A wonderful 1981 children's book, written and illustrated by Faith Jaques titled TILLY'S RESCUE may have been the inspiration for a folk art mixed media sculpture which I created and name "Clothe-Spin".
Tilly, my grandfather Jesse's mother's name, was a strong-minded Michigander married to John Bohlinger. They were a large family--4 boys, 3 girls. Jesse married my mother's mom, Pearl. Jesse could not have children of his own since he had had polio as a child. He was the oldest of the boys and managed to farm 160 acres for many years back in the early 1900's. Unfortunately, all his brothers fell into the cruel grip of alcohol and didn't amount to much. Jesse really had wanted to become a lawyer, but it was The Depression, and $$ wasn't there.
Matilda, his mother, had snow white hair, strong wrinkled hands with a gold wedding band that clacked on the piano keys as she taught me to play, "My Brother's Name is Moses, His cheeks as red as Posies, His nose stick out like ___?, Back on that peach-blue Farm..." I would go "up on the hill" (adjacent farm) to visit her when I was a pre-teen. I especially was impressed with the home-made root beer she made and kept cool out next to the wide porch...in a galvanized tub under a running well...it was cold and the best root beer I ever had...I wished for Jesse's brothers to have been able to drink THAT beer instead of the real stuff--altho Tillie did serve the root beer in beer bottles...maybe that's where the boys got confused. Sometimes she'd fry up some thin bologna in a skillet and mix with it some macaroni.
Matilda lived long years. She had a great laugh and beautiful white false teeth. Her girls were more productive. One became a teacher. One married a Veteran and they owned a donut shop. One married and became the mother of several children.
Check out the mixed sculpture from a previous posting on this blog titled: Clothe-Spin.
A bird does not sing because it has an answer--it sings because it has a song. (Chinese Proverb)
