The damned persistence of things
I am not talking about Tootsie, but the pillow on which she is resting.
On a recent trip, while Tootsie was reclining on her pillow, I noticed the pillowcase.
In 1969, my parents brought me to the Roanoke apartment that I was renting with three other student teachers from Radford College. When we arrived, we discovered that we would need to buy sheets for the bed. We went to lunch, a meal that I remember very clearly. The next stop was to Penney's where we purchased two sets of twin sheets in the pattern you can see under Tootsie. I thought the print was very pretty.
So pretty that when Harry and I married in 1971, I wanted to use them, but we had purchased a king-size bed.
My mother came to the rescue and taught me how to make a flat-felled seam to join the flat sheets together. I had never heard of it, but the seam worked perfectly since there was a finished seam on both sides--no loose ends.
The sheets served their purpose for a number of years--finally being demoted to dog chair cover and eventually to paint drop cloth.
Since we had king-size pillows, the regular pillow cases did not see much use until I need a dog pillow cover, eventually residing in the truck for long-trip use. (Tootsie, by the way, demands a pillow for every surface on which she resides--she has five in the house.!)
So one pillowcase has lasted for 50 years. I cherish the memories it evokes but resent it for persisting while my parents are long gone.
We are told not to hold on to things. I may hoard that pillowcase for many years to come!
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