“Skip To The Loo”
Over 80 years ago I was lucky enough to spend time with my Granny, Nannie Wiggins. She was an amazing woman. Small and petite, despite the absence of conveniences she could get more things done than I could ever imagine today.
There was a room off her back porch that could be opened up like a breezeway in good weather or it could be closed up in winter. That room was used in summer to prepare vegetables for canning and fruit to be dried. There was almost always something productive happening in that room. The most beautiful Weeping Willow tree stood tall and full just a few feet from the porch. Even a slight breeze would make that tree dance in graceful flowing moves.
Granny Nannie had a spinning wheel in that breezeway room. I do not know the exact process of how she did this but I remember her using cotton grown right there on the farm to make yarn or thread. After the cotton was cleaned she had two wire bristle brushes that she used to brush the cotton into a soft matte. I believe she called it carding. Then she made a roll of cotton and fed it around some spools in the spinning wheel. She turned the wheel by peddling as she fed the cotton through the spools to make yarn.
She crocheted work gloves with that yarn or thread for the farm workers to protect their hands. They were like mittens with the fingertips out so the fingers were free to work. I remember she made doilies, scarves for her tables, and she knitted or crocheted collars and bedspreads.
There were often quilting frames set up in the breezeway and she had “quilting parties.” Neighborhood ladies would come and chairs were set up all around this quilting frame and those ladies would hand stitch together the quilt top and bottom that had been filled with cotton.
Most of the women at that time dipped snuff. Some used a brush and some just put the snuff inside their lip or jaw. There would be several spittoons around the quilting table and there was a lot of talking, dipping and spitting. None of these ladies were lost for words. Some were serious topics about health, gossip, family and good news or hardship of some neighbor and other conversations were light and brought on uncontrollable laughter.
Some forty years after these quilting parties at Granny Nannie’s I was talking with a friend of mine, Johnny Varnell, who was quite a funny guy and the topic of these quilting parties came up. He commented that his mama and grandmother had them as well. He said that he could remember as a small boy he crawled around under those quilting tables at his granny’s and had to be careful not to knock over a spittoon. He said that he got his early sex education crawling around underneath those quilting tables. Somehow I doubt that. I believe he was just trying to live up to his reputation as a funny guy.
Granny Nannie would have a big meal for her guest quilters. It was always quite a feast. In those days it was a bit different when a group of people were gathered in someone’s home. There was no indoor plumbing so bathroom breaks were taken at the outhouse.
Granny Wiggins outhouse was a fair distance from the house. It was at the end of a path near the back of her garden. There were times when it was cold or raining a chamber pot was available in a separate room. It was the norm at that time. Sometimes one of the ladies would leave the quilting table and be seen quick stepping to the outhouse - the remaining quilters waited until she was out of earshot and they had a big laugh.
The term “skip to the loo” was real.
Memories are treasures.
Montress Greene
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