Dear Jessica Brennan,
I’ve been around long enough to remember when tatting didn’t involve ink but rather thread. If you have yet to run into it, tatting is an old craft that uses cotton yarn to create delicate lace. My great aunts knew how to do it, and I have some memory of what the little cicada-shaped tatting tool looked like, used to meticulously tie knots required to make beautiful trim for ladies’ wear.
The bride’s mother usually displayed these lace-trimmed nightgowns and undergarments at a bygone event known as a Trousseau Tea. Aunts and female cousins would congregate to admire the handiwork and eat sweets and tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, all washed down with a cup of tea. I went to just one of these gatherings as a little girl and was fascinated by it.
Canning is also something from the past for most people. We did it after we spent a purple-handed week at Aunt Janet’s picking blackberries. Your Great-Grandma Field made icicle pickles, arguably the most challenging pickle to make. I still love their sweet crunchiness.
Rug braiding is not something everyone does. Your Great-Grandma Johnson made them by the dozens, though. When she was in the mood to make a rug, no pair of snagged pantyhose or old necktie was safe. I wish I had learned that craft from her. The rugs were durable and beautiful all at once.
I often daydream about these unhurried times we have left behind. I am as bad as anyone for buying into the frenzy-culture of accomplishment, but when I think of the care that went into some of the activities we no longer enjoy, I wonder what we are now all madly racing toward.
Love,
Mum xo