A Time To "sew"/ a Time To Reap

The time was 1969, the place- Home-Economics class in junior high. While guys got sent to “shop,” those of us of the softer sex learned culinary skills. I loved those days when the room was filled with the sounds of our chatting, laughing and clanging pots and pans, as we busied ourselves preparing meals before sitting down at our group tables to enjoy the fruits of our labors. That was my first semester. In the next semester came. . . .SEWing. Gone were the room’s former tantalizing odors. And the tables once used for sampling our experiments in cooking had been ominously transformed. Now there were patterns we’d been asked to buy in fabric stores pinned onto pieces of material and laid out across the center of each table. Those forms for clothing-yet-to-be, strange maps imprinted with vertical and horizontal lines and codes along their edges, confused and overwhelmed me. The implements of baking - mixing bowls, pans, and the cups and spoons for measuring - had been replaced by a much less comforting display of thread and thimbles, sewing machines, binding tape and scissors. With zero scintillation and after the befuddling explanations from my teacher, I somehow ended up with a hot pink mini dress(actually wearable!) with white trim amateurishly attached, and. . .for all my effort, the stunning grade of C. Thankfully, in high school I discovered among a broader choice of electives, Creative Writing Class, my time to sparkle! For Carol Brown's "Story Time" (just one story of many that would comprise my bio)