SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
My Mother’s handwriting was really beautiful. From what I understand, she and my Aunt Jessie were taught “penmanship” in school. Not only is that not taught in today’s schools, but I’m afraid that cursive writing is a thing of the past. I suspect it will be as difficult for our grandchildren to read as the Old English is to us. What a pity.
In any case, I loved getting letters from Mom. While she nearly always hand-wrote all her letters, I always type out mine. My handwriting is terrible! Almost unintelligible! But Mother wrote lovely, loving letters and I enjoyed them all.
As I was growing up, we never heard of automatic dishwashers, so I learned to wash and hand-dry the dishes from our meals. Since the humidity in Albuquerque, New Mexico was very low – very dry – it didn’t take long for those dishcloths (T-towels, we called them) to dry out.
One Christmas I received a set of T-towels from my Mother, that she had hand embroidered for me. Now, embroidered T-towels were not a novelty, but these were special. Mother had written out some “sayings” and embroidered those sayings on the T-towels. I told her once that I would always have her “with me” – since I had her handwriting on those towels! Here are the things she wrote:
I used those towels until they literally had holes in them, before purchasing new ones. I don’t know how to embroider – I’ve tried many, many times, but just can’t get the knack of it, so my T-towels will remain plain.
But I always have the ones my Mother made especially for me – in her own handwriting. They are treasures for me.
Old Things R New 