Dickie Damron

I stayed up until 2am setting up another blog for my 50th high school reunion which will occur in 2011. I did that and sent emails to some of my classmates' addresses. Consequently, I was wired when I went to bed. I heard the clock strike 3am before I wafted off to dreamland. I then wore myself out all day, checking the blog (louisahighschool61.blogspot.com) to see if anyone had replied. I know it was too early, but I did it anyway.

I finally heard from Dickie Damron (John R., as I'm sure he's known now)--one of my favorites in the class. Dickie and I were always together if the class was seated alphabetically (I was Vicki Cheek, he was Dickie Damron). We could never tell which of us the teacher was talking to . . . our names sounded alike.

I am quite scatter-brained today (love that idiom). I went on a "girl-trip" with two of my friends (I usually limit myself to one friend at a time). Four of us are thinking about getting together every so often and creating STUFF . . . (we refuse to call it art lest that make it too important) . . . and my mind has just been SCREAMING with ideas about what we might create. I've already thought of about 4 things which would be more than my share, undoubtedly. And then . . . along came jones and broke my garage door. The car is trapped. I'll be like Scarlet and think about that tomorrow. WHEW. Strange little day.

Aunt Lola . . .

I was just looking through some of the old fashioned embroidery on the Indigo Junction website and immediately thought of my Aunt Lola (Yoyo). For those of you who remember The Andy Griffith Show, she was much like Aunt Bee (didn't look like her, just used her mouth like her). She often did needlework since her husband sold thread. She taught me to embroider, wrap packages, make bows, and never corrected anyone who thought I was her daughter. I loved her

a great deal.

Wandering through word origins.

I'm reading a book about England just after Henry VIII closed church properties. That caused a problem with the "doles" that the church gave to the poor. Once the Catholic churches were gone, individuals with money began to distribute pittances to poor people. That set me to wondering just when doles started. I found one reference that said they began in ancient Rome and referred to the fixed amount of grain given to each Roman. Sooooooo, being "on the dole" is definitely not a new thing.

I also found out that the word "gerrymandering" comes from a former VP of the United States, Elbridge Gerry. Vice President under Madison, he was a former governor of Massachusetts and redrew congressional districts to suit himself.

Banbury

This is Banbury, from Ride a white horse to Banbury Cross. The old verse I found goes "with birds as her halo and bells on her toes, she shall have music wherever she goes." Her eyes look real . . . they are "oiled marbles" and I ordered them from a place on the web called Rainbow Turtle.

As you can see from the sketch at the right, I planned to have a bird halo and rings on her "toes" . . . but I never quite found anything that looked satisfactory. I loved the way her sculpted head turned out and couldn't bear to add something that didn't begin to match it.

Big Foot Bird

I've found an online class with Marlaine Verhelst that starts this fall. It's all about "Making a Bigfoot Bird".

That will be THIS fall. I'm already enrolled in a Dutch Touch class (taught by Marlaine and Ankie Daanen) at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft in Louisville, September 20-24th, NEXT fall. I made my Banbury Horse with an online Verhelst class in '07.