3655 Vincent Ave North - My Hobbies

First grade through fourth grade were foundational years for hobbies I enjoy today. 

First and foremost was learning to read, loving owning books, and being able to go to the library. My maternal grandmother, Robbie, gave me two books that I cherish. One is Anne of Green Gables. The other is The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature - with wonderful illustrations!

I spent hours reading - and would respond to a call to dinner by asking to read one more paragraph or finish the chapter! I would lay on my bed to read or sit in the front porch. My Mom never understood how I wore out my shoes so fast when all I did was sit and read!

My Mom took a typing class one summer and so, of course, Tim and I learned how to type on the typewriter too. This non-electric beauty was set up on that front porch and it had the book that flipped over for exercises like: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." My hands were very small and I rarely used my little fingers. 

My Mom made all of my clothes during this period. She was a wonderful seamstress and also enjoyed quilting (quilting was all done by hand).  She taught me how to make clothes for my Mary Hoyer dolls and I used her leftover fabric. I sent in labels from Wrights rick rack (plus 25 cents) and received little snips of rick rack and ribbons.  Eventually I graduated from hand sewing to the treadle sewing machine. I was heart broken when we had to leave it for the church when we left Minneapolis and moved to Sioux Falls, SD. I also embroidered a bit - but could never get the hang of French Knots. It felt like it took years but at age 11 (!) I finished a sampler of stitches.

I visited one of my school friends several times (which was a rare occurrence to visit someone outside of the neighborhood). Her father worked at a printing place and brought home lots of different little pieces of paper. I was in heaven when she gave me a whole shoe box full of different papers. Now I laugh because I am such a sucker for a pretty paper design and have enjoyed playing with paper in scrapbooks and making cards.