Susie Homemakers

I just want to say that I'm very happy to have had those years with my friends. We shared our memories of happy and sad times and through it all we helped one another cope with illness and the passing of loved ones in our lives. This article is just a brief account of a club that we formed.

Sometime in the early 80s, a few of us women started a craft club on Monday nights. A lovely person and a good friend of mine, Ann, initiated it. Ann passed away last year, and we all miss her so. She lit up the room upon entering and had a way of making you forget your troubles with her constant chatter and laughter. We named our club, ‘The Susie Homemakers’ after our oldest member of the group. When Susie passed away, she was over 90 years old.

The craft club had a total of eight members and our meetings stretched over 17 years. They were happy times. We would rotate meetings in each other’s home at about 7:30 every Monday evening. We shared patterns and ideas, and worked on our projects. While we worked, we would talk and share memories, and gossip about this or that. Most of the things that we made were given as gifts to family and friends for birthdays, at Christmas, or for any other special occasion. We pigged out on chips and dips, then had coffee and delicacies, usually lovingly baked by the hostess for that evening’s meeting. After refreshments, we would play our special dice game that we called ‘Zilch’. What fun we had with that game! We each tossed 25 cents into the pot and jestingly gave the ‘horn sign’ to the winner, especially if she won more than once in the evening. We usually played four or five rounds. We were such marvels to be able to chitchat and still concentrate on the game. Then we would call it a night and leave to go home.

Every year, on a Monday in December, we held our meeting at a designated home and we each would bring an end-of-the-year gift for one another. It was special because we would secretly create the gift project at home be it crochet, plastic canvas or some other kind of craft. We would make the same item for each member and wrap each one in Xmas paper. The names of each member would be on each gift and placed where that person would sit. How beautiful those packages looked and they were so festive for the occasion. It was like having our special Christmas party. Happily, we would open a member's present to all of us at the same time, and our smiles and sounds of glee radiated the air in the room. One of us always managed to take pictures of the beautifully laden table with all the presents piled high in front of each member. In fact, one of our members had somehow found most of those group pictures and placed them in an album. It was such a strange feeling to see how we changed over the years.

Eventually, our meetings stopped, because most of us didn't want to drive at night anymore. We were getting older and driving at night or tracing around to pick up those who didn’t drive became too much of a chore. And then there were the passing of three of our dear members. That put a damper on things. We never started up again, but we were left with fond memories of happy times with one another.

Note:
If you are interested in knowing how to play that most pleasant dice game, please read "Learn To Play Zilch" . It's a nice way to pass time and the whole family can join in.












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