The Event ~ WW II Scrapping

Tim and I went to the movie last nite ~ a documentary called "Scrappers ~ How the Heartland Won World War II."   It was the 7th showing of a 7 day Nebraska statewide premier about how Nebraska inspired the nation and helped change the course of World War II ~ with nothing more than scrap metal, patriotism, and creative competition.  

Those who participated back in 1942 remember it well.  This was new knowledge to me.  I had no idea.  When America got involved in World War II after Japan  unexpectedly bombed Pearl Harbor, America was not prepared to be a big player in the war.  We had not enough ammunition, not enough ships, not enough planes or tanks, etc.  And no steel or metal to make any.  The steel plants were shutting down. 

Someone in Nebraska started a scrap iron drive to do his part to help America.  Others followed suit.  Then a contest was started which pitted county against county in a competition that brought in 67,000 tons of metal, 104 pounds for every man, woman and child in Nebraska.    Young and old came together saving tinfoil  and pots and pans from the kitchen and gathering up broken down farm equipment to be "recycled" into new war production before the word "recycling" was in vogue.

The drive inspired a national effort and national competition that yielded 5 million tons of metal.  Although Nebraska started it, and had three weeks head start, the state of Kansas ended up winning the nation-wide contest with the most scrap collected.  Nebraska came in 6th.
It was inspiring to see Americans pulling together for this cause.  It was an inspiring movie ~ an event I enjoyed ~ an event where I learned something new.  Even during war, there was something good about those days that I think is forever lost in today's American society.

It was a good documentary.   A good event.

The Event - The Wedding Dress

Ok, it's been almost 40 years that my wedding dress has been sitting in it's lovely box in the corner of the spare bedroom taking up much needed space.  What do we save them for?  Posterity?  No it's just difficult to discard certain material possessions.  But the other day I had an idea.  I asked Janel if she would like to make Mathilda's first communion dress out of my wedding dress. Mathilda is grandchild # 4.   Janel has been sewing alot lately (those 4-H sewing lessons I spoke about earlier  are paying off!).  She thought it was a great idea.  So the vintage dress in the pretty box will find a new home and a new life very soon!  And I think I will suggest she make a nice little ring bearer pillow out of it as well in case son Cash ever decides to get married!   Recycling is in isn't it?

There are some events in life that one just treasures the memories of.  For me, a special memory is "The Wedding Dress" x 2.  Specifically, sharing the selection of  the perfect wedding dress with each of my daughters. 

In 1994, after shopping in the bigger cities of Lincoln and Omaha, Janel finds that perfect dress at home in Scottsbluff.  An event that is vivid in my memory ~ and the sales clerk's memory as well!  Just last week the former co-owner of "A Bridal Affair" stopped at my garage sale, and after a few minutes of chatting, said "Oh, it was your daughter that bought that ugly wedding dress!"  Yep.



  Janel had a specific idea in mind, and while trying on a dozen other dresses, I browsed the racks and found an ivory and gold brocade with a tulle train sprinkled with gold  "glitter."  That's right ~ glitter!   It was so ivory/gold that it looked brown next to the white dresses on the racks.  Yep, really ugly.  Since it was the style she was looking for ~ sheath, off the shoulders, tulle train ~ I convinced her to try it on for the style she was looking for.  She literally dragged the dress across the floor to the dressing room disgustedly mumbling  "this dress is so ugly I don't  know why I'm wasting my time."  A few minutes later she came out of the dressing room, radient, smiling!  We gasped!  She  said "this is the dress."  We  beamed.  The perfect dress.  Perfect fit. Perfect everything.  It was even marked 75% off because it looked so "brown" on the rack no one else ever tried it on.  It had been on the rack a long time!  On Janel it was beautiful. And Janel was beautiful in it.  An event to remember!



 

In September 2004, Janel and I planned a "girls trip" to California  to visit Alexis and wedding dress shopping was on the agenda for Lexi's July 2005 wedding.  We buzzed around the San Francisco area to a few different stores, the first one being what we  decided was a very upper class store.  We spent about two hours there while Alexis tried on $4,000 - $6,000 dresses ~ obviously out of our price range, but fun anyway.  She found one affordable dress she particularly liked by  famous designer Monique Lhuiller, but something was just not "her".  We continued our shopping elsewhere, and late in the afternoon we went back to the first store to revist the Monique dress.  While there the second time, we asked "Don't you have ANYTHING on SALE?"

