Hobbies

Mom, Dad, and I enjoyed hobbies. I've knitted since I was seven years old. When I was in college and graduate school, I petit-pointed for a time. Dad, of course, worked on his photography. When he was in Door County, he sometimes carved wood. Mom always knitted, but she also crocheted, sewed, and quilted. She gave up the latter two crafts because they were not "portable."

Mom also painted watercolors, although she stopped a few years after I was born. She painted the most during the summers of 1957 and 1959, when the family vacationed at Parry Sound.

Here is one of the watercolors she produced in 1959:

The image was in our dining room for a while, and later, it moved to the Door County cottage. It's now back in my happy hands.

*     *     *     *     *

Near Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada, July 1959. Here's Mom and Dad at the picnic table Mom used for her crafts that summer. The plaid bag on the left holds her knitting, the little suitcase houses her watercolor supplies, and Mom holds a circular knitting needle in her hand. It looks like she's working on a doily because there's a spool of crochet cotton on the table.

Hey! That was the summer Mom and Dad went on vacation and left me back in Suburban Chicago—with a babysitter. That's probably why they look so lustrous here: relaxed!