A small sign on the fridge: "Gettin' old ain't for sissies." No one epitomizes that more than my mom. She maintains that if she sits still too long, she'll just rust away. So she stays active, to the point the rest of us can barely keep up with her!One of her favorite activities is helping a group of women tie quilts that are part of a charity project. Recently a friend passed away and as her daughter was cleaning out the stash of fabric she welcomed us to take all we could handle, which was a real blessing for the quilters! As Mom and I sorted through the huge bags, we found odds and ends of projects we could do ourselves. One was this small crib quilt. I sewed it together, and Mom tied it.
One of my cherished memories is learning to iron. This is the same ironing board. I still to iron, unlike a lot of my contemporaries. Mom was a good teacher, of the mechanics of ironing as well as the love of a job well-done.
Speaking of antiques ... this mom is Mom's old friend. She says she got it while living in a large army tent when first married, with a wood floor that she kept spic and span clean. The mop is older than I am...like I said, antique.
Mom changes out the towels every twenty years or so...
and even though the squeezy part of the head has to be taped shut now, like so many older tools it just keeps on doing a good job. And just like her tools, Mom continues to "do a good job." We're so blessed to have her, and her generation, to show us how it should be done.Which is more than I can say for today's built-in obsolescence. Have you noticed that?
5 comments:
Moms are wonderful, and so are tools that are made to last.
I love old tools that get used. Hooray for your Mom. Tell her hello for me.
My favorite things are my old things. I have some canning tools authentic from the ____'s and I LOVE them!!The picture from the top of your blog, the barn with the sign; begs to be painted in watercolors. Do you have any time for that?
I just read your entry on your other site about dying. It was wonderful. In the last three weeks two dear friends have each lost husbands. Both of these women have handled their loss with grace and dignity.One was doing fine one day, and went to the hospital with a pain in his side, and never came home; gone in about a week. The other fell victim to Lou Gehrig's Disease. Danny says,m "Good for them." Death is the ultimate test of faith, isn't it? Often people live their lives based on the principles of death, maintaining their personal righteousness diligently, and then fear the reward that awaits them! I've always maintained that we grieve for us, because-doggonit- it HURTS to lose what you love, even for a moment. I love the part where in death we are finally free of the effort to control things- aren't we silly? When my body hurts, or my heart hurts, or my mind starts to wander to loved ones now working on the other side of the veil, I can sometimes begin to think, "It's gonna be kind of cool to no longer worry about the creeps out there, locking the door after me, being cold/hot, natural disasters...." Imagine a place where everyone's main objective is loving and serving one another, won't it be wonderful? I appreciated your thoughts, thanks for sharing that post.
Uh hum...I don't remember you saying that ironing was a "cherished" memory :-). I love this post. I look forward to visiting soon.
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