Three young girls, all interested in the same thing and the direction they took in life. A sewing machine was their beginning.

Recently I was in New York City for a lovely family wedding.

My sister lives in New Jersey.  She was kind enough to meet my husband and I for a day out on the town and a bit of adventure.  We decided to take the tourist way out and hopped on a bus to look at the city in a broad view.  We have both been there several times, she for work and me for work and fun.

While in SoHo/China town we stopped in a lovely leather shop filled with hand made items.  We both fell in love with their, far too expensive for us, products.  While looking, we both migrated to a section in the store with old sewing machines.  I knew what Mary, my sister, was thinking.  She was thinking about our first sewing machine.

The clerk walked over to us and said that they were the owners collection but that they were also for sale.  We both chuckled and one of us said, "Oh we had one like that, except it was a treadle, in a cabinet."  The clerk was engaged and we told her our story......

Remember it was a small town, during the late 60's. I was in third grade, my sister was in second, and our neighbor Brenda, was in first grade. Somehow we decided that we were going to go to an auction that was about 6 or 7 blocks from our house.  The auction was on the edge of town so it was almost "in the country."  I don't quite remember how we knew what to do at an auction, but auctions were part of the fabric of a small town back then.  I am not even sure that our mother knew where we were or what we were doing.

We had very little money in our pockets.  Brenda had the most which is key to our adventure.  We looked around at the items and we saw this old treadle sewing machine.  The three of us wanted it bad.  We wanted to sew, create and make things; on our own sewing machine.  We had watched my mom make all of our clothes and we wanted to do that too.  I don't think mom was ready for the battle of teaching her two strong willed kids sewing technique.  Brenda's mom was not a sewer but Brenda wanted to be.  (Later on Brenda's mom became, and still is, quite a quilter, an AMAZING quilter!)

We pooled our money which was around a $1.00.  The auction was huge.  It was the contents of a family's chicken farm.  When they finally came to the sewing machine we bravely bid on the machine. We had no competition.  We couldn't believe our luck.  We were so excited!  The story varies as to how we got it home.  I remember the machine having wheels and wheeling it home.  My sister remembers us getting our wagon and wheeling it home.  But we did it on our own.  I remember traveling over gravel and then thinking, finally a smooth tar road.  Our mother's wanted no part of this treadle machine.  I think their irritation was really amusement with our energy and seriousness to get this wonderful new toy.  I remember trying to figure out where to put it and it was determined we would put it in Brenda's basement as she had the largest stake in the deal.

We tried it and made it work.  We never really used it a lot.  My mom soon thereafter shipped me off to her sister's home to teach me how to sew.  This avoided conflict with mother and daughter. Frankly, I have never stopped sewing.

When I look at the three of us and our personal history that sewing machine adventure was really the beginning for each of us.  We all took different paths but stuck to our original love.

My sister,Mary, has been a planner and in allocation for the retail industry for years.  She LOVES fashion and the industry and has worked for several shopping networks and is presently at Burlington, in Burlington, NJ.

Brenda has worked in the sales end of the industry with shoes and Vera Wang.  She now owns and operates "Italia Celebrations" in Italy.  A lovely wedding planning service.   https://www.facebook.com/ItaliaCelebrations/?ref=br_rs

I went the traditional route teaching Family and Consumer Sciences focusing on fashion and sewing construction.

When we finished telling the clerk our story, her response actually shocked both Mary and I.  She was thrilled and said, "Oh, I love this story.  Someone needs to do a little short story about this, I can see the little girls getting that sewing machine home.  It should be a 3 minute short story on HBO"  We smiled and thanked her, we were just three small town girls ready to sew, but what a fine memory it is for us. And look where it took us.  Oh the places you will go........!

With love from the very soon to be, back in retirement, FACS teacher,
Jane

I am sad for our country, this election is not making us strong, or united. What have we done?

I ache inside every time I look at my Facebook page, turn on the television, look at twitter, or talk to anyone about politics.

Maybe because I am a Libra I find myself trying to balance everything in my mind but all I see is division and pain.

I am not going to lie, politics have always been difficult for me.  I am a teacher by trade and my husband and I own a small business.  These two things alone traditionally create a political conflict with each other.  I want to be conservative with taxes but I want education to be properly funded.  I see kids growing up with extreme hardships, I know family history, but I don't know how we can help families sustain in the continued economical environment.

What hurts me more than anything is the party division and name calling that I see everywhere from both sides of our political parties.  I have been voting since 1978 and I have heard every four years the same cry.  "We don't have a decent candidate."  Never before has this been more true.

This summer I stated several time to people in both parties, "I can not and will not vote for either of these candidates."  Each of the people that I spoke to, and it was several: said,  "You shouldn't do that, you will throw away your vote."  I can do that and I will do that.  I can not and will not support either candidate because they both have unanswered issues that are not o.k.  They are both supported by big money, which I believe is an issue for all of our elected officials.  Big money has made our government corrupt and ineffective in all ways.  I don't know how this is going to be fixed but it needs to be addressed soon.

I heard a panel on ABC this morning that was rather biased towards one direction but Minnesota's, Kieth Ellison said something that struck home to me and I find it key to everything!
This is paraphrased, Whomever wins must make a plea to all voters and talk to them to see what needs to be done in our country, to address all voters so that we can come together, and feel like all voters needs are being addressed and noticed.

In the future, I hope that we can see people respecting each others opinions and that we can be kind to each other.  I hope that no matter who wins we can say we are all members of the United States and we can stay together and support one another.  I hope that the evident, strong, nonacceptance of each others views and beliefs can be accepted and we can move on.

This election scares me, and it makes me feel like we are losing our grip as a nation.  I don't care what anyone stands for, I don't care who anyone votes for in this election.   It is not worth this divisive horrible, verbal commentary, under the table evil, and dark speculation.  Our nation needs to find a way to come together, not divide.  This, this that we have right now, will lead to something bad in the future.

With love from your temporary working, retired FACS teacher,
Jane