Wednesday, September 11, 2013

9-11

9-11. Four characters. That is all one has to say and we understand  everything.

I know that each generation has an event that changed everything. Or weeks or months or years which changed everything. Pearl Harbor. Fort Sumter. The Nazi invasion of one's home town in Europe. Hiroshima. The Titanic. The Lusitania. The Maine. Pogroms. The Influenza Epidemic. The scalping of an entire family. The Concentration Camp. The Internment Camp. The Refugee Camp. Ethnic Cleansing. There is no end to these horrors that stretch back beyond written history or even oral tradition. The Day That Changed The World.

And children do pick up on the fear. I remember the Cuban Missal Crisis, not because I watched the news or understood anything about Russia or politics, but because I remember coming downstairs from my afternoon nap to find the unusual sight of my parents watching television during the daytime. And they were worried about something. I had never before seen my dad scared. I was made aware that the world had its horrors and that my parents could be powerless to protect me.

I wrote a number of poems on 9-12. They are called The Day That Changed The World. This one is a response to fear. I have not edited or rewritten these poems. They just are.

What We Imagine
Nancy A. Bekofske

Our child is in the white hospital.
There are tubes and alien machines surrounding him.
We watch and wait.
There is red blood, vivid on the white
Like a beautiful rose.

No, our child is playing with friends.
There is coughing.
There is headache.
Our child goes to bed.
Our child breaks out in death.

No, our child is in the school room
There is a blinding light,
Wisdom is not so enlightening as this light.
There is a flash of heat.
There is ash.
  
No, our child is called.
Our child bravely leaves his only home
His only family.
Our child is trained to kill.
Our child falls, he thinks of home, He thinks no more.

No, our child wakes up in the morning.
Our child sees the rain.
Our child remembers the old life,
The days before fear.
Our child awakes in the morning.
Our child imagines

There is no one to protect him.


Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Fifties by David Halberstam

I am nearly finished reading The Fifties by David Halberstam. Kindle told me it would take me 19 hours, and I do believe it has been right. And to think,  Halberstam cut 500 pages to bring it to 718 pages!

<em>The fifties</em>

I was a small child during this time. I remember when I  learned the year was 1959. Year? I had been pleasantly ignorant of the concept of a year, other than birthdays and getting a year older. In 1959 we added Hawaii as a state and my brother was born. What I know about the Fifties I read in a book or seen on PBS or in a movie. It was too recent to be covered in my school text books. Gee, they did not even get to WWII!

Most of the information covered was familiar to me. But it has been interesting to see it all woven together in one overriding narrative.

The book helped to put my personal experience in perspective. For instance, in 1951 the farm fields around my folks house were being turned to post-war, little boxes housing. I grew up with the Rosemont Avenue kids, playing Statues and Red Rover until the street lights came on. Had I been born earlier, I would have had to walk through farm fields to school like my father did. Later we lived not far away from the second Levittown  housing project built in Bucks Co, PA, (1952-58) was meant to house blue collar workers. The downside of the suburban neighborhood was the isolation of women and children that led Betty Friedan to write The Feminine Mystique.

File:LevittownPA.jpg
Levitttown, PA

I found a great website about the original, NY Levittown at http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown.html

Much of what we take for granted today started in the Fifties. Scripted 'real life' television started with the game shows The $64,000 Question and Twenty One. As does the 'fifteen minutes of fame' celebrity. And of course, doing anything for money. The decline of the American automobile started in the fifties when companies took their predominance for granted and began to value profit rather than quality engineering.

The scandalous novel Peyton Place was a real pot-boiler in its day. Now some professors teach the book as a brave expression of freedom, revealing the truth behind the facade. (I have never read it, and don't expect to.)The Writer's Almanac by Garrison Kiellor offered this link today, for Grace Metalious' birthday: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2006/03/peytonplace200603?elq=19c3c1f2c9474a87b88a0bfaabe1bf94&elqCampaignId=3255

The world of Mad Men was rooted in The Fifties, and I have to think that Matthew Weiner  knows this book very well! In fact, one real life 1957 Chevy ad by the trailblazing Gerry Schnitzer could have been originated by Don Draper! A son is getting ready to leave for the Senior prom, and when he starts for his old jalopy his dad jingles a set of keys. Next to the old clunker is a brand new Chevy convertible! The boy rushes for the keys, backtracks to the jalopy to retrieve the corsage, and picks up his girl. "What a gal! What a night! What a car! The new Chevrolet!" Yes, in this New World our sons get a brand new Chevy. Good-bye jalopies.

