Thursday, January 29, 2009

Word to the Mother

I received a chastising phone call this morning. I guess my mom hadn't looked at my blog for a while (jeez, c'mon! You don't check in daily for reports?) and one of my posts gave her pause for consternation. Remember this one? Well, I have to make a slight correction, people!

She made (or her step-mother made) dresses out of chicken seed bags NOT potato sacks! It appears they were poor, you see, but not THAT poor! I guess there are levels of poverty that we are dealing with here. I had no idea! She told me that the seed bags would have different patterens on them and when Grandpa would go get feed, he would bring home a different pattern for Mom. She said she has a picture of herself in second grade in a seed cloth dress with ric-a-rac on it. I so very will be posting that picture when I get my hands on it!!

Makes you want to smack your kid when they ask for an Aeropostale hoodie, doesn't it!

4 comments:

theresa said...

This is the note I got AFTER the phone call....

It's not potato sacks...its (chicken) feed sacks. each sack was a different print,,,generally tiny little flowers. We had to de-string and then wash the fabric a couple times. After ironing the (sack) fabric you had enough to make something. With a little rick-rack for trim you could have a lovely frock. tsk. Didn't have much for embellishing back then. Me and Lorreta Lynn....I was a coal miners daughter.....too bad I couldn't sing...you wouldn't have to be doing all that laundry and cleaning,,,, Next time your home ask to see my second grade picture. Like you said, I was poor...but not potato sack poor. I was very embarassed back then, but now I look back and think at least I had something to wear and eggs to eat....and of course chicken...chicken...chicken!!! Now I remember why I don't like chicken!!!

Seth! said...

I am commenting mostly so that you will know I was here. This was also a great story and I look forward to seeing the dress. I was at a bar recently and saw Joe Dawkins. I think I told him that I used to get hand-me-downs from him when we were little. As I recall, that freaked him out a bit. It's also possible that I just imagined that exchange and therefore avoided it. Anyway, it somehow seems similar, us being poor and all. By the way, Clare is the spittin' image of her mother (minus the spit) and that's a GOOD thing. What a cutie. XOXO Seth!

Colleen said...

Hey!

Letting you know I was here. What a fun story. I expected her to say she only got oranges at Christmas and had to walk through the snow to get to school... all of those old chestnuts that get hauled out by our "elders" when they want to do the verbal smackdown. I applaud the chicken feed sacks and understand the difference between being potato sack poor and chicken sack poor. I was dried-milk-and-peanut-butter-sandwich poor. Never had to wear a sack that once contained poultry feed, but I could relate. Keep those stories comin'!

BTW, your kids look just like you with a bit of Mike thrown in. Of course, that's how they are SUPPOSED to look, I know, but it's astonishing how much your daughters remind me of you! Great looking family and they sound like nice kids. You and Mike are doing something right!

Anonymous said...

That's a funny story!

When I was a single mom before I met my wonderful hubby, all the clothes I bought for my daughter were from thrift stores and garage sales.

I loved it when I could buy a seasons worth of clothes for $30!

Now she's almost 17 and loves buying clothes at thrift stores! Just the other day, she was wearing an American Eagle hoodie she picked up for $1 - her friend had the same exact one, bought at the store and paid $69 for it!