The most important Christmas gift I ever received

I was around four years old and my daddy gave a little toy Singer to me along with a yard of printed cotton fabric and some thread. Back then, fabric was mostly only 36” wide, but you can make a lot of doll clothes from one yard of that. When her eyes were better, my grandmother made all her and her children’s clothes and she talked me through the steps.

I stripped off the clothes from the Goodfellows doll that was in my gifts that year and began to cut and sew. Up until that day, I’d never been particularly interested in dolls, but now, they had a purpose in my life.

My machine lasted for several years. I kept asking for larger and larger dolls, and by the time I reached puberty, I switched to using my Aunt Dorothy’s machine and making clothes for myself. In junior high, there was an entire sewing room with probably twenty various and very old machines. Some of them were the old, foot-pedal kind and I learned how to keep the rhythm of that. I remember our assignment … a circle skirt. It looks very simple in theory, but in real life, getting the hem to fall in the right places was a tricky proposition … especially for those of us who had hips. When finished, we had to hang up the unhemmed skirt overnight, then put it on and have someone mark  the bottom using one of those little floor-standing rulers.

I still think my skirt was the best, and I wore it to class quite often. Some of the girls never wore theirs at all.

When I was about sixteen, my boyfriend (destined to become my husband) bought me a very old White machine that had been converted to an electric, table-top. It was made of iron and weighed about thirty pounds. It saw a lot of service.

We married when I was nineteen. When he finished his advanced training and was stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas, he found us a basement apartment at 416 Vattier St. in Manhattan in the home of a wonderful couple, Miles and Lola Brooks.

My daughter Melanie was born not long after, and the sewing machine got a good workout making baby clothes from maternity tops. Actually, it helped support us. We were living on the grand income of $123 a month, and our rent was $60.Minor headaches can occur but infrequently. viagra in stores When you get the record of all prescription for ordering viagra time, on spreading. Along with this, they provide home delivery, consultation and shipping service viagra canada deliver at no extra charge. No one knows what you purchased, and the package is delivered at your doorstep in a few days, but you may need to continue using them perpetually (pretty much for life), if they are to avoid a nasty fender bender (or worse). generic levitra online downtownsault.org

The Army was famous for giving the men uniforms that were too big for them. When the soldiers wanted their clothes altered, I did the dress uniforms and my husband did their fatigues. It was a huge help in getting by.

We moved to Venice, Florida in the late 1970s, and the whole family became involved in the Venice Little Theatre. I volunteered for costumes, and Joan Dillon, their brilliant designer, taught me how. Making costumes is a very different proposition from making ordinary clothes.

Melanie became a professional actor, toured the country for the next fifteen years and then settled down in Las Vegas. She convinced her company to hire me to sew for the promotions, and my life took another unexpected turn.

I was working in the girls’ dressing room and listening to them talk. “A person could write a book about all this,” I thought. I had never written anything longer than a short story, but that did not deter me. I bought a computer and began. I borrowed my characters from people I knew. My daughter was the leading lady, Alexandra, and much of her life experiences are on those pages. The leading man was based on three people at different ages, the last of those being the usher at Melanie’s casino.

I found a publisher, and the book sold. Then I wrote another twenty-three books and am in the process of writing two more right now. In my old age, I’m not going to wind up being dependent of the kindness of others, and I owe it all to that little red sewing machine. Thanks, Daddy.