Cooking and Crafts - by Dori

Mom was the one that taught me how to sew, she taught me how to cook, she taught me housekeeping. She taught me just about the basics of all the good things in life.

She started teaching me to cook when I was young, it was something that I wanted to do and she encouraged me to do it. She taught me the basics like how to not burn myself and how to boil water and cook rice and pasta. I just learned things as I was cooking with her. She would say, “This is how I used to do it”, or, “This is how Grandma used to do it”. And I would pick up on it. I actually started home economics in school and they helped me with cooking too. I won a school superintendents award my senior year in home economics.

When teaching me to sew she would be over my shoulder and I would work the patterns and she would be right there to assist me. And it was really wonderful, she wasn’t criticizing she would help me though it and she was kind about it. She would say, “You’ve got to start over because you don’t want to do a half-way job. You want it to be nice”. So I would start over and make it nice. Now I am so particular about my sewing. I remember the dresses I made for Angie, I was so particular about them and they turned out so nice. Mom was a very patient instructor. She was never critical she just wanted me to do a good job and was very patient about how I did.

We did crafts when I was younger, she got me sighed up for a craft of the month club. I would get them once a month and I would finish them and then give them out as gifts. Sometimes I would be selfish and keep them for myself; I’d hang them in my room or around the house. I still have some of them hanging in my house now. We had a lot of fun working on crafts together. She taught me how to crochet, I tried knitting but I was too nervous, I just couldn’t catch it. I never enjoyed it, but Mom loved to knit. She would knit early morning before work, she would get up earlier than she needed to each day and knit for about an hour or so, then get ready and go to work. She would knit beautiful things like dresses, sweaters and coats, she’d even make whole outfits. She would knit gifts for Dad and me and Gary and Pam.

I remember she knitted some little bunny sweaters for Jeremy and Josh. Pam didn’t like them for the boys, I think the bunny wasn’t manly enough. They wore them the day they got them but that was the last time. Mom knitted a pineapple poncho for Pam and she loved it. She wore it often and got complements on it for years. She even knitted a matching sweater for Gary that same year for Christmas.

Mom didn’t start her egg crafts until after she retired and moved into the mobile home. She and her friends Pat, Glee and Betty; there were 4 or 5 of them that lived across the street and they would make projects together. They made the 3 Wiseman, and earrings and other things. Then they started making eggs. John showed mom how to use the circular saw on the eggs and made it so much easier for al the ladies. They did crafts together for years, until they started having health issues and they slowly dropped out one by one as health issues got worse.