Friday, April 24, 2015

Mae Bennett of New Prague, I have your apron.

Ay-ay-ay... not only is my camera viewfinder broken, but I just updated my OS and lost iPhoto! WUT the heck, Apple? *
 
Making do with raw photobooth... Here's the label of an old apron I salvaged from the Thrift Store's fabric-recycle barrel:
MAE BENNETT
PINAFORES AND APRONS
NEW PRAGUE, MINNESOTA

New Prague is south of me, on the way to Mankato where Betsy & Tacy live(d)! The B&T books mention a dressmaker who makes the girls' fancy clothes. I imagine Mae Bennett was someone like that.
Miss Mix [was] the dressmaker who…toward the last of the month…came to the Rays every day for a week. She sewed only in Mrs. Ray’s bedroom, but bright scraps of cloth and snarls of thread, like the hum of her machine, permeated everywhere.
--Heaven to Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace
More on sewing in Betsy Tacy

Some thrift herders at the store are waaaay too likely to reject vintage stuff like this apron. I guess they prefer new or like-new things, which are not what attracts people to thrift stores, I contend, in these days when places like H&M sell new clothes cheaper than we sell used ones.

This apron does have two tiny, tiny holes, but the fabric is still strong: I am going to stitch it into a produce bag. 
Now.
I have finished enough publishing work for the moment.
_____________
* Sometimes I write something that reminds me of how elastic language & technology are: these opening lines would have been meaningless a few years ago.

Btw, "photo" replaces "iPhoto" but I haven't yet figured it all out. I resent having to learn new programs that [seemingly] offer less than the old ones. I've had this happen before (iMovie, I'm looking at you.) 

3 comments:

deanna said...

Your post helps me remain uninterested in updated my OS. I know I'll eventually not be able to update stuff, but I like knowing how to use iPhoto and iMovie the way they are on my version 10.6.8.

With Christmas money I tried to buy a new, wireless mouse, and it wouldn't work with versions below 10.7. But then I found a cheaper, wired mouse at Grocery Outlet (a discount place), and it's doing fine.

My biggest problem right now is I'm running out of gigabytes, and I enjoy making slideshows...sigh.

I hope your media programs turn out to work well, but sorry you have to jump through new hoops...here's to "vintage" computers.

Zhoen said...

I'm actually liking the new Photo more than the last iPhoto version. Sometimes it just seems to be change for the sake of change. D tells me it's to do with iPhones and tablets, and programs designed to work better with them, and to hell with the dinosaurs who like laptops and previous.

Fresca said...

DEANNA: I know--I wish there were an option to keep the old apps we like when we update...
I still miss iMovie '06 (I think it was '06... several version before this one, anyway).

ZHOEN: Yeah, and I don't use *any* of those handheld devices. RoAR (like a dinosaur).

I'm glad to hear you like the new Photo---maybe once I get familiar with it I will too.
I just don't really want to spend the time on it right now and resent that it was foisted on me.