Stream of Consciousness

I was looking for a new meme for Sunday and ran across this one at allthingsfadra.com.  The idea is to set a timer and write for five minutes, whatever comes into your head, whatever you are thinking about -- possibly even word association, I would suppose.  So, for the next five minutes I am going to give it a go.  One, two, three -- go.


Do you believe in genetic memory?  From what I understand, genetic memory is memory(ies) that is passed on to you through your DNA -- memories of your parents, grandparents, etc.  I think the idea is completely bizarre except for the dream.  

Yes, I have always had a recurring dream -- well, not always -- it started when I was a child and continued until I went on a quest to find the house. I found the house and never had the dream again.

In the dream I am standing behind an old high school near downtown. Like most of the buildings of it's era it was imposing and elaborate.  It was the only high school in town for a long time -- the first high school, if you will.  I was on the street behind it looking at a house.  I was in current time but the house was not-- it was almost like a split screen on a tv program but part of it was very foggy -- like an old sepia photo -- and there was a wagon with a horse attached sitting in front on the street. I knew this house, it was familiar, I knew who was in the house.....I woke up.

Ok, my five minutes are up.  That is what I woke up thinking about this morning.  I don't know why, I haven't thought about it for a long time.  Maybe it is because I am planning a summer return to my hometown and that is where this house is.  Every time I go I try to see the house -- one day I am sure I will go and it won't be there.  I will be sad because this house draws me in -- not in a bad way -- and I need to know the connection.  Ah, genealogy -- there is never an end to it.

Wordless Wednesday 1 June 2011

Wordless Wednesday 4 May 2011

I have just posted a new album to my facebook page. It contains photos of my junior high school in San Antonio. The school was built in approximately 1923 and had additions as WPA projects later. My grandmother's cousin, Rose, went to school here the year my mother was born, my mother went here as did my aunts and uncle and my cousin JLSHall. Of all of my educational experience I was happiest here. I loved the atmosphere and I hate what they have done to it -- they rebuilt it and only retained part of the facade, the part that faces San Pedro Avenue. They replaced the gym -- ok, it flooded underneath but still -- and they torn down the locker room which was a WPA project as well as the IA shops.

Spurred on by a graduate school paper of my daughter's, I have tried to find information about Twain online and in newspaper articles but can't find much, especially photos so, if anybody has any old photos or information about the school, I would really like to hear stories or see pictures.

A Stitch In Time
























My interest in textiles, fiber art, quilting, needlecraft began a long time ago, sometime before the age of six. My mother, grandmother, "other" grandmother and great-grandmother all had a hand in nurturing this natural-born fascination I had with handwork. I think it must have come to me about the age of 5, all at one time, because each experience I had with some aspect of the needle arts/handwork transpired about that time.

The first thing I remember is wanting to embroidery. So, my mother went to the five and dime -- Winn's in San Antonio -- and bought me a pair of pre-stamped tea towels and the proper needle and embroidery thread and a wooden hoop. I remember working on them, getting tangled up and never finishing them. I kept them, with the intent to finish them, until I was grown and they somehow disappeared after a house fire.

About the same time, I was completely taken with my "other" grandmother's (Granny) crafting skills and would wart her to death about including me. I was especially fond of watching her weave potholders on those little red, metal looms with those awful nylon loops. Finally, one day, she told my mother to go to Winn's and get me a loom and she would teach me. My mother did and Granny did and to this day I still love those looms. She would also cut old sheets into strips and macrame them about coat hangers and make wonderful padded hangers. Some of these still exist -- I have two or three myself. I know how to do it and one day I will make more. Granny isn't my real grandmother, she was my aunt's mother-in-law, grandmother to JLSHall and they all lived across the street from us. I, however, claimed her as my own.

My own grandmother, the one Joy and I share, did gorgeous crochet and was an excellent seamstress. She made costumes for Joy and me and she even produced two hand-made baby dresses for my children. She decided she wanted to learn to knit so she and I went for knitting lessons and a place called "The Knitting Bowl" at the local mall. I can't knit or crochet and apparently can't learn. I got frustrated, she didn't, I gave her all my supplies and then I gave up.

My great-grandmother, Granny Giles, was a pioneer quilter. She made utility quilts for everybody in the family on a quilting frame hanging from the ceiling. Her sisters, Lura and Ella made beautiful appliqued quilts. This is where my love of quilting and fabric began.

