Mining In Montana

Mining In Montana

This is one of my and my mom's favorite activities when I visit, which is to go through old stuff in the house. Everytime I'm home I get a whole new wardrobe from my mother's sixties and seventies collection, many pieces that were knit by my grandmother. We also puruse through the closets and drawers for things that my mother passes on to me that I remember and are dear to me.

On this visit, the most special piece from her clothing collection that I received is a beautiful long skirt knit by my grandmother. I love this!!

AND then we discovered part of her owl collection! I forgot that this obsession also included a mushroom obsession. (She embroidered the one with the white background.) In the seventies, one entire wall and cabinet were adorned with the collection. (My brother has the rest of the collection.)

This is my favorite.

We then found a painting that my great grandmother (my mother's grandmother) had done in the early twenties. It brought back memories of listening to Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald and looking at it when I was a kid, thinking that was it.

And then there are the photographs!

This is a picture of two table designs that my mother won first prize for and were exhibited at the Yellowstone Art Center (the only fine art museum in Billings) in the seventies. Again, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree!! Is there any wonder that I've grown up to believe that home interior is a valid form of high art. Yeah, this is it!!

My parents back when they were my age now (my mother sportin' one of her great outfits -- she just gave me the knitted shawl that goes with the skirt, unfortunately we couldn't find the skirt).

Dad at the office (love the sideburns!)

Dad and one of his friends (love the tie! -- unfortunately you can't see the whole thing because Blogger has this bad habit of cutting off the full image sometimes)

Dad after one of his marathons.

X-country ski trip