Monday, December 2, 2019

Memories Of Old Friends and Activities

Yesterday was the final day of a five day on-and-off again snowstorm. It has finally passed, but DH was trying to clean the snow from the roof and it just wouldn't stop snowing. He finally finished in mid-afternoon, after six hours of work, and even though it was still snowing, he just couldn't deal any more. Totally understandable. I know I'll have to shovel the last inch or so from the driveway this morning before heading out to the gym, so I'm getting this blog post done quickly. 

I spent my Sunday sorting one of my large bins of loose beads into a more coherent colorway. I have now managed to get through the first three of six pull drawers of loose beads. It's a major chore, but it really needs to be done. Things are too disorganized and I need the drawers to really function the way I had intended. 

The beads themselves bring back lovely memories of a group of beaders I knew in the 1990's and early 2000's. The internet was newer, the options for posting and groups were smaller, and a lot of us bonded over the craft boards on AOL and some other gathering places that featured beading instruction or patterns, such as About-dot-com. 

We had a tight-knit group of beaders, many of whom are still in touch and still good friends. One of the many activities we shared was a monthly bead swap. For the swap, a host for the month would be chosen and that host would choose a theme. Beaders around the country would gather beads into baggies, one for each member of the swap, and send them to the host, along with a pre-addressed label and postage for the return mail. The host would repackage a box for each swapper - one that contained baggies from each person, then take them to the Post Office and sent them back out via Priority Mail (slightly over $4 at that time). 

I participated and hosted as a member of the monthly bead exchange for more than three years and got some really wonderful bead mixes as a result. It is those exchanges that are the foundation for my loose beads drawers, and I love using the beads and thinking about the many friends I had been in daily contact with for so many years. 

The internet has changed and the group has fallen apart, but we still run into each other now and again and several are still my friends. When I travel to an area of the country where one or more of them reside, I usually will try to contact them for a quick get-together and catch-up. In many ways I miss those days - we were all discovering the excitement of this craft. It's grown into something that is almost unrecognizable now. 

I wonder if our parents felt the same way as progress came and changed their lives. In many ways that progress was a life-saver, but in others,, the progress changed "community" to the point where that's almost unrecognizable now. Look around you. Do you know your neighbors? Do you shop your neighborhood stores? Or do you go to the big box stores a bit farther away instead. Have a wonderful warm and cozy Monday, I'll be back tomorrow. 



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