Beth's Ponderings
When my sister and
I were young, our maternal gramma taught us how to cover wire coathangers with
braided nylon. Not only was it a great practical project, but it was also a
great way to make a little extra cash. We covered hundreds and hundreds of
coathangers growing up, and the more we did, the better we got, and the more we
tweaked the process to make it easier and quicker. My record is covering a coathanger - start to
finish - in 15 minutes.
We thought this was
something we’d always be able to do, but then it got more challenging to
continue. First, it because harder and
harder to find sturdy wire hangers as the ones being made became increasingly
flimsier and prone to bending. Second,
the Woolsworth store in Red Deer (anyone
remember that store?), where we bought the balls of Nylotex nylon, closed and
was replaced by Walmart, which didn’t carry the nylon in their craft section. Third, I discovered that the company that
made the Nylotex balls went out of business and no one was making it any more,
which meant that the only way to get any more balls was if you knew someone who
had some lying forgotten in their homes.
I continued to
cover coathangers in my 20s, and while I don’t remember covering any
coathangers in my 30s, I did pull out all the supplies in my early 40s to see what
I had, and was surprised that there was more than I remembered, though still a
very limited supply. Last year I covered
142 coathangers, and have covered 13 so for this year. But...at the time of this writing I am down
to my last two balls of Nylotex, so the end of this particular chapter of my
creative life is almost complete. We want things to stay the same, but change
always comes.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here:
Contact The Chautauqua via email: thechautauqua@gmail.com or via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChautauqua
