Stories that didn't make the book

Greetings Readers:




When my mom and I were selecting which stories would make the book there were several stories that were good but we felt were incomplete.  My mother comes from a large family.  On her father’s side there were nine children and on her mother’s side there were 11 children.  Between the abundance of aunts, uncles and cousins, there were a lot of stories. 

I considered doing a section about the various cousins.  My mom played with mostly boy cousins and they all dressed in overalls.  She didn’t understand why the boys could stand behind a tree or bushes to urinate and she could not.  She also learned a hard lesson in her attempts to “skin the cat” like the boys.  To skin the cat, in their terms, was to sit on a tree limb, fall backward and hang upside down.  Unfortunately, the boys failed to tell her that she had to clasp her feet first so she would not fall on your head.  Consequently, she fell on her head.

Another story involved a girl cousin named Alberta, whose father, Uncle Robert, was a strict Methodist minister.  One day my mom and Alberta were playing in Alberta’s yard making mud pies.  When Alberta was tired of my mom’s company she told her a leave, and not in a very nice tone.  This angered my mother so when Alberta went into the house, my mom put on her cousin’s shoes and stepped into Uncle Robert’s garden.  This got Alberta the spanking of her life.  When Alberta tried to explain that it wasn’t her, but my mom who stepped in the garden, Uncle Robert proved otherwise when he placed my mom shoe into the foot print, the shoe was longer than the print and Alberta’s shoe fit perfectly.  You see, my mom had to step on the backs of Alberta’s shoes to walk in the garden in order to frame her!

Happy reading!  And keep those questions coming.

How did you come up with the title for the book?

Greetings Readers:

I have had several people ask: How did you come up with the title From Pigtails and Pinafores?  What’s a pinafore? Or is there any connection to the opera H.M.S. Pinafores?

When I was thinking of a title for the book, I wanted to describe the era from which my mom lived and provide a visual for the reader. The word pigtail was used to describe how girls in the south during that era wore their hair. It was simply two braids, one on each side of the face, made by interweaving three strands of hair together.  Typically, the ends would turn slightly upward; thus the term pigtail.

A pinafore refers to the sleeveless apron-like garments girls wore over their dresses to keep them clean. The connection to the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, H.M.S. Pinafores was not deliberate but a happy coincident. The book describes my mother's school days when her innovative teacher, Miss James, had the school children perform the opera before the local community.

Happy reading!

Liz Hawkins

So is that your mom on the cover?

Greetings Readers:

I get this question all the time. Is that your mom on the cover? No, the little girl on the cover is not my mom. It’s my grandniece Samira Rose Best. During the time I was writing the book I realized that my mother had no pictures from her youth of herself.

I asked my oldest cousin, Gwendolyn in Indianapolis, Indiana, if her mother, my mom’s older sister, had any old pictures of my mom. She could not find any. We have an one old black and white picture of my mother with her sisters and cousins, but I didn’t want to use that picture or crop my mom out of the picture to use as the cover.  It just didn’t look right to me.

So, one day my mother and I were visiting my sister-in-law, Joanette, who is Samira’s grandmother. The picture of Samira was displayed in Joanette’s living room and my mom and I both thought the picture would be a great representation of my mother for the book cover. 

We, of course, consulted with the then nine year Samira, who was tickled to have her picture on a book. Samira’s mother, Nicole, excitedly agreed and the rest is history.

Samira is 19 years old now. She graduated from high school in 2014, and is currently enrolled at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland, as a physical therapy major.

Until next time, happy reading!

Liz Hawkins

Why did it take so long to finish the book?

Greetings Readers:

The book, From Pigtail and Pinafores is short; I know.  My mother really wanted it completed back in 2005. We first began the book project in 1997. My mother began recording a lot of the stories on an old piano key cassette player/recorder. I would then transcribe the recording verbatim.  

I did not like the original manuscript and I eventually abandoned the project for eight long years. A lot of my friends and co-workers knew that I was attempting to write a book and they never let me forget the project. “How is the book coming along?” They would ask me from time to time. I would cast down my eyes and reply “it’s not” and they would scold me and order me to get back on task.

Finally, I was out of excuses. I could only say that life happens and everything else took precedence over completing the book. But my mother and I re-dedicated ourselves and finished the book in about nine months. Eight years after the first attempt, I found that I was a better writer and was happy with the final product.  

Sure, there are a lot more stories that could have been included but we settled on 20 short stories and the end product was a short but amusing book of anecdotes. I am currently working on a book about my father, but I don’t rule out a Pinafores II in the future.

Until next time, happy reading!

Liz Hawkins

People relate to "From Pigtails and Pinafores"

Greetings Readers:

Over the past 10 years people are still telling me that they enjoyed reading From Pigtails and Pinafores. What I hear most is that the stories remind them of their mother, grandmother, aunt or someone in their family. I’m also told how much they relate to a particular story. 

A colleague once told me that she would have totally believed the “Big Jugs” story in the book, in which an older girl named Dorothy told my mother that baking power would give you large breast.  

My husband always recounts the “Big Cat” story where my mom comes upon a bob cat and sets out to catch it to bring it home as a pet. He had a similar experience as a child when he mistook a wolf for a German Shepherd.

My grandnephew was amazed to read about the big fight she had with her classmate Alice. At the time, he was having trouble with a bully at school. 

Another reader said her personal favorite is “Miss Hattie’s Beads,” in which my mother is caught climbing into the casket attempting to claim the pearl necklace the deceased woman promised her before she died.

It gives me great joy when I hear these stories repeated back to me. The smiles and the laughter are the best part.  One friend told my mother that when she is feeling sad she sometimes reads a certain story from the book, and it cheers her up.  

I love hearing stories like that and I always tell my mother about what people are saying. Please continue to tell us about your favorite chapters.

Until next time, happy reading!

Liz Hawkins

It's been such a long time - 10 years!

Greetings Readers:

I cannot believe that it’s been almost 10 years since I published From Pigtails and Pinafores: My mother’s life growing up in the Florida gulf, the book of anecdotes as told by my mother, Elsie Smith. Yes, time flies by fast. In early 2005, I began writing down some of the amusing stories that my mother used to share with me when I was a little girl about her childhood growing up in Pensacola, Florida. 

Writing this book was truly a labor of love and also a way for me to share some of the intimate details about my mother with the rest of the family. My brothers, nieces, nephews and other family members never heard these stories.

Over the years, some of my grandnieces and nephews have read the book and are amazed by stories about their great grandmother. Discovering this book is serving as wonderful forum to share the family history with future generations is a happy consequence.  

Friends and colleagues still ask me when I will write another book. The answer is soon.  I'm currently writing about my father’s side of the family. However, I have not ruled out a continuation of anecdotal short stories about my mother.

Until next time, happy reading!

Liz Hawkins