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August 16, 2006, Wednesday
afternoon on the grounds of the Ponca reservation at White Eagle the heat
index had to be at least 105 degrees and maybe more. It was so torturous
we didn’t want to leave the air-conditioned car to hurry into the
air-conditioned tribal headquarters building where Velma, my mother, was
holding her sewing class. This is one project she has had to initiate and
set into motion all on her own. My “iffy” health with the pneumonia,
broken foot, and slow recovery left her with having to ask Addie Cerre
Jacobs Rosburough to pick up the roll of helper for her.
Addie is a retired
registered nurse with credentials to prove her intelligence and creativity
which has been a blessing not only to Mother but to the women who were
just learning. Together she and Velma were able to make the newspapers a
number of times which encouraged a nice turn out of women who wanted to
learn to sew.
Another friend, Delores
Pickins, is an expert repair person for machines and she was able to
contribute to the classes as well with her knowledge of maintenance for
today’s sometimes very fragile, out of the country, designs that are
continually breaking down. One of the ladies today gave an account of one
such machine. She said after she had taken it back and forth to the
repairman numbers of times he told her the cost to repair it so she said
she would just take it home which she did. She struggled with it for a
while longer and finally walked out to the pool, dropped it over the edge
and drowned the thing. I particularly had a good laugh about that one
because I, myself, had threatened the man who sold the useless thing to me
I was going to burn it in effigy in front of his store. Either that or
take a sledge hammer and beat it to a pulp on the sidewalk seemed like a
good thought at the time.
At any rate, I was so proud
of my little 93 year old mother who has taught a number of women how to
sew the beautiful designs of the Ponca; therefore, passing on her
expertise to a whole new generation. The women were actually having fun,
sharing stories of their family and their plans for the up-coming Ponca
pow-wow, last week in August. |