I was disturbed by the birth of the CIA and its involvement in Latin America, protecting the interest of United Fruit over the rights of the Guatemalan people. "The national security apparatus in Washington was, in effect, created so America could compete with the Communist world and do so without the unwanted clumsy scrutiny of the Congress and the Press." Yikes! Now the' evil CIA' of the USA television show Burn Notice does not seem so far fetched...

The overarching theme of the Fifties is the change from the Old Order to a New Order. From a time when the Catholic Church was against Cesarean section to the arrival of The Pill; from a time when GM sold a product they could be proud of to a time when the Bottom Line became more important. From a time when women's magazines portrayed the happy housewife cleaning the toilet in heels to a time of sexual liberation and reentry into the work place.




In a book talk on CSPAN  (http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/46582-1 ) Halberstam said he hoped that reading the book would help people understand 'why' the 60s. For example he refers to the rise of the VW Beetle, purchased by people who could have afforded a larger car but who 'non-comformists' were making a life style statement, a reaction against the materialism of the times. (The first car my husband and I bought was an orange Super Beetle, sans radio, for about $3,000 in 1973. In our case, it was all we could afford!)

Tonight I will finish the book. About an hours reading more to go...





Saturday, September 7, 2013

1958 Penney's Fashions and Fabrics

Many years ago I picked up this over-sized booklet of J. C. Penney's Fashions and Fabrics, Spring and Summer 1958. The model looks so cool and well put together. Down to the white gloves!


I loved that it had fabric swatches in it! And all the details about each swatch, down to shrinkage.








Color trends included:

  • Nautical Tricolor --Growing out of a world wide interest in boats and ships
  • Checks, Stripes and Plaids, and Houndstooth, in blue, gray, brown on sheer fabrics
  • Mist and Cloud colors-- muted beige and silver grays, some with tints of pink or green
  • Flower Reds--Zinnia tones of red, pink, and orange
  • Gold-tinged colors of coral, tangerine, melon, marigold and sulfur yellow
  • Blues, especially navy and cadet, as well as turquoise and blue greens, plus French Lilac, grape hyacinth and delphinium blue
  • Greens in muted and gray shades of sage and olive but also mint and emerald
  • Overprinted white with florals and conversational prints were the' high mark of fashion' that summer
  • Glitter--metallic yards with Mylar was used in all fabrics, including denims
  • Prints of every sort
Silhouettes and details includes the chemise and relaxed sheaths, a Chinese influence with side slits and neckline, matching coats and dresses, barrel back shaped cutaway suits, dresses with fitted fronts and bloused backs, full skirts with sectional pleats with emphasis on the 'dome shape', wraparound skirts, and the 'short' hemline. Sportswear for all ages and for both sexes had found a new importance. Shorts and sundresses for the ladies and plaid shirts for men, worn untucked. 

"The Bishop instructions" were included in new patterns. In junior high my sewing class used the Bishop Method to teach us how to make an apron and an A-line skirt. I went home and asked for a sewing machine! I did not get one until I married a man whose mom was an obsessive sewer. She even sewed underpants for herself!

"Today's Casual Look is Soft and Easy" notes the head line introducing these patterns.

Really Dressed Up! offers both the full skirt and the sheath dress.


Knits were 'making news' including use in tricot lingerie, double woven white gloves, and casual shirts for me--the Polo shirts that are now the uniform of men 'of a certain age'. 

It is no wonder we love the Mad Men fashions! We have lost the elegance and sophistication of those years. 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Abstract Art... More Quilts from Grand Rapids

I loved the variety of abstract quilt art at the show last month! They are just amazing. By the awards given, it I evident that the judges were also impressed.

