Day 29.... In the Busyness Business

 I have not made a cast of my special project... yet.  Seems like there is always too much to do. Taught a bunch of great kids from age 4 to 16 at White Memorial Nature Center yesterday. After what, 12 days of clouds and rain, I did not realize is would be sunny and hot so I got my first sunburn working with the kids on the potters wheel on the lawn.  Then went to water a friends greenhouse plants till 7:30... there is never enough time in 24 hours. Each day should have 48 hours. You could work, take a nap, have fun around the house and yard, take a nap, visit friends and then go to sleep for another 8 hours... or would that really work?



Phyllis 1938



I remember momma. She was a busy person. My mom lived here from 3 days old till she was 37 years old. Thirty seven seems so young to me now.  Her parents, Frank and Irene, were married in the living room here. They were both in their late 30s, Frank had been in WWI and never married and Irene's first husband had died in his 20s. Frank and Irenes tumulus marriage did not last long, and somehow, grampa Frank got custody of little Phyllis. My momma Phyllis, grew up here with housekeepers and helped with the cows, chickens and greenhouses.  She loved plants and animals. She wanted to be a professional ice skater. She rode horses, went swimming a lot, skated and went skiing. She had pen pals, a favorite in New Zealand. She collected movie star photographs. She got a Brownie camera and took lots of photos of her cats and her favorite dog, Tippy.  So I now have photos of this house, Tippy, vacations she went on, her friends and lots of  letters.  In the "old" days before computers, people wrote more letters. They sent postcards. I have a hugh collection of her postcards, ones she received and ones she bought as souvenirs.

She met my dad in 1946. She was sixteen and wrote to her mom in New Hampshire, how she had met "Richie". He gave her a box of candy in a yellow and lilac flocked container that she kept all her life. Richie was an automobile mechanic. They moved here to the farm for a couple of years and my brother was born, then they moved out and I was born, then they moved back four years later. Richie and grampa re-muddled the barn then. Dad wanted to repair cars and so they gutted the old barn throwing out the cow stanchions and probably a lot of good old stuff. Mom helped in the greenhouses and the garden. We had a hugh garden. Mom did a lot of canning. We rarely bought vegetables from the store.  I am a little embarrassed to say I still have a couple of her canned beans down in the cellar. In an old house, things get pushed back into cupboards and priorities shift. Someday I may throw those beans out.

My sister came along six years after me. Mom took us all on day trips. My brother was a Cub Scout and Mom was the leader. I went along as the team mascot. We took trips to the Hershey's Peter Paul candy factory, http://naugatuck.patch.com/articles/the-demolition-of-peter-paul#photo-5022211 the Pez factory, http://www.pez.com/, Mount Tom, Mohawk Mountain. So many day trips.

My dad loved fishing. We would go all over CT, MA and NY fishing and mom would bring her embroidery or knitting. She was still working on embroidering quilt squares... "The State Flowers" when she died.  She kept the embrodery floss in a woven sweet grass basket from Maine. Now I have to try, or perhaps my daughters will, to finish it... someday. She also knitted tiny Barbie clothes for our dollies.

She was a very good cook. We came home from school everyday to homemade cake and cookie snacks. Stuffed peppers, Rabbit Cacciatore, Beef tongue, Beef roasts and Tuna-noodle casseroles for supper. We ate really well. She made us fresh squeezed lemon aid and our homemade cider. We also drank a lot of Kool aid.  Running a house, taking care of three children and two men, weeding, canning, day trips and cooking, kept her very busy.

I have tried to follow in her footsteps. Only instead of the greenhouse, I work in the pottery barn. It is a very busy lifestyle. Running a house, taking care of children, weeding, day trips and cooking have kept me busy too. I would have liked to do more at home stuff. I would have liked to stay home and cook and clean.
I think my mom enjoyed it all.  Keeping busy and puttering around at a variety of things, meeting new people and hanging out with friends and relatives is what makes our lives so good.

And so, I am off to the barn. Like my mom, I get to work by walking out our back door onto the old stone steps across the driveway and lawn. Her to the greenhouses which are gone now, and me to the barn... re muddled but still standing.


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