"QUILTS" RESPONSE----FROM A FRIEND OF SEVENTY YEARS

This response is much appreciated by me, especially coming from a friend of seventy years, and a writer himself although he won't admit it.

With our one brother each, we played marbles, spun tops, built mud houses with our putty knives, made rubber-guns, walked on stilts, played baseball and football, fought WWII, dug foxholes, read "Joe Palooka in the Army" comic strips, read comic books, fished for "translers" with gum on a string, and made WWII model airplanes. We watched from the shade on hot summer days--B17's, B24's, and finally B29's circling around the outskirts of Clovis. Here is his "quilt" response, a little piece of Americana in itself:

"Hi Mil, In the late 30's--early 40's at ----Thornton we had chickens in the back yard and the garden as well. But no cow---but Dad being the horse lover that he was, always had a couple of horses. Two of his favorites were Streak and Buddy---his roping horses. This was the same time you were writing about your family at ---Reid and we were only one block apart.

Times were tough but we didn't know it because everyone was in the same situation. But I don't want to get side-tracked from the quilts.

I remember that Mother would take A. and me to El Rancho Milling to buy chicken feed. She would say "Okay boys, what material do you want your shirts made of?" A. and I would ponder and finally pick out a pattern that we liked---actually it didn't make any difference to me---I really didn't care whether I had a shirt or not. Then Mother would buy two 50 pound bags of chicken feed that was sacked in colorful prints. When the feed was gone, the sacks were washed and then Mother would make us beautiful shirts to wear to school or church. She was a superb seamstress.

Now the interesting thing about this story is that the scraps from those feed sacks were always saved---nothing went to waste. And yes, many years later after Mother had saved scraps and made quilts, A. and I would look at those beautiful quilts and say, "Remember my shirt out of this print?" Mother's quilts were a story book of memories.

We would say, "Look at this, Mother made a dress out of this!" Oh, what fond memories those old quilts told! And we still have a quilt or so that Mother made....and we can still pick out of those old familiar prints.
Mil, if it is usable...use whatever you desire...have a good day,

Your old friend,

B.J.

Mil's note: Yes, I remember--his mother was an expert seamstress, and a canner of great skill also. A good title for B.s response would have been his line above: "MOTHER'S QUILTS WERE A STORY BOOK OF MEMORIES." Thanks so much, B.
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