 

The clerk starts bringing out  "sale" dresses.  Among them was the perfect dress ~ strapless airy chiffon with green embroidered flowers. Sounds about as "weddingish" as gold brocade!  Alexis tried it on.  We were  in awe!   Classy!  Perfect.   "This is the dress!"  On  Alexis it was beautiful, and Alexis was beautiful in it!  We cancelled the next day's appointment at the really big bridal shop.  Done!  We spent the rest of the time in and out of bakeries  for cake ideas, and other fun places in San Francisco.  An event to remember!

Sharing those special events with my daughters will always be treasured.  Recalling those memories is an event.  My daughters are my eventful friends!  I love them.  I think we need to start planning another "girls weekend" together somewhere.  That's a good idea!

The Event ~ Tornados and Wealth

I'm sitting here today in stormy weather ~ hail, wind, pelting rain, tornado warnings.  It's wicked.  Started about 10 a.m. this morning and still going strong at 3:30 p.m.    It brings memories back of the two tornados that we already survived. 

The first back in 1977 in Bayard just a few months after we built our new house in Bayard.  Bouncing up the back stairs from getting bread out of the freezer in the basement, I glanced out the back door at the top of the stairs and said "Oh, look at that little tornado."  It was straight west of us in the distance, but it didn't stay little or distant for long.  Just before the big black noisy (like a train) ugly funnel was about to reach our house, it swerved it's nasty tail to the south and hit our labor house, equipment lot, hay stacks and pasture fence.  No one was hurt, but what a mess.

The second one was in 1993 north of Scottsbluff where we now live.  It hit at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon just as I was heading home from work.  The rain was so pelting I had to hang around the work foyer for awhile before leaving.  I looked straight down main street and saw the huge pure white funnel straight north of town.  I said to myself, "hm-m-m, that looks like it could be out in our area."

As I approached County Road H to turn left towards home, the road was blocked by an area resident who was not allowing traffic down the road due to downed power lines and trees.  She said to me, "You can't get home this way.  In fact, you probably don't have much left to get home to!"  I quickly took the dirt ditch road around to the north but couldn't get into my yard because of downed power lines.  But I was relieved to see our house still standing, but not our new shop or the barn.  One was twisted.  The other collapsed.  What a mess.

However, the greatest memory is the outpouring of friends and neighbors.  They came with trucks to load tree limbs, hammers and saws to cut wood and nail windows closed.  Janel's summer work crew of college kids at the Panhandle Station came and restacked all the hay bales that lay in a disheveled mess.  Our dear friends Doug and Lorraine Kizzire showed up at about 10 p.m. with a cooler full of subway sandwiches and pop.  The Red Cross was there with meals.  Business men and women from the Chamber's Ambassador Club came out and picked up litter and debree in our pasture and corn fields.  What a blessing these eventful friends were.  And then there was dear old Art Walker, an elderly gentlemen from our church.  He stopped at our house a few days later and handed us $200 to buy some new trees to replace those uprooted by the tornado. 

This tornado showed us how wealthy we are ~ not financially, but through the friends we have.  Sometimes we don't realize that true wealth are friends and family and blessings they bring, and really has nothing to do with financial well-being.  It takes an eventful tornado to remind us just how wealthy we really are! 

Also, it was a time of experiencing intervention from God in our lives.  Son Cash was 12 years old and spent his summer days helping the neighbor across the road  (whose buildings were destroyed) and taking care of his 4-H sheep in the barn (the one that collapsed) while Tim and I were at work in town.  But on that particular day, his Grandparents picked him up at noon and took him to help at their job site 20 miles away for the afternoon.   That is truly an intevention from God.  God took care of his safety when we didn't even have a clue!  In everything give thanks! Even after tornados!  An event to remember with praise and thanksgiving!

On a side note, Alexis and I share the same dreams (or are they nightmares?) of making friends with tornados that are approaching our territory.  Wierd!  Dreams are an event in life.  And sharing common dreams with my daughter is an event!

The Event - Quilting with Love

I learned to sew when I joined 4-H at  age 8.  I loved sewing.  Sewing has always been a part of my life.  I learned on my mothers old black Singer machine ~ at least it wasn't a treadle.  She still has that same machine.  Then I got a new portable for high school graduation.  I took it to college with me and continued to sew.  I got a second  new Kenmore machine probably around 1980.  (?)  And a surger  a few years later.  And a new Janome in 2003.  I made most of my own clothes in the 60's and 70's. 

