This week, I received a very exciting document in the mail from my longtime friend, The Government. I got my very first passport! This calls for a 15-minute-or-less sewing project!
Thanks, Sew Mama Sew, for the tutorial! I now have permission to roam the world, starting with Paris, in style.
Many moons ago, there was a weekly program on my hometown radio station. It was called Passport to Stardom. We would occasionally tune in on a Friday night to hear the locals belt their favorite country tunes from a bar in a neighboring small town. One woman alone kept the show rolling. Her name was Mary Butts. If there was a ever a lull in the entertainment (insert clinking beer bottles, the low hum of sleepy conversations and nervous laughter), it wouldn't be long before the host would exclaim, "And next up we have....Mary! Mary Butts! You are next on the Passport to Stardom!" She could always be relied on to come through in a pinch. Without a doubt, she sang more than any other person on the program. And though she may have never made it to stardom, she worked her way into my memory. And now every time I hold my passport...or hear a 1980s country song...I will tip my hat to Mary.
I was talking to my brother on the phone today, and the question came up...Is there country music in France? All I know is that if we end up in a karaoke bar near the Eiffel tower, I may start channeling Mary Butts while donning an American flag button-up rodeo shirt. All with the help of my new friend, Riesling, introduced to me by my camping friends this weekend.
I was thinking about how each of us could probably make a soundtrack for the different periods of our lives. One for growing up....one for teen angst...young adulthood...midlife crisis...the golden years. I'm pretty sure the soundtrack to my "growing up" years could be summed up in four letters: WSMI.
courtesy of www.wsmiradio.com
WSMI is my hometown radio station (106.1 FM, if you're ever in the mid-Illinois area). It's been around for decades, providing locals with high school sports, weather, boil water orders, agriculture news and, of course, all the country classics. And it was always on in my house growing up. Always. The voices of Stan McCaslin, Terry Todt, Randy Prange--complete strangers to me--were as familiar to me as those of my parents and siblings.
It wasn't until college that I realized that my relationship with my hometown radio station may have been a bit...different. For instance, I thought everyone ate their breakfast before school while listening to the radio guys read the obituaries. "98-year-old Erma Jones of Fillmore passed away Thursday. Funeral services will be held Saturday morning at Bass-Patton Funeral Home in Hillsboro. Friends may call on Friday from 4-6 at Bass-Patton...[pause]...87-year-old Gerald Smith..." etc. The consistency of it was strangely comforting.
Or maybe this one. On snowy nights, my brother Adam and I had the same intense prayer as every other kid in town. Please PLEASE let tomorrow be a snow day. Where did we turn for an answer to our prayer? WSMI. We turned up the radio as Stan came on the air: "SCRAM! School Closing Reports for All of Mid-Illinois! The following schools will be closed tomorrow due to inclement weather: [...] Greenville, Highland...("Please PLEASE let him say Hillsboro!!!")...Hillsboro, Jerseyville"[...]. I'm not sure if it was the intensity of our prayer to the radio gods that did it, or the crystals and rabbits feet that we clutched as we listened to the announcement. I'm convinced it was the crystals.
Whenever I drive to my hometown, I'm always happy to get within the listening limits of WSMI, and be welcomed back with the voices I grew up hearing. I don't even mind the country music so much anymore. I've come to listen to it by choice, although on St. Louis stations now. Back in the day, I detested it since we heard it so much. "Country is awful! Change the station! Let's listen to something better! Hanson!" Of course. I think Dad is proud that Adam and I have adopted his love for twang. Poor Mom.
After a couple of days with my family and WSMI over Christmas, Michael and I headed out west to spend time with his family. It was there that I presented my newest big quilt to a wonderful lady, my mother-in-law. It was a real treat to see her open it. And now I present it to you.
Kitchen Window Quilt, Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman
Close-up of fabrics
Back of quilt, modeled by Paul Terry
Currently, I'm working on finishing my mom's Christmas quilt (more of a country style). I was in the beginning phases of quilting, when--alas!--part of the machine broke. The new piece should arrive in the mail soon, and hopefully I can present my mom with her belated-but-finished country quilt in a couple of weeks!
As I quilt, perhaps I will listen to WSMI online. Or this, which would also be included in my "growing up" soundtrack:
