I Was Knit Together In My Mother's Womb

In two little houses on  Center Street, lived two little girls who were best Friends.

I was thinking about them a few months ago, and asked Lisa to inter-loan the books from the library. I guess somewhere in my mind, I wondered it Betsy and Tacy still lived on library shelves. I wondered it anyone even cared about them any more. I returned from work one day to find a stack of Maud Hart-Lovelace books on the bench inside my back door and it was like a happy reunion with childhood friends.

Did you read the Betsy-Tacy books?

Maud Hart-Lovelace is Betsy! Each of the books is based on the life story of Maud...  and there really was a Tacy, as well!  When I was in elementary school, I can remember going to that shelf first, to choose the next book in the series. I couldn't wait to get home to read it cover to cover...Betsy was a voracious reader as well!

I was sucked into the lives of these two, and their marvelous adventures as wee girls...adventures in their own backyards, with their families, then later in school, and in town, then adventures around the world as they grew to adulthood, when Betsy and her friends finally got married. It was with rejoicing and sadness that I read "Betsy's Wedding" because I knew that Betsy would never quite have that same spirit of adventure that she had on Hill Street in Deep Valley now that she had a husband, Joe Willard...the boy next door.

In the early 1990's, a group of Betsy-Tacy fans in Mankato, Minnesota set out to preserve the treasures of these books in the very town where Maud grew up. They formed the Betsy-Tacy Society and have actively worked to restore the homes in which Maud and her best friend lived.

There is a wonderful Betsy-Tacy site link (which I cannot access from work, or I'd put up the link...) which is found at the bottom of the "About Us" page of the Betsy-Tacy Society webpage. There are some great muffin recipes there!  So, bake a batch of muffins, put on a pot of coffee...which Mrs. Ray  always did in times of stress...and relax with a few adventures of Betsy Ray and her best friend Tacy.

Garth Williams illustrated the Francis books, as well as "Charlotte's Web," and the "Cricket in Times Square."  But perhaps my favorite books series that he illustrated was the Little House books.  I have read and re-read these books probably more times than all of the other books I've ever read put together.

Childhood days were spend deep in imagination, pretending I was Laura. Playing in the woods and building forts, I imagined the fort was my own little house in the Big Woods.

Laura Ingalls Wilder....

oh, how I loved her descriptions of growing up.... traveling across the prairie, her trusty companion Jack the brindle bulldog, who was fed a leftover flapjack after dinner.... Ma, Pa, Caroline, Mary... If I could meet anyone in Heaven, I would want to meet Laura Ingalls and have her read every one of her books to me. 

Every year as my children were raised, we read the story of how Mr. Edwards meets Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. I still can't read it without experiencing the wonder of opening that stocking and finding a penny AND a cup AND a stick of candy!  I would secretly wish for blizzards like the blizzards in "Long Winter,"  so we could also twist hay sticks for fire and dig tunnels through the snow to get to the barn. 

I never really liked the television series...it just seemed like sort of a rip-off after the rich descriptions written by Laura herself. And, when I would picture Laura, she did not look like Melissa Gilbert!

She had issues with Bedtime,

                         an obsession with Bread and Jam

                         was duped into a Bargain

                          rivaled with a Baby Sister

                         and dealt with Best Friends.

She was a badger, and she was Frances......

I think the reason I could relate so to Frances was because we had the same obsessions with food!

Describing what was in her picnic hamper, Francis said  "Nothing much. Hard-boiled eggs and whole fresh tomatoes. Carrot and celery sticks. There are some cream cheese-and-chives sandwiches, I think and cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches too, and salami-and-egg and pepper-and-egg sandwiches. Cole slaw and potato chips, of course. Ice-cold root beer packed in ice, and watermelon and strawberries and cream for dessert. And there are things I forget, like black and green olives and pickles and Popsicles and probably some pretzels and things like that. And there are salt and pepper shakers and napkins and a checked tablecloth, which is the way girls do it.'"

Do you remember learning  how to read? Or are you like me, and can never remember a day that you couldn't read?

I do know this...reading was fun...especially when it was "Fun With Dick and Jane."  It's interesting to me that in the past few years, there has been a renewed interest in the Dick and Jane books...looking just the way they did back then, in all of their traditional, politically incorrect, genderized, wholesome family unity. This is how I learned to read. Dick, Jane and Sally, Mother and Father (oops..Father and Mother) faded from our culture as educational professionals theorized new and better ways to learn to read.

I wanted to have fun like them. I wanted a family just like them. I never had a grandparents, really...so I lived vicariously through Dick, Jane and Sally and their wonderful trips to visit Grandfather and Grandmother. They had a dog named Spot and a cat named Puff. Our mother wouldn't let us have a cat. They seemed to have the best times together as a family in their little suburban world...

