These are a couple of the pages from the address book my mom, Ruth Marvedean (Forby) Russell, had for about 30 years. Instead of buying a new book she would glue a new piece of paper over the old page and start all over. Some of the pages are as thick as six or seven layers of paper. On the example below you can see through the paper onto the sheet beneath and make out ghostly lettering.
Not only are there addresses and phone numbers, but as you can see from the above page there is a recipe for 1-t salt, 1 pinch b-soda, one cup water, squirt up nose. On another page she penned in, '..a stricken soul was singing with her heart aganst a thorn.' I don't know if this is a verse from a hymn or something she thought up. There is also a recipe for hummingbird feeder nectar, the addresses and phone numbers for tele-evangelists, and addresses for Illinois State Representatives. Unknowingly my mom created a little collage of her life in this address book. You can look through it and feel you know something about her. She used to tell me that she had dreams of being a fashion designer when she was a little girl. She never did realize her dreams. She spent her life raising her five boys and putting a meal on the table every night. But, she was always cutting things out and gluing things down. Her letters were decorated with pictures that she would cut out and glue down often with little captions attached. She even decorated the envelopes. She was every bit a folk artist in her approach. Mom passed almost 13 years ago, but she lives in my heart and her old letters and her wonderful address book/journal. Dave
RUTH RUSSELL
No comments:
Post a Comment