Memory Monday #66

    Another really big highlight for the NYC trip was going to Radio City Music Hall! The whole group of us went to that!  How exciting was that!!  The premiere for "Marjorie Morningstar" was being held there....not the star-attended premiere, but Radio City was the only place in the world it was being shown for a short period...and WE got to be the first to see it...along with a few hundred others!

Poster from "Marjorie Morningstar"

From the 1950s

And the Rockettes...not exactly the costumes we saw because I'm pretty sure they had on hats of some kind

   Was that a thrill for all of us!!  And the perfect movie for a bunch of star-struck teenage girls. Natalie Wood at that time was one of our all time favorites! And many of us had read the book which made the whole experience even more meaningful!

Written in 1955

Memory Monday # 65

    Senior Trip to New York City...The Big Apple!! Other than the train trip to NYC, I really don't remember where we stayed, how we got from Grand Central Station to our hotel, etc. But I do remember a few isolated incidents...for example...Times Square!  we had heard about Times Square all our young lives but we thought it should be a "SQUARE".  We knew about squares...we had a square at home with our county court house in the middle!
    So to our surprise Times Square is a commercial location!!  It is kind of amazing that through the day, we had some free time to kind of do what we wanted within reason.  So shopping was a biggy for the girls. We were amazed by the racks of clothes being wheeled down the street...and the crowds...and the noise!  Thrilling for some...not so much for others...ME!  It was exciting, but still, being the shy country chick, it was not my favorite thing!!

Times Square...1050s

     I remember buying a pair of high heels...they were three inches high! And were beautiful...were fabric...flowers!  And I think I may have worn them once when I got back home! (I was 5'9" in high school so 3" heels were a bit extreme!)

Memory Monday # 64

    Senior Year...graduation!!  And now "adulthood" is upon us!  What a great time we all had that year!  In the 1950's only about 10% of a graduating class would go on to college.  Most would get jobs, join the military, or get married!
    But first...a few final flings! Each Senior class would have worked for four years, making money to help pay for the Senior Trip.  Our class of  exactly 100 students had made enough money (with a little fee for each from our parents) to go to NEW YORK CITY!  We were traveling from Springfield, Illinois to Grand Central Station, NY by train.  This was a pretty common school trip to make...and the trains had travel plans for these occasions!  We had two cars on the train...one for girls and one for boys!!  And for the probably  80 of us who went we would have had probably eight adult couples (16 total) to go as chaperones!  Most of these couples were our teachers and their spouses.
     We drove the 70 miles to Springfield on school buses...our parents seeing us off at the high school meeting place.  Now, this has been over 50 years ago so my memories of the entire trip are in bits and pieces!  This was the first train trip for most of us...we had packed lots of snacks to take...and we did eat in a diner car, but it seems like it catered to our age group, not the white table cloth/china and silver diners that come to mind of the era.
     And of course there was a lot of laughter and games and very little sleep!  When it was time to sleep...according to the chaperones...the girls were to stay in their car and the boys in theirs! Of course, sleep did not come but we did quiet down...because of the admonishment of the chaperones!  Previous plans had been made...how to get past them...and sometime in the night... a couple of we girls sneaked up to the boys' car...only because there was a heated game of poker going on...(no money involved)...before we had to split and we wanted to continue it!  That seemed to work pretty well...until we got caught!  One of my favorite teachers found us playing cards and really yelled at me!!!  I had never heard him raise his voice before....but in retrospect, I can see why he did!!!
   

A Passenger train from the '50s!

    Next week, I'll share a bit more of teenagers from rural America in New York City!

studioQ June meeting

     My art quilters' group met today..last Monday in June.  We often meet at the Cabbage Rose quilt shop in Fort Worth, TX.  It is a lovely shop and just the nicest people there.  It just loaded with fabulous fabric, great sales, etc.. And they have a classroom that people like us can meet in when there is no scheduled class.  We will either do a potluck or go out for lunch after we do our "Show and Tell" and talking.

     Today, eight of our ten were at the meeting..everybody had a lot to talk about and a lot to show!  We have just a couple more of our Color Chip Challenge to do and today, we did the colors given to us by Susan.

Susan's color chips-top/ my fabric-bottom

My Process

My finished block-21"x 21"-I have plans to do a border in black and some wool applique .

Beth's paper rendition of color chip challenge

Rhonda's CCC

Heather's CCC

Wendy's CCC

Kay's CCC

And we had some other wonderful works of are too....Rhonda and I are doing quilts for the Modern Quilt Challenge, using Michael Miller selected fabric. And everybody else had various items to share.

     I am kind of working on a series..using squares...this one is "A Round Peg in a 

Square Hole"!

My first attempt of the Modern Quilt challenge...did not like it at all!  So I deconstructed it and...

..put it back together. I am happier with this  (sorry for the blurry pic!) ..will do some heavy duty quilting on it!

Rhonda's Modern Quilt Challenge

Heather showing a past CCC

And another past CCC by Heather

A colorful quilt by Kay

And Bethany with the start of a quilt

You can also see the great classroom Cabbage Rose has to share with patrons....and our potluck lunch on the table behind her!

     I love these gals!!!  They have really helped get me through some rough times whether they know it or not!!!