In my family, when we played cards, we probably accused each other of cheating and , being the baby myself,  like Sally, I don't ever remember being that happy about just watching everyone else play cards....actually, if it was raining, we probably weren't having fun at all...we were probably bored.

But, anyway, straight through the Sixties, Dick and Jane were our constant companions. We learned to read, and thanks to  the publishers, we also learned to think and do, as well!

Reading, thinking and doing...with Dick and Jane. Yet, I find it interesting that in the thirteen years I was teaching, more and more children, even with the new ways of learning to read, weren't reading, thinking or doing. It's a shame, really.

There was something to look forward to after we lined up to have our TB shots and polio vaccines in the nurse's office...we looked forward to Dick and Jane.

And I really don't think I was hurt because of it.

There is a little yarn shop a few miles from where I work...in fact, just close enough for me to spend my lunch break there, and spend some yarn money there! They happen to have a really good Birthday Sale this month!  So , I couldn't resist grabbing a few tank tops worth of yarn while I was there...at 30% off! I got some good old, sensible, washable navy TLC Cotton Plus. I also had the opportunity to try on  another summer tank while I was there, and so picked up some Plymouth Bamboo in the most rich ivory color.

This is the tank I tried on...

  Now, I know I would have passed this pattern by if I had not tried it on... it was such a flattering fit, had a lovely drape, and I couldn't resist.

This is the summer of the perfect tank investigation, you know!

So my bags are packed, and I am ready to go.

oh, there is a suitcase packed as well!

Last week, I wrote about sleeping under the stars, and mentioned, of course, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden...so many of us grew up with these feminine sleuths, didn't we? Well, on that same wavelengh, Elizabeth, from Kitty Cafe wrote a great entry on her blog about Nancy and Trixie, and how she has become "re-aquainted" with those childhood memories. Go read...it's a great post! 

It did get me thinking, though, about reading when I was a kid...how much I loved it. Couldn't get enough of it. I would read with a flashlight under my covers, until my parents would yell from the next room, " Lynne, stop that reading and go to sleep!"  I'd read encyclopedias when I had read all of my library books....library day was my favorite day of the week. Just taking my mind back there, I am flooded with memories of the best books I read growing up...it was so different then...there was an innocence and sweetness to being a girl, and those books...every one of them transported me from my small town life to world adventures, intoroduced me to new best friends and back in time.

I thought, since I am going on vacation, I am going to put up a few posts in advance about those magical books that we read as little girls and growing girls...just for the fun of it! So check in next week...I'll take you on a wonderful little trip down memory lane!

So see you in Michigan, or see you when I get home!

Jen was my other ColorSwap Pal ...and boy was she a good one! Do you see all of these purple goodies? Magnets and candy and stitch markers and lip gloss and a journal and...and...

 

you want to know what my favorite thing is?

This cute little Hula bobble girl! I put her right on the porch under the shade of a fake palm, on the glassy seashell shore!

Of course, there was this incredible yarn as well... Maybe for a stripey scarf or mittens????  Thanks so much Jen! Your package captures the spirit of ColorSwap!

These are the hostas down one of the garden paths. We so often think of hostas as boring...but just look at this mass, just about to full bloom! I know Vicki will appreciate it!

My One Skein Swap pal delivered yesterday!  A very pretty skein of luxury wool and a little tape measure from Churchmouse Yarns.  I bought my very first Kiogu from Churchmouse!

  Thank you Ann!

We are counting down the days. Friday JR and I leave for Michigan and we can hardly stand it!  Of course, I am really excited to meet up with the Michigan knitters for our knit-in day at Threadbear Fiber Arts. I talked to Rob on Saturday, and of course, I had to have him send me a little something to knit on the road... Since I joined the

Cascade Fixation Ankle Sock knit along, I had to have some Cascade Fixation!  The yarn store near my work has some, but not in a color that would please me. So my goal is to have a pair of Fixation Footies in bright apple green completed  during the ten hour drive.

I'm planning my other vacation knits as well. I love Sizzle so much that I am casting on for another so I can play around with the bust modifications. I do think I have found the perfect tank for me. I love the waist dart shaping and the neckline as well. I did raise my neckline an inch or so...With the bust issues that I have, I figured the last thing I need is that plunging neckline!  So, Sizzle Two will be on the needles in Michigan.

I am going to work on my Meg Swansen Lace Shawl as well. I'd like to get that finished.

Finishing a  pair of cabled socks from One Skein, and starting  new pair of socks using the two circulars, kindly being taught to me by Kathy on our knit day...