One evening, while visiting my Granny Giles, she and my grandmother were piecing quilt squares by the dim light of a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling of an old, victorian house. I wanted to learn. They gave me some tiny patches, a needle and thread and let me go. When I was done and had received the appropriate praise for my accomplishment, I decided I wasn't done. Fishing through the drawer on the treadle sewing machine I found some rick rack and sewed it around the edges of my square with a tail hanging off. Well, it still wasn't done so, after more searching, I came up with a jingle bell -- the kind we used to sew into our petticoats at Christmas -- and I sewed it on to the tail of rick rack and pronounced it finished. I kept it for years, until the house fire and it, too, disappeared. But, my interest in quilting didn't. Over the years since age five or six, I have dabbled in all sorts of needlework and have loved all of it. I prefer hand quilting to machine but my hands aren't cooperating. I love cross stitch but am now working "in hand" because
the same contrary hands balk at trying to hold on to hoops. I have tried my hand at "art quilts" and have even produced an ACEO quilt. It doesn't matter to me, though, as long as I am doing something with needle/thread/fabric.

Sunday Evening -- Remembering San Antonio


It has been a long-standing tradition in our family to stop by the bakery on our way home from church on Sunday afternoon. Our purchase would be our dessert after Sunday lunch. We visited many bakeries through our married life. The first photo is of a donut shop on Fredricksburg Road close to Redeemer Lutheran Church.




The second bakery is by far our favorite and most frequently visited. It is Los Cocos on West Avenue. They have the most scrumptious Mexican pastry, always fresh and the proprietors still remember us after all these years of being gone. When we visit San Antonio there are a number of regular stops and Los Cocos is one of them. Next time you are in San Antonio, check it out -- not the most gorgeous place in the world but I guarantee you, you won't ever notice once you taste their products.

Booking through Thursday

"Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday? Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip? What/where are they?"

I don't vacation much -- A travels for work so his idea of a vacation is NOT traveling. However, we do enjoy short trips from time to time -- mostly to the San Antonio area. I have been to Arkansas and California but I was a child so this question really doesn't apply. With that said, however, I spent some time in Dallas in 1961/62 when my dad was doing some film work here and the one thing I did buy was a copy of "Tom Sawyer" at a drug store. So, I guess I did begin the practice of buying vacation books then.

Yes, I do buy books when I am vacationing. The last trip to San Antonio I bought four books dealing with local history. I had been looking for those sorts of books for some time but I hadn't been able to find any north of Austin so when I discovered them in a bookstore -- Betano's -- on the Riverwalk, I seized the opportunity, bought four and then picked my DH up off the floor when I handed him the receipt for $134. In my opinion, it was well worth it to sort of round out my local history section of my personal library.

While visiting in and around Texas, I don't really have a favorite bookstore -- I mean, B&N and Borders is the Starbucks of the literary world -- they are on every corner so it isn't difficult to find a place to buy a book but I do like to frequent book areas in museums and gift stores of tourist sites. For instance, when I visited the UK, I hit every bookstore/gift shop in every tourist place I went. I have to say the sales people at the gift store at Westminster Abbey were more than thrilled that I visited there!

I find books to be the best sourvenir of a vacation, followed closely by art work and postcards. So, yes, I do buy books while on vacation.

Sunday Evening -- Remembering San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas is the place of my birth, my parents births, my children's births, my extended family's births -- it is home and always will be. I haven't lived there for the last eighteen years but everytime I return I long to stay yet know I never will again.

My last trip to SA was in April. My husband, who still does business there, had a meeting so I tagged along. He took some vacation time and we made a long weekend of it. Of course, my over productive genealogy gene won't let me get out of the city limits without some form of documentation of my life there. In the past, I have trekked through cemeteries, scoured libraries and cursed myself for not going to the health department to retrieve vital statistic records for every one of my relatives. This time, however, I decided to do something different. I decided to photograph places that were of some importance to me during my years there. Most of these places don't look like they did during my childhood and most have different purposes now. Sadly, a number of significant places in my growing up time just aren't there anymore at all. Most of these places are very old and time hasn't been kind to them. However, I think it would be fun to share these photos in my posts here. I might even throw in some from past visits.

We stayed at the Marriott Rivercenter which is a lovely hotel right on the San Antonio River. In fact, the River is accessible from the lobby of the hotel. We were on the 15th floor so I was able to get this lovely picture of downtown San Antonio.




It just so happened that we were there during the week of Fiesta de San Antonio. Fiesta is a week long celebration honoring the heroes of the Alamo. It began in 1891 when a group of citizens decided to honor both the heroes of the Alamo and those of the Battle of San Jacinto with a "Battle of Flowers" -- a parade where floats were bicycles and horse drawn carriages that were decorated with flowers. Over the years it has expanded into several parades including a night parade called The Flambeau, The River Parade and The Battle of Flowers Parade. There are other activites going on also such as A Night In Old San Antonio -- a food fest in La Villita -- the original San Antonio and the carnival. Below is a picture of the carnival as taken from our room. Fiesta has a Queen with a Court made up of the young women from old society families and every year a King is crowned King Antonio. In my youth, he would go to all the schools and give out King Antonio medals to all the school children. I think I still have one but I don't know if he does that anymore.



So, just click on the photos for a larger view and enjoy!