Summer Hankies

Hi Everyone,


I'm posting this from my archives. My work schedule and the work on the new old house that I've purchased is taking so much of my time these days but I should be posting again regularly in just a few weeks and  be showing you some pictures of the cottage. It's really a bungalow build in about 1910 but I am so in love with her. This post always reminds me of my summer days in my childhood. Take care and stay cool.  

Wow it's summer here!!! We need rain... just a day or two of cool soaking drizzle; I can almost fall asleep thinking of how pleasant it would be. Last Saturday it reached 100% and the humidity was nearly unbearable. Anyway it puts me to remembering my childhood. Today I opened a box of vintage hankies. I can remember hot Sunday afternoons on the porch with Mother, Grandmother and the Aunts always wearing cool, light summer cotton or linen dresses. I know my Grandmother or Mammy Rogers never wore a pair of men's breeches in their lives and the Aunts never wore them on Sundays. It seemed cooler then, I can remember the slow quiet conversations and each lady had a summer hankie tucked in the sleeve of the dress or discretely in the bosom ( I don't think we could say that word back then) to shoo a fly or heaven forbid pat at a tiny bit of perspiration. There was talk of of course of the weather, and the approaching July 4 Th week. My Aunts worked in factories, the week of the 4 Th of July was always vacation week and the factories would be closed. At our home it was corn week. I can remember days of pulling ripe sweet ears of golden corn. Bushels would be picked, shucked, silked, and quite a bit cut off the cob although we also froze quite a bit on the cob too. My Aunts Estelle and Mable would blanch the corn while Mother and I shucked and silked and through the week we would work hard and enjoy every minute of it. Then would come the weekends of picking butter beans by the bushel and wonderful Dixie Lee peas. even today I don't think of it as work and I love to shell butter beans and peas. I won't go into the squash and tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers. There is just nothing like farm to table food.

Now back to the porch and the southern ladies of the 50's and 60's. Well there is nothing quite like they were either. Sunday seemed to be the day of enchantment. The hard working Aunts sitting back so lady like. There was always some quiet gossip among the group; all in good taste and no harm intended until my Mother, the youngest, would say something completely scandalous that would for a moment or two would send the sisters rolling with laughter while Grandmother would fan herself vigorously with her hankie, clear her throat quite loudly and the Aunts would quiet themselves still smiling a little bit behind their lacy floral hankies. Have a great week and stay cool.... !