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Me in 1984.
I spent six summers of my childhood at Camp Ramah in Palmer, Massachusetts. The first summer I was just turning 8 and was the youngest camper. Most of the kids in my bunk were from Massachusetts and the first question they asked me was, "What town are you from?" I remember not knowing how to answer that question.
When you grow up in suburban Maryland you aren't really from a town. You're from a county. I grew up in Potomac, Maryland, part of Montgomery County which is a huge and sprawling area with a population of 971,000. There is no clear town center, no town hall or town green. As a child it was really hard to connect with the history of Potomac, or with Potomac as a place at all.
Ever the serious middle child. With my sister, Rachel, and my brother, Matt, at my grandparent's apartment in 1985.
Clearly Potomac has a history. Everywhere has a history. In fact, Potomac was first settled by white people in 1714 and before that had been an Native American trade route. But if you live in Potomac, this history is really hidden and hard to access.
I remember being intrigued by the camp kids' question and longing to have a real answer. To me a town implied a founding, leadership, and history. I've now lived in the Boston area for 13 years, and in Wellesley for 8, and I love the obvious outward signs of this area's significance in American history and my town's place within it.
With my cousin, Jacob Brostoff, in Bethany Beach, Delaware, in August of 1984.
I was a history major at Johns Hopkins and a 6th grade social studies teacher before I became a mother. I am by no means a history buff now, but I do still like to feel connected to a tradition and to learn about what and who came before.
When I sew I know that what I am doing is connected to historical roots. I love this post by Nancy Zieman, one of my sewing heroes, about her sewing heritage. If I do have a personal sewing heritage, and I must, it is many generations back. But it is enough for me to know that Nancy has one, and perhaps you do, too. This connection to history is something I love about sewing.
This is very interesting to me. Sewing is about family history and the history you use as a sewer for reference. When I’m crocheting or crafting I’m relying on family history I learned as a kid from my grandparents. I spent summers building models, making figures on a scroll saw,designing,and crocheting. I’m so lucky to still have some of those early projects and memories. When it comes to sewing history it’s the tradition of the women that came before me. They had to make all this stuff so their family had clothes and blankets. I live in New England and love the rich history and I like to know what the motiefs meant to the people back than. I think as newer generations lose art programs and get more plugged in we are about to slowly loose the type of history that was so important in those early days.
I hope we are able to hang onto, and reinvent, sewing traditions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here.
I have always felt a disconnected quilting connection to my great grandmothers, grandmothers and great aunts. They were quilters in one way or another Some created beautiful traditional pieced and appliqued quilts I remember seeing as a little girl that inspired me later. My one great grandmother inspired my craftiness with a large leaf bag full of her crafting supplies acquired at age 7 when they cleaned out her house to put her in a nursing home. My moms mom made simple charm square quilts for me and later a very simplified applique quilt for other grandchildren. She used the fabric sample cards my grandfather got her, or clothes or scraps from making clothes. Not always cotton. She even pieced tiny pieces of old sheets for background fabric. However I never had any direct connection to the craftiness or quilting. It was all gleanned from the materials and products I was given. My mother sewed clothes when I was little and patched and hemmed. But I was never able to learn at the knee of any relative. My last non-connection connection came about 12 years ago. I was moving into a new townhome and my Dad’s mom, always cleaning out (and my best friend), gave me an old round Christmas tin she had from when she was a teen. Inside were six large hand stitched, a little imperfectly, hexagon flowers. I had NEVER seen nor heard about them before. I had been a quilter for 10 years at that point. Had made quilts for them. She said something like “oh I found these and thought you might like them.” History is important but it is so much better when it is communicated. It has always made me wonder why non of the creative people in my life felt worthy?important enough to communicate their creativity to their descendants. Maybe its why I struggled with my own worthiness and stopped quilting for 10 years.
Thank you, Colleen, for sharing your story of connection and disconnection from your personal sewing history here. It's always interesting to hear different people's relationship to craft and to sewing from childhood to now. I think not being able to learn at the knee of a relative is pretty common. My mom is a writer and always had so much trouble when she would edit my papers in high school. It wasn't until I moved away that I was able to see that I actually really enjoy writing could learn in a more formal setting in college.