The non-representational Allegretto by Katie Pasquini Masopust was so unlike her Fractured Landscape quilts, which I had seen many years ago at a Lansing, MI quilt guild presentation.



Light and Shadow- Colors of Ghana by Carol Fleming Chenoweth used batiks from Ghana, West Africa.


Night Glow by Linda Bachman. I just love the broad areas of vibrant color.


Michigan quilter Deanna Gaudaur's New Beauty is a whole cloth quilt colored with threads and machine quilted designs.


Maria Reuter of Germany's Digital World depicts the digital transmission between the elements fire and water.


Chartreuse, Celadon, Kelly, Fern by Panela Zave explores yellow green.


Prize winning quilt Escuchame by Beth Markel of Michigan represents 'noise' and 'quiet' (dark areas) and how few real connections are made.



Six Fifteen by Tina McCann was so interesting with its layers of silk and wool, a very three-dimensional and textured quilt. The layers represent the layers of time.


Suddenly... by Pan Beal of Michigan started with 3/4 inch squares. it is hand quilted.




Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Two Mid-Century Quilts

When I went to the AQS quilt show I stayed with a friend who owns a home in Grand Rapids. She showed me three quilts made by her mother-in-law. The fabrics reflect the quilter's time span, some dating from the Depression Era and others from the Mod sixties and early seventies.

I loved the blue sashing on this Lemoyne Star. And the plaid and gingham fabrics! This quilt was folded at the bottom of the guest bed.







On the master bed was a wonderful Grandmother's Flower Garden variation. The 'flowers' were all different hexagons, not arranged in concentric colors as usually found. But each had a yellow center.

My hostess pointed out fabrics that had been dresses she had worn in the 1970s, and other fabrics from clothes worn by her mother-in-law.


There were bits of interesting textured fabrics like the red and green on white print.




I have to love that daisy on brown fabrics, recalls to mind a cute suit I had in 1967.



The third quilt was Trip Around the World, kept in a trunk. Yes, I did recommend she keep it in a pillowcase and on a shelf. The quilt had a lot of gray along with vivid red and lovely Nile green.




Monday, September 2, 2013

AQS Grand Rapids V: Portraits

Here are some quilts from the AQS Grand Rapids show that are portraits of various kinds.

Jan Berg-Rezmer, another Michigan gal, made Ask the Cowboys with photo transfer, fabric paint, and raw edge applique.

 I was in love with this quilt! Little Girl and Dog by Hiroko Miyama of Japan based it on a photo of her granddaughter.

 Ode to Inspiration by Melissa Sobotka was inspired by Pre-Raphaelite paintings.


Alice Aukeman, another Michigander, did this portrait of her daughter Renee.




I really enjoyed the ultimate Guild Challenge quilts. Wish I belonged to a guild! Gone Fishin' by Anita Gogerty was made for the Des Moines Area Quilters Guild challenge of A Small Blessing.


A nice mad working the show let me go inside the rope to be photographed with my quilt, I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet. 


Saturday, August 31, 2013

AQS Grand Rapids IV: Traditional Quilts

Here are some of the traditional quilts I saw at the show.

A Woman's Journey by Marsha Molly was inspired by a historical quilt made in 1841 by women convicts on their way to Australia's penal colonies.



The medallion quilt, Spring Time in the Rockies by Patty Girvan, was designed by Susan Garman.


Look at this the HUGE Amazon Star by Jane Reents!


Sedona Sunset by Terri Doyle was designed on EQ6.


A detail of the quilting

The machine quilting award winning Andrew by Kathi Carter has amazing quilting.




Another award winner was Visions of Peppermints by Ruth Ann Henry, another Michigan gal. The quilting was by Beverly Heyworth.


Sadly I can not read all the labels to identify all the quilts. I only had five hours at the show and was not as diligent as I should have been. This was pretty amazing.


Sample the Fruitcake by Sue Hawkes incorporated embroidery, crystals, beads, and coded tab edging!


The detail in this quilt was awesome.




I had to love a quilt that incorporated a handkerchief!!Golden Wedding quilt by Claudia Pfeil .



 In Orbit by Evelyn Evers was so interesting to see. Traditional pushed to Modern!