More pretties from the past

I've been scanning the post cards that were given to my father when he was growing up, all of them before 1924, I believe. In the collection are cards for most any occasion. None of them have been mailed, but most had a note on the back and were signed by the giver. I guess people just handed out the cards the way kids do Valentines today.





I'll bet World War I was going on when this Thanksgiving card was printed.


Now here are some handkerchiefs whose age I'm sure of, because they were mine as a child. Most, if not all, were given to me when I was in the hospital for a week when I was seven years old, in 1951. The doctors never did figure out what was wrong with me, but my mysterious ailment disappeared on its own. My fever finally ebbed and I stopped vomiting, so they unhooked the intravenous needles from my arm, started feeding me gradually, and sent me home.

Old hankies

In March, I posted an entry entitled, "What Do You Do With Old Hankies?".

I had half a grocery-sack full of old hankies, most of which had belonged to my mom or my grandmother, and I didn't know what to do with them.

In the comment section of that entry, Robbie left this comment: "One of the crafty, creative bloggers that I follow makes pillows and sachets out of them. Maybe you could deal direct with her and do a barter. She makes you a pillow or sachet out of the hankies of your choosing and she gets the rest to do with what she wants. That way you keep something for memories sake that isn't hiding in a drawer and you don't have to make it. :-) Here's a link to one of her hankie sachets: http://primrosedesign.blogspot.com/2007/02/new-sachets.html

I contacted this lady, Janet, and we indeed worked out a deal. She made me some pillows using some of my old hankies, I gave her the rest in trade for her work. My pillows are on their way now. She sent me pictures of two of them, and that's what you see on this page. See more of her creations at Primrose Design.

Isn't the Internet wonderful? You toss a question to your cyber-friends, they toss back some suggestions, and once in awhile something happens that you'd never have dreamed of by yourself.

Thank you, readers, for your suggestions

I'm not crafty. I don't sew or quilt, and don't want to learn.

But thanks to Robbie's comment in this entry about old hankies, I've pretty much decided what to do with my mom's (and Grandma's) old hankies!

Check out this website and see what you think: Primrose Design.

She'll make me some pillows, and keep the rest of the hankies for her future projects... allowing for the trade in the price she gives me.

What do you do with old hankies?

My mom kept everything. Old letters, photographs of people I've never seen in my life. And handkerchiefs.What you see here is a grocery sack 2/3 full of very old, ladies' hankies. When Mother decided to go to the rest home, she gave me these, saying, "Some of these are really old. Some are mine, some were Mom's."

What do you do with old handkerchiefs that your mother and grandmother blew their noses in, and with which, perhaps, they dabbed at their tears?

Nobody in my mom's family has been interested in them, so far; if they had been, they'd be welcome to them.

They're wasted on me. Maybe if I were good at crafts I'd do something with them. But I'm not.

There must be 200 of them.


I looked on Ebay, and I see there is a demand for old hankies that are in "like-new" condition. But many of these are very well-used and worn. There's one with the state of Missouri on it, and one rather shaped like a star. Many are crocheted around the edges, and I can't help wondering if my maternal Grandma did the crocheting.

Does anybody have ideas? Because if I don't get some sort of guidance in the next month, I guess I'll offer the lot of them on Ebay. I hate to just throw them away, because they obviously meant a lot to my mother.