The old cedar chest

As I wiped the dust off this old cedar chest this morning, I thought about my Mother. When mama got her first job in Asheboro, NC and moved away from home, this cedar chest was her first major purchase. I believe she told me once that she made monthly payments of $4.00 until it was hers.

Mama was born in 1917, so it was probably 1935 or so when she left home??  She was telling me once about the hard times back then and how lucky she was to get that first job in a hosiery mill.  Mama said she waited in a long line of hopeful people who were turned down for jobs. Then for some unknown reason the man doing the interviewing took a liking to her. He was very pleasant, smiled, asked her a few questions, and offered her a job.

This was a very young mama standing beside one of daddy's brother... 

And this is a very young daddy, looking proud of his boat. I wonder if daddy build this boat. It looks homemade...

So, going back to mama, her first job, and the cedar chest.  Mama said she found a room in a boarding house. Funny how it was so important back then to own a cedar chest. Young, single women spent their spare time sewing, embroidering, and quilting, making things for their hope chest. This tradition of filling a hope chest ended around the 1950's.

It was while living in the boarding house that my Mother met my Daddy. He worked in the same town, in a mill too. Mama said she and a friend used to sit on the grassy lawn of the boarding house. They would have iced tea and ginger snaps. This tall, most handsome young man (who would be my daddy) walked past the boarding house on his way home. That's how it all began.   

Even today, I cannot resist buying old embroidered dresser scarfs and pillow cases. These are a few of the pieces stored in mama's old chest...

The lace was actually crocheted onto these dresser scarfs, not sewn on. I remember that my Aunt Vastie, when I was just a girl, kept an embroidered dresser scarf on a table in the sitting room and all the important mail was stuck under the scarf. It used to bother me...I didn't like the way it looked. 

Mama always enjoyed embroidering.  I remember back when she was still living alone, I had gone down for the weekend. She said. let's ride to Vass, (a little town near by), I've found a dime store where they sell the prettiest pieces to embroider....dresser scarfs, aprons, bibs, and pillow cases.  We both bought some things. Mama finished her pillow cases in no time and look how beautifully her's turned out...

I started working on the pillow cases I bought, with little birds, but never finished. That's when mama took over for me...

I now cherish these pillowcases. The years go by so fast! For me, I would go back to the early 1950's in a heartbeat!! :)

Another little funny...At my Aunt Berlie's there was a stand of pine trees. The story goes, one day Aunt Berlie's daughter asked how many of those pine trees would it take to make her a cedar chest. Aunt Berlie said, well you could cut them all down but you still couldn't make a "cedar" chest! :)

Thank you if you have managed to stay this long.  I can tell you the house work is not getting done with me sitting here enjoying myself. 

Love,
Henny Penny