Nostalgic For The Big Band Era

I have taken almost a year off from designing and blogging to make up some patterns I had saved in the hope I would someday get around to making them. Well, I have and it was great to just knit without deadlines or any other concerns. Now , however, I am ready to go back to my regular schedule which includes blogging so here goes.

I had a rather unsettling experience today/ I was looking through the groups on Ravelry. Just curious to see what people are interested in today. I clicked on bands. While i have heard of a couple of the bands who have groups on Ravelry, where was Harry James, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and others of the period. . It was a rude awakening to discover the bands I listened to as a teenager were not only no longer relevant , but apparently no body had heard of them. I remember when one came to your town you and your boy friend did everything you could to go to the dance hall where they were appearing. No boy friend? Then you and a girlfriend went and hooked up with boys that were available. It was a wonderful time. You in your best dress and makeup, him in his slacks and sport coat, awkward and tentative. And the music. You did the Lindy or just gathered in front of the bandstand to listen to special numbers. The ballads were pure romance that probably got our hormones flowing at a dangerous level but who cared. We were in another world. Great stuff.

A Favorite Teacher

I am sure we all had a favorite teacher.  One of whom we think fondly even now.  Mine was my tenth grade English teacher, Miss Clark.  Miss Clark was near retirement age,  a small woman who always wore black and wore sensible shoes.  She had that square look that comes from being tightly corseted.  Her gray hair was pulled back in a tight bun.  Everything about her said, NO NONSENSE!

The first day of school was orientation.  We went to each of our classes where the teachers introduced themselves , and gave us a run through of what we would be studying that year.  The teacher might ask a question or two about our previous school, that kind of thing and we were out the door on our way to the next class while at the same time trying to find the bathrooms, our locker and catch up with friends and compare notes.  The day ended with an assembly at which we were told the rules, attendance was emphasized, well you know.  You have all attended one of those assemblies.

So knowing the drill, we filed into Miss Clark's class.  Four boys, obviously friends, headed directly for the back of the room but before they could sit in the last row Miss Clark motioned to them.  "Come up and sit here where I can keep an eye on you"  Four chastened youths guietly walked to the front of the room and sat in the designated desks.  "My name is A Bess Clark, but you may call me Miss Clark."  Your first assignment (Wait a minute.  Assignment, what assignment?  Isn't this just orientation?)  is this.  Each of you will choose a foreign country.  You will read three books on that country.  One will be fiction, one factual and one a biography of a well known person from that country.  You will write a five hundred word report on each book.  (Muffled groans) As your semester final you will write a fifteen hundred word essay on the country of your choice.  The first book report is due in three weeks.  If you do not have a book on the country of your choice in your hand by start of class tomorrow you are all ready one day behind in this class."  Needless to say, while at the library that night I ran into a number of classmates.

Miss Clark believed there were some things so important we should learn them by heart.  The rules of punctuation were among these.  Each Monday we were given a sheet with the rules for some form of punctuation on it.  We were to memorize them, and every Friday we had a test on the rules for that week.  The catch was, if you did not pass the test you kept taking it until you did, along with each new test, of course.

Despite the fact she was a hard taskmaster we all liked Miss Clark.  Looking back I think it was because we all knew she liked us.  She expected great things from each of us and wanted us to succeed.

It is easy to compare our teachers to the teachers of today and feel, perhaps, that somehow the teachers of the past were better, but remember Miss Clark did not have to contend with unruly teenagers, with government mandates, with social issues.   She would have been horrified had she been able to see a time when some schools had so few resources there were not enough text books to go around. or that some children came to school every day hungry.  Miss Clark just had to teach, and boy, did she.

Deaf Mouse

I discovered i am going deaf.  Saw the audiologist who took the tests and confirmed I needed hearing aids.  She was patient and pleasant while fitting the aids, programming them for my needs, explaining how to use them and answering all my questions.  I returned in a week to insure no further adjustments were needed, and while there went on and on about hearing birds, the wheels on grocery carts, the rustle of leaves and more, much more.   She sat behind her desk with a big smile, saying nothing when I realized she had heard this all before many times.  I was impressed with the fact that despite thirty years of doing this job she could still be delighted when hearing of someone's joy at being able to hear again.  I wanted to give her a little something as a token of my appreciation, and decided to make her a little mouse wearing hearing aids.  I thought it might give her a laugh.  So I came up with this.  I think you can see her hearing aids.  Several people have asked for the pattern.  The mouse was made from my pattern The Knitting Club, a picture of which is at the top of this blog.  The pattern for the jumper is just the Grandma's skirt with a garter stitch waist band added, and the straps are four stitch wide garter stitch straps crossed in the back.  The hearing aids are 3 stitch I cord 4 rows long.  I left yarn tails at both ends.  One goes in the ear and the other was used to tack the hearing aid in place.  If you want to make this feel free to ask any questions you have.  I will be glad to help.

Dr. Who?

We spent Christmas day at our daughter's Most of the family were there including grandchildren and great-grand-children. One of our grandsons, now an adult with a family of his own, has been a devoted fan of Dr. Who for years. This is a program produced by the BBC and shown in this country. I know nothing about the program, but apparntly Dr. Who is a time traveler who rights wrongs wherever he finds them. I had heard of the pupularity of the Dr. Who scarf and suggested I should make him one. His eyes lit up. It turns out he has one he bought at a Dr. Who convention, but apparently a scarf made by his grandmother would be better.

Since I knew nothing about it, I began to research the scarf. First I found there is not A scarf, but I think at last count six scarves. After several seasons it would be changed somewhat. And, don't laugh, there are stunt scarves. Oh yes, each scarf had a duplicate to be used in scenes in which the scarf might be damaged. This scarf is a STAR! As the program prgressed the scarf got longer and longer. Starting out at about 14 feet it grew long enough to wrap around the neck with the ends hanging to the ankles and the loop around the neck hanging to the waist. It appears to me Dr. Who was in constant danger of tripping over the darn thing and falling on his face. The scarf had a role in some of the stories. For example, in one it was unraveled and the yarn used to guide the good Dr so he would not be lost in what i suppose was a maze like situation. I have no idea if the scarf got billing. Scarf played by scarf? If you think I am making all this up out of whole cloth, sorry, yarn, google Dr. Who scarf and read the history, find a pattern or look at pictures. I found it a fascinating and sometimes funny look into the fan culture.

Well, I am back to knitting. I have completed about eight inches. Only thirteen feet four inches to go.