When Teri and Cindy were young, I made many of their clothes. I wasn’t working and didn’t want to do housework all day . . . in fact, I never wanted to do housework. So I decided to keep busy by sewing. I knew a little about it and had made a few things before for myself, so I started sewing outfits for the girls. That way I didn’t have to vacuum, dust, clean toilets, make beds and all those nasty things. I could just sit and sew all day. And the best part was I could watch TV while I was doing it! I think I was born addicted to TV. I’m not really proud of that, but it’s just way it is.

I would set up the sewing machine, turn on the TV and start the day. I made the girls shorts and tops, nightgowns, dresses, and sister dresses. I even made mother and daughter dresses so the three of us looked alike. I also made an outfit for Brownie, our dog, which won him first prize in a contest. Spurred on by that accomplishment, I wanted to go on with possibly a doggie pattern I could market and become an entrepreneur in the doggie fashion world. But Brownie refused to sit for anymore measurements and fittings, so I gave up on that idea. My husband wisely refused to play a part in any of this. Just so long as I put food on the table and he didn’t have to wear anything I made, he was quite happy.

I don’t know what I watched on TV while I worked, but it was probably many soap operas. I liked something with a story and stayed away from game shows – they made you work too hard thinking, and I just wasn’t up to that while I was sewing . . . or any time for that matter. I still don’t watch game shows and have given up the soaps, but I know they’re there if I need them.

I sewed for many years, but when the girls started junior high school it all stopped. Teri made friends with girls who got to pick out their own clothes in department stores, and who weren’t fortunate enough to have mothers who devoted themselves to sewing for their children. That was very distressing to me, but Teri insisted she wanted to be like the other girls. I asked her if she would run naked through the halls if “her friends” did and she said she would. So I gave up on her. But when Cindy hit junior high I thought there still might be hope for more sewing, but that was during her “stalking” period. She was more or less dressing like the “stalkee,” a boy she professed to love but who wanted nothing to do with her. I can’t imagine why . . . maybe she came on a little too strong. I decided I couldn’t sew any clothes that looked like his, so I gave up. I knew I’d be lost with nothing to do to justify my staring at TV all day, so I decided to sew a dress for myself. But I put the front where the back should have been and the skirt came out upside down! I decided there was only one thing to do to keep me from doing housework all day . . . I would go to work. And that’s just what I did.