh dear, I am afraid that my solo drive to work nearly cancels out the farmers' markets and library card!!  And I forget to take my own grocery bags about 50% of the time. 

BUT we USE those plastic bags to dispose of doggie do and cat litter!  And hey, once I even cut the bags into strips and crocheted a reusable tote from them!

If you want to read a great story about how 'green' we were back in the day, when we were kids (or if you're younger, maybe when your mom was a kid), hop on over to Rita's blog and read the March 26 post here:  http://ritassewfun.blogspot.com/

Another cool blog I've added to my list is by Samina-- who is lately retired?  Am I right, Samina?  She used to work at American Sewing Guild headquarters, and now she's joining us in the bloggosphere with her Sew Everything blog, here:  http://seweverythingblog.wordpress.com/

On this day in history:

• In 1885 the first commercial moving picture film was produced in Rochester NY by George Eastman.
• In 1951 the U.S. Air Force flag was approved.
• In 1953 Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine to prevent Polio.
• in 1969 Marcus Welby, M.D., a made for TV movie, was shown on ABC.  Remember Robert Young??
• in 1990 Billy Crystal hosted the 62nd Annual Academy Awards, and Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture of 1989.

If these folks were still alive it would be their birthday:

• Playwright Tennessee Williams
• U.S. Army General William Westmoreland
• Actor Sterling Hayden -- wasn't he the voice of Winnie The Pooh for Disney?

These people ARE celebrating today!

• Sandra Day O'Connor
• Leonard Nimoy (Live long and prosper!)
• Bob Woodward
• Erica Jong
• Leeza Gibbons

If today is your birthday, many happy returns of the day! 

Sew on...

My Family History

I write because I just have to write.  It's kind of a compulsion!  When I sit down at the keyboard and see a blank white screen on this blog or in a word processing program, I just go.  I have a whole list of topics I want to write about.  I'm writing a family history.  That's fun in so many ways.  Writing my memories of events, checking what facts are verifiable, getting input from other family members and their recollections is a great experience.

My cousin Joe is actually researching our family geneology.  He makes trips to courthouses and cemeteries, and has compiled lots of facts about our mutual grandfather.  I don't know how many of the relatives have discovered his blog, but if they do they'll find it interesting.

I was able to help him with a point of confusion over names at one point.  I liked doing that.  My great great something or other came to the US from Europe, and language was a barrier to communication.  Immigration officials made spelling guesses and errors.  Record keeping back in the 19th and early 20th century was by hand (some of it beautifully written).  So sometimes names were written as they would have been in the 'old country' and sometimes they were changed, or Americanized.

Thinking about those great-greats and what they went through makes me think that they were very brave!  Could you pick up and sail across an ocean not knowing what you might find on the other side?  Sometimes there was family over here already, but someone had to be first!

That's probably how the family got this crazy ability to adapt, to cope, to deal with any situation.  We're kind of amazing!

The Road to Tara

In July 2010 I attended the American Sewing Guild Conference and Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. Wow, what a show! Almost 1,000 attended, and the teachers and presenters were among the best in the industry. Shirley Adams, from Indiana, a ground-breaker in the field of teaching on TV, was inducted into the Sewing Hall of Fame. Sadly she's retiring from the circuit, but I don't think we've heard the last from Shirley!

Many vendors come to Conference, showing off the latest and greatest in sewing tools. I picked up some shrinking thread, which actually helps to create puckers and tucks in fabric, making for interesting textures. I also bought some lovely wool, a few hand dyed horn buttons, and of course a couple of patterns and books.

A really special part of the trip was the tour I took on Monday to Jonesboro, GA. The site of a Civil War battle (or as the Sourherners say, the Recent Unpleasantness), there are many museums and memorials in Jonesboro. One is the Road to Tara Museum, dedicated to the film and book Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The other is a lovely Plantation called Stately Oaks.

At Stately Oaks in August, you can take the Victorian Mourning tour. The public rooms of the house are decked out for mourning as if there had been the death of a child in the family. The docents leading the tours area knowlegable in all phases of mourning in the Victorian era, which was approximatlely 1850-1905. After the regular tour, our group was treated to a southern style luncheon, and then a presentation from Miss Martha on 19th Century clothing construction. She is the acknowledged expert, helping to keep the Plantation's docents and re-enactors authentically garbed.

The dresses she made are made the same way a woman in 1864 would have done it. The seams are impecably finished inside and out. Bodices are lined, and 'underpinnings' protect them from touching the body. Believe me, if you took 30-40 hours of hand work to create a dress, you would not want it to be tossed into the washing machine! She showed us the inner construction techniques, and the hundreds of tiny Cartridge Pleats that gathered skirts and sleeves. Amazing work, considering the woman of the house would have done all this after her normal chores.

Underpinnings, and men's shirts

Had you lived in 1864, you would probably have had 3-4 dresses for every day and one for 'good' -- that is unless you were very wealthy and could hire a seamstress! But just like today, chances are your good dress would have been black.

I have a new appreciation for sewing machines, sergers and steam irons! Although I am making myself a vow to try to get more proficient in better seam finishes, so the insides of my garments look better, even if they never reach the stature of Miss Martha's work.