Cascade Ankle Socks.

Sizzle 2.

Shawl.

Old Socks.

New Socks.

that should be enough to keep me busy for the week!

There are days of record-breaking heat...

 

And nights that can just Sizzle...

 

This is Sizzle, knit with Lamb's Pride Cotton Fleece in a hot Barn Red. I love this sweater. I love this sweater, but my next one will be a size bigger, or additional bust dart increases, perhaps.  Very easy, very fast knit, and should be in everyone's wardrobe. I think it would make a cute vest , as well.

My friend Denise came to knit with me on the porch this morning. She always brings Danish, which I now call "Amish" because they are indeed made by the Amish and sold in one of their local bakeries.  So, we knit and worked out life issues, eating Amish and fresh cantaloupe. I like when Denise visits.

After spending an entire day knitting and cleaning (while JR fixed the sailboat), we took the dogs North to Lake Ontario to the boat launch for a bit of a picnic in the park....Bill's Sub Shop tuna sub and a bag of Lay's potato chips....oh, and a 2-liter Diet Pepsi, which we  actually drank from the bottle! We were roughin' it.

The dogs love it...running and sniffing and fetching and swimming...

And, there, at Golden Hill Boat Launch, we happened across a huge Amish picnic! (out of respect for the Amish, I didn't even try to sneak a picture, even though there were so many cute Amish babies!) We had a lovely visit with a few of them,  but the best part was, they were making a huge churn of ice cream! It was powered by a little gas motor instead of actual Amish power, but the thought of that ice cream turning away in that tub made me really wish little May-Lisa would just invite us for some of that white or yellow ice-cream that she described with a huge smile on her face. I told her that when I was a little girl, we actually turned the ice cream dash with our own arms. She looked at me like I came from another world! Well, I guess even the Amish have their progress, right?

No invite for dessert, so we stopped at McDonald's for a cone on the way home...

but not until JR skipped rocks until the sunset.

and the dogs were dog-tired, of course.

As I lay in bed last night, I was thinking about summer nights when I was a kid...those steamy hot nights when you would wear fresh pajamas and sleep at the opposite end of the bed, flipping the pillow for the cool side. Then I remembered sleeping under the stars.

We really did that!  How exciting it would be to get the idea, call the cousins for a sleep-over, and anticipate the night throughout the day!  We would wait for the evening for Dad to lay out the plastic on the grass and we would place our sleeping bags just so... there was something about waiting for dark and padding out through the grass in our fresh pajamas with a flashlight, a Nancy Drew   or

Trixie Belden Mystery     and box of crackers ...how exciting to be out in the open with Mom and Dad so far away in the house. We heard sounds we never heard before, laying there in the big dark world of our back yard. I remember lying flat out, staring up into the sky...the whole dome of stars above us, hoping against hope to see a falling star and wishing for a first kiss or a new bathing suit.  Not a star was ever missing. Every one was always in it's place...even then, before Earth Science, we knew just where to look for the Big Dipper.

The heavens made the tent above us, and we felt as small as the grasshoppers under that starry host. We stayed awake into the wee hours, debating whether Trixie was cuter than Nancy, and who was the better detective, really...

   

...then fell asleep to the sounds of crickets and tree frogs.

It was never a peaceful sleep, hidden in that sleeping bag, trying to avoid the buzzing mosquitos, and wondering always if there really was an ax murderer living down the street.  But waking up to the sun on your face, damp from the evening's dew, scratching a mosquito bite on your ear..waking to a whole new day, to begin a new summer's day with whole new adventures waiting to be had after we ate our Cheerios.

Looking up the stars last night, every one was in it's place, not a star was missing. And before going to bed, even still, I always look for the Big Dipper.

I am overwhelmed with the generosity of knitters...with the connections we make in the blogging community, and how we share the excitement of our craft. It makes me happy to come home from work and find a purple box at my door.

it makes me even happier when I open it, and see that it's from Susan, a ColorSwap partner (yes, I have two of them again this month!) from down the road in Baldwinsville! Susan set me up. She is beyond generous and sweet, and has been, all along with Project ColorSwap. Every purple element was wrapped in purple, stickered in purple...oozed purple....

enough Cascade yarn to do a project from the book she included... very lovely sock yarn that she grabbed at the last Sheep and Wool Festival, a DPN needle case, which I filled last night,  a beautiful amethyst bracelet that Susan made, and various other goodies.

 

I had tears when I opened the package, because I am ever amazed at how in the midst of a discouraging day, God knows just what we may need to brighten the heart, and will use knitters and bloggers to do it! Thank you Susan...thank you again.

At the dusk of the evening, my garden looks beautiful....purple and beautiful.