My mother-in-law gave me a memory book(dated 1910-1911) she found in an old chest...one that she had bought many years ago. It is written by a 15 year old girl that "I think" was looking through a basket of fabric scraps and decided to make a journal of how these fabrics had been used. She never mentions her name, just her age, as she tells the tale of each piece of fabric.
The cast of characters are Lettie (her sister), Larry(her brother), Aunt Eliza, Mama, Papa, Mrs. Nickles(dressmaker), Ellis(her brother), Mrs. Keech, Mrs. Long(dressmaker), Mrs. Young(dressmaker), and James( Lettie married him at age 20).
The setting is Neosho Rapids. In one dress she went to the fair with her Papa. It turned cold and they left and stopped at Peaks and bought some cookies that she ate as they walked home. She gave one of her dresses to a little girl that lived in a camper's wagon. She had a dress and sunbonnet from fabric used in their front room as a border. She bought a dress at age 14, from Sears and Roebuck that faded green, so she dyed it dark brown.
Mama made a doll tick out of one of her dresses that she had worn when she was 2 years old. She and Lettie made several of the dresses, and both she and Lettie tore their dresses on barbed wire on different occasions. In fact, she had torn her dress the day she was writing this journal : )
She talks about school and church, and singing "Hang Up the Babies Stocking" at Christmas when she was 6 years old. I wish she had written her name somewhere in her 14 page journal. I am so happy that she took the time, 100 years ago, to journal about these fabric scraps. I am certain she would have a blog of her own if she were living today!
I have enjoyed her sweet story. I wonder if someone will be reading my blog in 100 years : )
~piece~
elizabeth