I made quilts for my three babies.  My favorite is the horse quilt I made for Cash when he moved from crib to twin bed.    I sewed lots of clothes for my little girls,  western shirts and even a sports coat  for my husband, dresses for my mom, college clothes for my sister-in-law. 

I sewed Care Bears for my kids.  I was a volunteer 4-H sewing leader when my girls were old enough to join 4-H.  They and their friends would come to my house weekly for a sewing lesson for their 4-H projects.   When we built a new house in 1976 I had a wonderful sewing room with built-in cabinets and everything perfect for my sewing haven. 

And then farming went south in 1986, and I got a city job, and the sewing ceased like overnite.  I no longer had time with a full-time city job.   It wasn't until 1998 that I dusted off the old sewing machine because I was soon to become a grandmother and I wanted to make my first grandbaby a quilt. 

I have been enjoying the therapy of quilting ever since.  Six of my seven grandchildren got baby quilts, and most of them got bigger quilts when they moved from crib to big bed.  My kids got quilts at high school graduation which they took to college with them.  My son got another one at college graduation.  My mom got a quilt.  The girls have quilts in their own homes.  Now why didn't one of my grandkids get a baby quilt?  That's a good question.  I bought what I thought was a really awesome neat furry blanket for grand baby #2.  That was really stupid!  Josh loved(s) his "store bought" blanket, but it was still bad grandma judgement!   Which explains why little Josh at age two was so estatic when he opened his  Christmas present and got his twin size quilt.  The picture remains vivid in my mind how he rolled in it and laughed with joy for minutes.  We were all spell bound by his reaction!  This Grandma was so proud!  Redeemed at last.

When Tim's grandmother Grabe died and we dispursed of her personal possessions, I found three unfinished sets of quilt blocks in her house.  I took all three sets home thinking I would finish them someday.  It took me several years to get them out and put them together, but I am so glad I did.  One set was a set of hand stitched stars made out of dresses, shirts and all sorts of othe vintage fabrics.  Her handiwork was not the best but the love that Grandma Grabe put into stitching those stars is felt today in that quilt.  The quilt belongs to Cash now, as Cash was close to his Grandma Grabe when he was young.

Another set was made into the eskimo quilt which now belongs to Jonathan.  The eskimo quilt consists of squares of painted eskimo scenes which Grandma did while living in Alaska many, many years ago.  The third set of squares were painted roses, which I put together into a beautiful quilt that I gave to Alexis.

Grandson # 3 ( Jon) wore his baby quilt to shreds.  I fixed it a few times, and finally his mom took what was left and made it into a pillow.  Jon asked several times for me to make another one "just like it."  Instead he got a very special quilt ~ the eskimo quilt ~ made of squares textile painted by his great-great grandmother Grabe.  It's his twin size quilt that hopefully will endure through the years - well used, but a keepsake as it's five generations in existence.

                                                These pictures randomly show some of the quilts that have passed through  my sewing machine and my hands over the years and have been events in my life. 

Quilting is definitely an event.  Planning the quilt is an event.  Selecting the fabric choices is an event.  Giving the quilt to the recipient is a special event.  Quilts can be a best friend to a child. Children tend to keep their quilts close to them as they would a good friend.  The grandkids bring their quilts to Grandpa's farm when they come to visit.  That is an event.  Quilts can tell a story.  Yes, quilts are an event!

I am most recently making crib quilts for the Linus Project ~ quilts made to give to children in the hospitals. 

I am trying to use up all my scraps and make them into something beautiful.  Quilts are a way of taking the scraps in life and turning them into something beautiful.  God does that with my life.  He works with me and mends me and spends alot of time taking the scraps of me and working them into something beautiful.  Quilts comfort me, but God is my comforter!  Quilting is an event I enjoy.

The Event - Fulfilling a Dream

What's in a name?  I had to name my new blog site.  I chose Eventful Friends.  Why?  Because that is my show name when I do ventriloquism.  eVENTful Friends.   Yes, I fulfilled a life-long dream when I finally, nearly four years ago, started studying the art of ventriloquism, and went to my first international ventriloquist conference in 2008 and again in 2009.  

