pretty in pink

The other day my husband and I were talking, and the subject of home economics class, in school, came up. I have absolutely NO idea as to how we came to this topic. I find it rather odd now, but it prompted several memories (some better than others!) Suddenly I was taken back to Albright Middle School in the mid 1980's, and a very pink, and a very LARGE, sweatshirt popped into my mind!

When I entered middle school I had to welcome home economics (home ec.) class into my schedule. I didn't think much of it. It was simply the class known for baking cookies, sewing toss pillows, and all those things related to preparing oneself for the harsh reality of the world of "real life!" For the obvious reasons the girls got more giddy about home ec. than the boys did. There were a few exceptions though. The world of home ec. opened my eyes to how to bake, prepare a meal for my teacher, hand-sew, a rather groovy, patch-work toss pillow, and... AND...the dreaded pink sweatshirt! Let me just dive into the sorted details.

The class assignment was learning the "basics" on the sewing machine. Our job was to go out and purchase a pattern for a sweatshirt, buy fabric, bring it all back and get to work on it. Well, I purchased a pattern for a common crew neck sweatshirt. One important key detail that I seemed to overlook, however, was the size! I managed to get a very-off size, leaning heavily on the large size. Next mission, find fabric. After much debate, a nice bubble gum pink was settled on. Mission complete, I brought it all back to school and the process began. Yards of pink thread, several broken needles, and a whole heck of anxiety thrown in, a sweatshirt was produced. The finished product was a nice, bubble gum pink, sweatshirt dress that exceeded the length of my hands and pushed the limits, almost touching my knees! The other children surfaced withe basic gray, white, and blue sweatshirts that were "normal" sized and able to be proudly worn. No. Not me. My sweatshirt stood out about as badly as Chuck Shnerfiels blaze orange job. Luckily the teacher did not grade on correct size (she must have felt really bad for me as well). I got a decent grade and was able to tug along those bubble gum memories even to this day!



While on the subject of home ec., do schools still offer this very worthwhile class anymore? Do schools still dabble with plugging in those irons, revving up those sewing machines, and cranking up the oven temperatures? If not, why? Sure my kids learn some of those skills at our home, but many kids are not as fortunate to. Sure it is important too know how to divide fractions and properly form a sentence. But, in REAL life ( the one you and I are currently living in) it also requires one to know how to cook a simple egg, mend a fallen off button on that dress shirt, and learn that an iron is REALLY hot!!

If I thinking back, really hard, I can still smell those burnt brownies and feel the endless pin-pricks from those darn straight pins as I pinned my "quilt pillow" (which I still have, by the way!)
My gi-normous bubble gum sweatshirt may have drifted off to never-never land, but those skills and real "life lessons" that I acquired along with all the pink thread, have seen me through my entire life.