Show and tell Sunday

Where to start, where to start?  I have so many things that I love...

Ah, I know!



 

My blanket!  Yes, I was one of those children who slept with a blanket!  No teddy bears or dolls for me--at least not for comfort while I was sleeping.  My blanket was IT! 

 

Before I was even born, mom had two baby quilts:  a brown one and a white one.  My grandmother made the top for the brown quilt, and mom finished making it into a quilt.  My mom purchased the top for the white quilt in New York City when she and daddy were on his graduation trip from medical school.  The only way they could afford to make the trip was that it was completely subsidized by pharmaceutical companies "wining and dining" new graduates.  She had just enough money to purchase two little souvenirs--a small delft pin and the unfinished white quilt top.  When she got home, she did the embroidery that decorated the top and then made the top into a quilt. 

 

The reason that I'm telling you about the white quilt is that it was my first choice when I was a baby.  I loved that white quilt; it was so pretty with its pink binding and beautiful embroidery.  I lugged it around until the pink binding frayed.  Being ever practical, mom sat down one day and removed the pink binding, just stitching the edges of the quilt with a blanket stitch.  When she presented the "fixed" quilt to me, I wouldn't have anything to do with it!

 

I immediately switched to the brown quilt, lugging it around with all the affection I had once give the white quilt.  I slept with it every night, and when we went on vacations, it went with me.  I even carried that thing all the way to Hawaii in 1973!  When I went to college, so did it--and when I got married, it came with me.  It has absorbed countless tears, fears, and secrets.  Being the good friend it is, "brown blanket" has been a patient listener and a great tissue for those tears.  Mom tried to wash it once, and I threw a fit, afraid it would dissolve!

 

I haven't slept with it for years, although I will admit to dragging it out and weeping a few tears into its threadbare cloth when I get especially sad.  If I had to evacuate, "brown blanket" would be the first (inanimate) thing I grabbed.  It has a place of safety (and honor) in the top drawer of my dresser now.  I open the drawer and pick it up and hug it every now and then, just because I'm girly that way. 

 

I'm pretty sure the only thing still holding it together is love!

So, what about you--did you have a blanket, a doll, a teddy bear?  Do you still have it?