More Stories

So, I have discovered some great stories about my Great Grandma Nelson who died last August. I feel that need to share them, actually to journal about them.Josephine Nelson - She was baptized on her mother's coffin because she dies 1 month after grandmas birth. At this point she went to live with her grandmother who had four children herself without a living husband. Here my grandmother was raised strictly and by the age of 14 was canning, cooking, quilting etc because her older sister had left the house hold. When it came to school she was torn between her grandmother and her father, just as I was torn between my divorced parents at a young age. At 16 she began working for the Felix family, they owned the local clothing store. Through this job she met her husband whose sister was dating a Felix son.The following story is about my Great Aunt Joan - When my great grandfather left for WWII she thought to herself that he would never return. This caused her to be quiet for the next three years until his safe return. When he arrived home after a drive from Lacrosse my Aunt Joan ran to him in the back seat of the car and squeezed him so tight that he thought she would squeeze him to death. Aunt Joan also mentioned to me that when WWII ended there was a party on Main Street with a bon fire for 2 whole days.These stories are important to me and I wanted to get them recorded. My artwork has been dramatically influenced by these stories and the strength of my grandmothers, especially my great grandmothers. I can't wait to learn more and I hope to be at least half the woman they were.
-March 11th

So, lately I have been pulling from the women in my life, especially my grandmothers therefore I am going to reconnect with them in a spiritual sense. I plan to spend 2 days at my Great Grandma Nelson's old house alone, while I'm there I am going to make an apron that has feminine qualities yet is rough and strong looking.I am then going to spend a day making homemade mints. These were my favorite mints and My great grandma Primmer made them.
-March 14th

Over Spring I had some great discoveries about myself. I did what I could of my plans…The mints were wonderful, even though they didn’t turn out. While making mints I found myself surprised that my hands were getting blisters just like they do in the metals studio..but I too use to think that cooking was too girly…even though I didn’t know I thought this way, it surfaced when I was in awe of the blisters on my hands from stirring, the aching arms, and the fact that they didn’t turn out..it takes talent to cook/bake/make candy. This was an eye opener for sure.

I didn’t make it to my great grandma nelson’s house to make an apron but I did visit it and it’s empty pretty much, not so homey anymore. I did however work on a apron. This too takes talent, which I thought it would. Super fun and creative which I didn’t expect. I also found similarities to metals in the sense that I kept pricking my fingers, which I do in metals all the time.

Now the question is why do I not get the satisfaction I get from metals from these things…the things my grandmothers did?? I feel strong in the studio, but not the kitchen. Maybe this will change now. I’m not for sure.

I also spent about 3 hours with my Great Grandma Mills. This was an amazing time. Even though she wasn’t full of stories to share, other than those of people I don’t really know she did have some. Evelyn will be turning 96 this weekend and she can remember when she was 7…She provided me of stories of WWI. She could remember the women getting together to make quilts and such at the town hall, I even got to see a picture of this. There was a story of the first car in the family. Grandma can’t remember her first ride but when her father went to town to get the model T, her mother kept it a secret and sent the kids outside to play when she knew he would coming down the road. You see, there weren’t many cars in Newton Valley and when drove past the kids always ran to see who it was. Her mother told them to see if they saw anything in road and sure enough a Model T came driving over the hill. And then the unthinkable happened, it pulled in the drive way and it was her father.

I specifically asker her about the Great Depression..and I found out that she had all seven of her babies between 1930 and 1940. Fortunately for my Grandma she lived on a farm so they could grow their own food and such. She told me that no judge anyone because they were all in the same boat, they lived sparingly, they had what they needed and that’s it.

Also while there I learned more about the Mills Family and their trip to the United States from Ireland. My Great Grandfather’s father came from Ireland. I didn’t learn much but the tid bits I did I now have on paper from Newspaper article regarding the family reunion that celebrated 100 years.

Overall it was a great experience!! I can’t wait to learn more about the multiple women in my family!

As for telling Tyler about Whitewater. It went well. We are going to make things work. He is super supportive, it won't be easy but it's worth it!