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