Mary Ellen

A few months or so ago, I reconnected on a firm weekly, well almost every week, with my favorite cousin Mary Ellen.  I was named after her mother, my daddy's oldest sister, Aunt Ruth.  I met Aunt Ruth and Mary Ellen when we moved back to Texas in 1956 when I was a few months shy of 6 years old making Mary Ellen a few months shy of 5 years old.  I first saw Mary Ellen when she came to check out the new family that came to visit her family and she 'hid' beside Aunt Ruth looking around her at me.  Almost immediately, Mary Ellen took me into her bedroom to play with her dolls.  I was in heaven!  She had beautiful dolls with real doll clothes that Aunt Ruth sewed for her.  The clothes were exact replicas of clothing that Aunt Ruth sewed for Mary Ellen with the exception that all the clothes had doll sized buttons and zippers.

There was never a question that she and I would not be fast and best friends for life.  It just was.  I went to stay with Mary Ellen for a week every summer until I was about 14 or 15.  All these visits were some of the best times of my life.

One of the main things we would do is go 'scavenger hunting'  We would go all over the neighborhood knocking at doors and when the people would answer the door, we would tell them 'we were on a scavengr hunt for things the erson wasn't using any longer plus we would throw in 'old jewelry'.  Somehow, we thoght people were going to hand over to us little girls all kinds of jewelry and especially diamonds and emeralds.  We did get a few trinkets here and there but usually nothing to remember.  We would go on to other houses with the same hopes and dreams.

We would sunbathe in the front yard right up to the front curb and watch cars go by. If the new neighbor girls would come over, we'd run in the house and tell Aunt Ruth.  These girls were too loud and obnoxious.  Aunt Ruth would then go out front and put the sprinkler right in front of the front poarch and turn it on to keep them away. We always knew Aunt Ruth would have our back even though at the time we didn't know the term.

Recently, Mary Ellen mentioned that she never knew if her mother loved her or not or whether she resented her being born as that is when Aunt Ruth married Mary Ellen's father, Uncle Fred.  She felt that her parents 'had to get married'.  I have such different memories about all this.  Aunt Ruth had been married to Uncle Dan and had three daughters by Uncle Dan.  By the time Mary Ellen was born, the other daughters were grown, at least the first two daughters, Mae and Katherine.  This left Mary Lee Ruth still at home and Uncle Dan got custody of her.  Well, MY memories were that Aunt Ruth loved her 'little doll' and got to spoil her rotten, even though Mary Ellen was never spoiled rotten.  I always got the sense that Mary Ellen was the one child that Aunt Ruth was able to keep for herself.  Being raised loving dolls and sewing doll clothes, there could be nothing but love for Mary Ellen because a mother who makes exact replicas of her daughter's clothing could do nothing BUT love her.  I always just 'knew' Aunt Ruth loved Mary Ellen beyond all reason and was never jealous of Aunt Ruth loving Mary Ellen more than me.  It just stood for reason that of course Aunt Ruth loved Mary Ellen best, but that never came to play that she didn't love me second best.  Second best love of Aunt Ruth meant more to me that almost everthing in my world and still does.

Anyway, Mary and I had lost touch with each other from about 1968 until about 1974 when I gave birth to my daughter, Rodina.  I finally found her in Spetember of 1974 living in Minnesota and called her as I wanted to tell her about my daughter.  Mary Ellen have kept in touch ever since basically and would call each other a couple of times a year.  Back then, it was long distance to call each other and we woud talk for hours and pay the price when the phone bill came in.  Now, there are no long distance charges and can talk as long as we wish. Now we talk on the phone each week for about an hour unless something comes up and we need to talk a different night as we hadplanned.

It's so good to be in constnt touch with Mary Ellen again!  It was basically my brother Oren, Mary Ellen and I growing up together and now Oren and Mary Ellen are in touch again as well.  Having all three of us 'together' again is like being complete again.

Uptown Lady

I bought my dream sewing machine almost a year ago:  Janome Skyline.  It's not an embroidery machine, although I've kept my Janome 7500 Embroidery Machine.  This new one is strictly a sewing machine and has al the fancy decorative stitches I could want plus I can design my own.  Along with this new sewing machine, I bought an actual sewing machine cabinet to go with it.  It;s large, has drawers and sheolves and I can raise and lower the machine within the cabinet.  When lowered and the insert put on, it becomes a really large cutting table.  It is so very nice.  I;ve sewing one it ever since I bought it until I'm blue in the face.  I'm in my happy place when sewing on it.  I guess I need to name it now: Martha