I enjoyed a "sister's weekend" with my sisters and their dear husbands. We traveled to our home state of Minnesota and took in a relaxing weekend in the Mississippi river valley towns of Red Wing, Wabasha (yes, Grumpy Old men) and Lake City.
A visit to an antique shop in Lake City turned up a couple of "antique treasures" for me
that I couldn't resist.
No, not the sampler,
nor the buttons.
This...
a rusty hook,
and these...
not the thimbles,
those clam shells.
Silly purchase isn't it?
A couple of old clam shells with holes in them...
When I showed them to the dear husband,
he gave me
"the look"
like I must have holes in my brain....{sigh}
In the 1800's the Mississippi was full of clam beds
and
the button business
was booming along these river towns.
The rusty hook (1st photo)
was used on the clamming boats.
By nature, a clam likes to sit at the bottom of the river,
with it's mouth open,
facing up river,
just waiting for some morsel of food
to find it's way into it's mouth.
These hooks,
that were drug across the bottom of the river,
would find their way into the clam's "mouth"
When these hooks touched their mouths,
they would clamp down on it
and
well,
the rest is history for the clam.
The clams were then dumped into large boiling pots of water,
they died from the heat of the water,
the meat was then recovered
and
the shells were used for button making!!
See the holes in the shells?
The men would punch out the blank buttons
and it was usually the younger boys
that did the finishing work.
Button making often times
would involved the whole family,
women would sit in their homes
sewing buttons onto the cards.
I've found myself,
a time or two,
sewing buttons onto old cards and photos...
I think I grew up in the wrong century...
Anyone else?
I'm happy as a clam with my new found treasures
and love their history!
And another thought,
schoolgirl samplers?
How fun would have school been,
if it would have involved stitching samplers?
Yep,
I definitely grew up in the wrong century!
With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda
