As we went through this process after Mama's death, the memories flowed as the treasures were given out. Among the items I got returned to me was a gift I made in Vacation Bible School in my childhood. It's a lot worse for the wear of over fifty years but a little glue and a dusting made it presentable again.
This bird, can't tell if it's a chicken, duck or what, was created to be a sewing center. There is a cradle for housing scissors, a number of dowels vertically mounted and designed to hold spools of thread and lastly, the "wings" are stuffed cloths shapes to be used as pin cushions. This highly useful device is something I made at summer bible school. My mother, the consummate seamstress, quilt maker and skilled artisan in the needle and thread arts, as far as I can remember, never used it as it was intended. But, she kept it for over fifty years and displayed it for most of that time.
As I reflect on the bird, I recall the many years of attending Bible School, usually held the first couple of weeks in the summer after normal school let out. Bible School was usually a half day session lasting about one week. There was time to study the Bible, a time to play, singing, snacks and a time for making crafts. I'm sure that I could attribute some of my limited knowledge of biblical stories to the training I received in VBS but my memories are pretty much limited to the crafts we did and the snacks: cookies and KoolAid. I remember drinking a lot of KoolAid in my childhood and even in young adulthood but I haven't seem any in many years, is that stuff even made anymore?
There was a lady in our church, Mrs. Long, whose first name I can't recall, who owned a ceramics studio. Many years our crafts consisted of making something of clay which she would fire in her kiln. Sometimes the ceramics were pre-formed items that we simply painted before they were fired. We had one that featured a deer with a large rack of antlers. We painted the deer in our crude way, it was fired and at the end of VBS, I took it home. My older brother Joe saw it and decided the paint job needed more detail so he proceeded to "touch up" my art! I never have forgiven him for that! That deer hung in our dining room for years.
A craft piece that brings a chuckle to me now is the fig-leaf ashtray we made! Mrs. Long brought clay and freshly picked fig leaves. We molded the clay to fit the shape of the leaf, pressing the leaf into the clay to form the vein pattern of the leaf, then curling the lobes of the clay leaf where it would hold a cigarette and keep the ashes contained. I don't guess kids get to make ashtrays at Bible School today! Unfortunately, the ashtray didn't survive the years.
One day, hopefully many years from now, my kids will sort through boxes and lament the things Mary and I have kept but I hope they will trigger warm memories as the bird has for me. Either way, it'll be be their job to dispose of them , I'm too much like my Mama, I can't bring myself to do it!