I have three eVENTful Friends, Aunt Edna ~ a sassy, classy old lady who is 86 and beautiful for her age, Mr Woodrow ~ a sometimes adult farmer/cowboy in an adult audience, or a young kid (Woody) when I have a children's audience; and Delila, a scatter-brained hot pink bird with purple hair!  They are my eventful friends ~ we are partners!  We have entertained in nursing homes, Christmas parties, senior centers, children's church, mentally challenged camps, state conferences, and my own family reunion last year in Billings.   Sometimes they say things I would never say!

I have learned one is never too old to go after a dream.  If there is something you want to do in life, go for it.  I regret I didn't do this year's ago.  Thanks to internet, I was able to make the connections to get started.

I have taken workshops at the conferences with the one and only Terry Fator, winner of America's Got Talent in 2008 (pic) and also Jeff Dunham, as well as other well-known vents. And enjoyed their entertaining shows.  It's an awesome community, and a very christian community.  Much ventriloquism is used in ministry and mission work. 

I guess I shouldn't be posting pics of me and other men.  Tim is very supportive and likes this picture as much as I do.    Tim is way more awesome to me than Terry Fator!! 

Tim gave me  "Woody", which at the time was an old Jerry Mahoney figure made famous by Paul Winchell.  A master figure maker in Colorado transformed Jerry into my Mr. Woodrow ~ see the before and after.  What a transformation.  God does the same thing with us if we let him work in our lives.   This is truly and event in my life, and I have made many new eventful friends in my new endeavor.  It's fun.  Fun is an event!

The Event ~ Jesus and Soup

I mentioned in my first blog an event that took place back in or around 1979.  One should always make note of the important events in life such as this, and not rely on memory.  Memory is an event that tends to fail us occasionally!

As a young mother I started attending Christian Women's luncheon clubs back in or around 1975 - again memory fails me.  Someone must have invited me.  Oh yes ~  It was my friend Mickey Becker!  Of course!  I remember the first one I attended was held at what is now Oregon Trail Bar and Lounge!  They were held there for a long time before moving to a new location.    My children probably remember the monthly trip to Scottsbluff when I left them in the CWC nursery while I attended the luncheon.   I remember wanting what those speaker ladies had - knowing Christ personally, as a friend ~ an eventful friend and having that peace!

And then one day,  two friends ~ Shari Fiscus and Joanne Schmall ~ came to my house and we sat around my dining room table and they led me through the steps of asking Jesus into my life, to knowing him personally.  I remember feeling like that new born, hungry for the Word.  Devotions became a part of my day, prayer became a part of my day.  I made it part of my children's day.  I grew as a Christian and became part of the leadership team for CWC for several years after that. 
 
Those two friends, I remember, brought a pot of soup to my house when I came home from the hospital with my new born son, Cash.  We shared soup together.  That's what good friends who love you enough to lead you to Jesus do!  Share soup! Those two days with those two friends were eventful days in my life.  I am very content with soup and Jesus!

Those two friends have come and gone in my life.  Oh, they are still around, but now merely acquaintances.  It is an eventful day when I meet them somewhere ~ in a store, on the street, at another event.    Friends weave in and out of life.    Mickey Becker however, is still a close friend in heart, though we don't see each other much, but have tried to keep in touch over the years.  My girls and her girls remain very good friends from childhood.  And now, to my surprise, my son and her son have reconnected as friends.  What an event!

Now,  I would not have expected that my first blogs would be about people who are not close to me.  Blogging can be good for the soul as thoughts pour out over the keyboard, and I am surprised at what I leave here.  This is truly an eventful day as I remember eventful friends from the past.

The Event - Contentment

The longer I live, the more content I am.  Eight years ago six of my closest college friends reunited after 32 years.  We reminisced and described our lot in life.  Mine:  I am content.  No matter what, I am content.  We all spend years seeking, grasping, wanting more, wanting better.  When did I first become content.  I think it was when I accepted Christ into my life somewhere around 1979.   I have always been an easy keeper - meaning I didn't cost my husband big bucks!  There is nothing wrong in wanting to improve one's lot in life, but never discredit the blessings already in place.  Since that day in 1979, I have claimed the scripture verse of Phillipians 4:6 as my life scripture ". . .in everything give thanks!"  IN EVERYTHING.   God is in control.  Give thanks ~ no matter what.  Thankfulness leads to contentment.  Being content is an event.  Contentment is an eventful friend. 

This is a new blog - day one.  Am I happy with this whole blog look that I threw together in an hour?  It's ok.  I'm content with it.