About those stockings…

that I made about a hundred years ago. Sequins falling off and raggedy, like an old doll.

Ok, not a hundred years ago, more like fifty but pretty old.

When you marry and find yourself in Selma Alabama at an Air

Force base after living in the New York City area for years, it

can be a bit of a culture shock. Many times this shock is a good

thing. It was for me! I soon realized that all of the wives were incredibly

talented and way ahead of their time in fabric work, painting,

needle work. They cooked in very different and delicious ways,

especially really fresh and healthy, from scratch, Mexican food.

Things like sewing baby and maternity clothes, came so easy to

them…I was really amazed, and felt completely out of touch. I also

never understood why almost every other couple on that base was

pretty local or from Texas. Many were from small towns in Alabama

and other southern states.

I’m not sure how we ended up there except now I know a bit

more about how the government works and senators with an Air Force

base in their home state probably take care of their own,

especially in the south. But,somewhat how I learned quickly about

theatre and New York ways when I found myself first in Miami Beach

in 1959 and then in New York, I adapted. These silly stockings

came out of my desire to create something, anything!

Soon I was making baby clothes and maternity dresses and

curtains for a boat we had on the Alabama River. I have stayed

pretty creative through the last fifty years.

Sadly, I have also forgotten so many things.

What I do remember are a few recipes, and I still, every year,

fill these stockings for my girls, who are quite a bit past fifty

years old themselves. This year it was fluffy socks and Boccabella

Farms Olive Oil , a major splurge from California.

Boccabella Farms