Dear Aunt Annie… I wonder what Grandma Lincoln would think?

Dear Aunt Annie;

I am pooped tonight as I came home from one long day. Today I became Benjamin Franklin Phillips. I became my Great Grandpa Phillips to hundreds of people that wanted to know about who he was and what he did.

I wonder what Grandma Lenore Lincoln would have thought about what I did.

(For Readers besides Aunt Annie… Lenore was Annie’s Mom and Benjamin Franklin Phillips was her Grandfather. My Aunt Annie is 93 now and reads the Blog almost every day.)

I was at Lang Pioneer Village to demonstrate Lace Making. Would Grandma be surprised?! I showed so many people how to do Tatting today that my tongue and throat is tired. I lost count after 100! No kidding.

Today and tomorrow is a special presentation of their “Festival of Textiles” which is part of Heritage Celebration Weekend at Lang Village.

At this celebration I am a Guest Artist – the Lace Maker doing Tatting and Bobbin Lace.

I proudly presented the wooden Tatting Shuttle that Great Grandpa Phillips carved for Grandma when she was so young. If I am correct he carved it for Lenore and also one for each of her sisters Clara and Mildred. If I am right in my calculations Great Grandpa carved that in about 1897 – when Grandma was about 10 years old.

A few years ago after Grandma Lincoln had passed away I was in Des Moines, Iowa visiting Great Aunt Clara. When I came into the room she was sitting on her bed and working carefully with a wooden shuttle. I asked her what she was doing and she laughed saying, "You should know what it was – because your Grandma Lincoln was one of the best Tatters ever… and she used to do this all the time!”

She filled me in on how Great Grandpa had carved each of the girls a Shuttle and taught them how to do Tatting.

Aunt Clara really laughed when I asked her to teach me – right there and right then. The desire to learn was so great in me that I just had to know how. She said, “I think it will take longer than I have to teach you!” She thought that it was very funny.

On leaving the Senior’s Home that she lived in my cousin John drove me to a needle work store where I bought a shuttle and a book on “How to Tat”.

One the flight home I taught myself how to do tatting. My product wasn’t very good but was I ever proud of it!

For the next three months I tried out my tatting abilities. I actually completed a doily that was on display today.

Then one day I was in a local shopping mall and there on the bulletin board was an advertisement for ‘Tatting Classes” to be conducted by a Mrs. Tatton. With a name like that she just had to know how to do this better than I was doing.

I attended the class that evening and shyly walked in… one man among about a dozen women… go figure!

When I explained to the class that I was trying to learn how to Tat – they asked to see my work. Ooos and Aahhs followed… then Mrs Tatton kindly asked for me to show her how I did my Tatting. I demonstrated and then she grinned… asking me… “Did you learn how to Tat from the “How to Tat” book?”

“Yes…” was my hesitant answer… “Why..?”

“Let me show one simple change”, she said. In a split second there was the answer. I had spent two months on one doily that could have been done in a week… and my life changed.

Oh I have so many stories… so many.

Come to think of it… I can almost talk as much as Grandma Lincoln did.

A few years ago I went to visit our Cousin John McCaw in Des Moines again. It had been a long hot day in the car driving from way past Chicago, Ill. As I walked across the lawn to him he said to me … “I don’t believe it… it is Grandpa Phillips walking toward me!” And John was very serious.

What a weird feeling that was…!

Benjamin Franklin Phillips was born September 26, 1863 and died in January 20, 1944. I was born three months later.

Now I don’t want to make it sound too weird… for some people can get a little cranked up with weirdness… BUT do you think it is possible for me to inherit all this that I do from Great Grandpa Ben Phillips? I sure do… and at times – it is as if someone is there with me when I do some of this stuff… so easily.

Now I know that I freaked half my ‘strong spiritual readership’ out now. OOOOiee he believes in Ghosts, etc…

Nope – not really… I just seem to have a whole lot easier way of doing things… and I think Great Grandpa is some how involved…

Anyway today was good – very good. I think Grandma Lincoln and Great Grandpa Ben Phillips might have been watching from somewhere and saying to each other… “Can you believe that… that is our Grandson!!! And he can Tat…!”

If you are close enough to Peterborough and are able to come to Lang Village.. I will be there from 10 AM until 4 PM… and you will find me in the middle of a whole lot of people – telling hundreds of stories… hundreds of times over and over… Hey I LOVE TO TALK!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://www.langpioneervillage.ca/
http://www.langpioneervillage.ca/specialevents.php?page=specialevents