Preserving Memories

This blog is about preserving memories.  Often, I find it difficult to part with items that hold a trove of memories but hold little or no other value.  A case in point is this dresser scarf and ticking stripe pillow.  On their own, they were worn, tattered, and they’d seen better days.  

A 1960s dresser scarf and a feather-down, ticking stripe pillow

 My grandmother embroidered the scarf sometime during the 1960s.  It had been pristinely white, always crisply starched and pressed, and it adorned the top of her bedroom dresser.  I remember this because her bedroom dresser was a special place.  It held a yellow chiffon, baby doll nightgown, and a small bag of Avon, sample-size lipsticks in the middle drawer.  I longed for her to open that drawer.  To understand my fascination, I must explain that my grandmother was a plain woman who only wore lipstick when she went to town on Saturday night to play bingo.  She wore a smock or apron daily, and I never saw her wear the baby doll nightgown which hid in her middle dresser drawer. Yet, there it lay in that drawer so beautiful and silky to the touch beside all those lipsticks. In my mind, the lipstick and nightgown were like Superman’s cape and leotard.  They were so out of keeping with the understated woman who lovingly cared for our family.  My heart rushed with excitement when she opened that drawer.  That’s what this now tattered and stained scarf means to me.   

 Granny also made the feather tick pillow.  It was filled with feathers from my grandparent’s chickens and was my bed pillow from the time I can first remember.  It was never without a hand-embroidered flower, bird, or princess pillowcase made by her.  My mother washed it frequently, and it was filled with new feathers when needed until Granny stopped raising chickens.  I took it with me to college, and I moved it with me when I left home.  It was laundered over the decades until nearly every feather disintegrated and disappeared.  Yet, I found it hard to discard.

 That’s what lead me to make this pillow.  So, if you find yourself struggling to get rid of an item that brings back a flood of good memories, consider transforming it into something you can use every day, like this pillow.