Crafting is probably one of the oldest hobbies in America’s
history. Even the pilgrims crafted, history tells us. On the first
Thanksgiving, I am sure that at least one of the Pilgrim ladies gave one of the
Native gals an embroidered scrap of linen as a gift. The recipient using it to
blow her nose on probably countered the intentions behind this, but it was the thought that was
important.
Crafting
flourished in the New World, probably because there were no WalMarts yet to buy
crappy presents at, so the settlers were forced to use what was at hand.
Baskets were woven from thin slats of wood or reeds and filled with whatever
they could pick up on the way over. This was where fruit baskets started, which
was immediately followed by “No Trespassing” signs in the orchards. The people
who really had it bad were the ones who lived out by where the buffalo roamed…
but I suppose that might be where the expression “all that and a bag of chips”
might have come from.
I personally
never crafted much beyond the early stages of Popsicle stick picture frames and
a rare spray painted pinecone miniature Christmas tree. There was the
occasional macaroni necklace that was forced upon me by my Sunday-School
teachers when I was young, but those were usually tossed in the trashcan or
flushed down the toilet during a furtive escape near the end of class. I did
spend about 60 hours crafting a “fairy house” for a female friend of mine. It
had real glass windows, a solar recharging light inside it, a stone fireplace
that you could burn incense in and watch the smoke billow out the top of the
chimney. It was a labor of love and she promptly stopped talking to me shortly
after I gave it to her. Women… one thing that I will NEVER figure out, I
suppose.
The only item
that I ever had that I recall treasuring in the slightest… was a sock monkey.
Many people seem to not know what a sock monkey was, or is. They seem to be
making a bit of a comeback in the online auctions, though. A sock monkey is, as
the name alludes, a stuffed monkey made from socks. Not just any socks, though.
The standard has always been Rockford brand socks, the reason being that,
properly cut, stuffed and sewn, the monkey ends up with a distinctive nose and
mouth… and a prominent white butt as well. I would presume that families that were
having a hard time of it, still wanting to give their children some sort of
Christmas gift, presumably took a pair of Dad’s socks and made these creatures
out of them.
Regardless of why
they were made, these primitive stuffed animals were tougher than Tonka… and
that is saying something. I know that my monkey went everywhere… up trees, down
to the farm pond, on the back of a bicycle, out into the garden while I was
working there, and was left outside time and time again. Once it reached a
certain level of ‘filthiness’ it was simply tossed into the washing machine
with the rest of the laundry and hung by its heels on the clothesline till it
was dry. I am not sure when or how my monkey met its demise, whether I
eventually lost interest in it or it was destroyed in one of my many
experiments as they grew more and more destructive. I shall have to enquire
further as to this, if I remember.
Crafting has its
place in today’s world… if you are elderly… or Amish... or simply have too much time on your hands, or don't want to pay today's prices for whatever it is that you are after.