Thoughts Of An Old Friend Brings Back Many Memories

Have you ever "run into" an old friend in dreams? I "ran into" one last night, and I'm so very pleased that I did. My friend Marilee was an old friend, probably from the late 1990's to early 2000's. We shared a love of beads, and were on a chat board of similarly-minded people from across the nation. I don't think we had any international people with us at that time - it was the early days of the internet. 

Do you remember the days of dial-up modems 
and the sounds that accompanied getting connected 
to your internet provider of choice? I can still 
hear that electronic sound today when I think of 
those days. 

When I first learned to bead in the very early 1960's, it was with the old "Indian" Bead Loom that I still sell in the store today, and a small booklet that my Mother bought for me that had some patterns in it. I'm quite sure my first attempt was horrid - poor bead choices and lots of tension problems, but that's to be expected, I was somewhere between 6-8 years old and not known for my patience. My mother knew beading, but only as an adjunct to her sewing - as an embellishment on fabric, not self-supporting ornamentation. 

This is more the style of beading that 
Mom would do - a lot of embellishment 
on clothing of various types. Of course 
I wanted to do what she did, so she taught 
me some basics and bought me my first 
bead loom. 

I beaded on and off for many years - it wasn't an obsession, but I enjoyed the process. I made my own looms from 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 boards, and I learned beading as applique, which is how my Mom used beads. Many years later, when we had opened Stormcloud as a store for Native American art and items, we kept being asked about beads, whether we carried them mostly, and my interest was piqued once again. 

I was happy with AOL, we had a strong beading community 
on there and we interacted daily, sharing patterns and just 
getting to know each other. I'm still in touch with some of 
those people today, more than 20 years afterward. 

Then the internet hit. It was the early days - there were three main carriers or chatting areas, and after trying a couple, I settled on AOL (which I still use to this day, quite happily). This was also the early days of chat boards, laptop computers, and the heated war between Apple and IBM. There were chatboards for beading, and I joined those. I clearly recall Emily's List - she would put a new pattern up once a week,  (in words, there weren't photos or were minimal diagrams at that time), and the rest of us would exchange questions/answers and try out the pattern if it interested us. I still have reams of papers from that era - patterns and discussions. I even ran a short-lived beading chat board of my own for a while. 

In the early days of Bead & Button Magazine, 
self-published by Alice, we kept developing 
a community. When she sold the magazine to 
Kalmbach publications, it exploded on the 
crafting world, and they started holding 
annual get-togethers of classes and vendors. 
Those early days were heady - so much fun! 

Then things exploded - the internet hit with full force. Suddenly there were web sites, competitions, exhibitions and challenges - our little group of AOL beaders expanded, then exploded into the greater internet. My greatest joy was meeting some of the people from these boards in person, exchanging information, showing projects off back and forth. These were the very beginning days of the Bead & Button Show, and the magazine of the same title was just getting started too. 

I knew Marilee had passed, but hadn't thought 
of her for years. We were quite close, and I 
was shocked when I heard she had died. I looked 
up her obituary and memorial today. She was 
a year younger than I am, but she had some 
serious health issues, so it wasn't unexpected. 
Still, I'm finding that I'm missing her today, and 
I have marked her death date into my calendar 
so that her memory won't be forgotten. 

So why go through all of this ancient history? Because I met an old internet friend in my dreams last night. Marilee Layman was a good friend who lived out East, but she came to the Twin Cities several times to attend a particular "Con" that was held annually. She would sing at the Con, and she had an amazing voice. We would try to get together for a meal when she was in town. She passed, many years ago, but I had a chance to see her in my dreams last night and give her a good hug. Sometimes dreams can be a very good thing. Have a great Monday - enjoy your day.