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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2005-11 > 1133199975


From: "Susan Schon" <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] History Facts
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:46:15 -0500
References: <25c.24935d8.30bbf409@aol.com>


I have my M'mère's button jar. I also have her old Singer sewing machine --
the kind with the treadle. She taught me to sew on that machine and she used
saved material to make quilts. The quilts weren't fancy, but they were used
for years during those cold Connecticut winters. My M'mère didn't speak
English and I didn't speak French, but we managed to communicate. In fact,
for years I thought the French word for milk was "mik" instead of "lait". My
brothers and I knew how to ask for "la pomme", "l'orange" and "candi" --
that last was in my grandmother's English. When I was in my early teens,
m'mère and I shared a bedroom. Her side was neat as a pin and mine was a
disaster. The woman was a saint to put up with me!

Now, how did this trip down memory lane get started...?

Sue

----- Original Message -----
From: <>


> I still have three boxes of buttons my mother hoarded. I used to play
games
> with them on long winter afternoons in the 1940s. When I look at them now,
some
> of them remind me of clothes I wore when I was a child.
>
> I also remember the rag men. My father would threaten to give me away to
them
> if I didn't behave. They would drive their horse-drawn carts down the
alleys,
> collecting items that had been discarded. My mother rarely had cloth for
> them, for she saved old clothes my sisters had outgrown and even remodeled
adult
> clothes for me to wear. I had a "new" coat every year, while some of my
friends
> continued to wear coats that were too short.
>
> Ah, what good, loving, and thrifty people they were, a stunning contrast
to
> today's consumer society.
>
> Suzanne

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