I Learned About Sewing
I wanted to play ball, or something outside,
but Grandma had told me to stay here inside.
“You stay here with me while your Mom is away,
We’re sure to have a wonderful day!”
“I have some mending I need to get done,
why don’t you watch me, it’s sure to be fun!”
As a young man of five, I wasn’t into fashion,
but arguing with Grandma could get me a thrashin’.
So even though it didn’t seem very keen,
I stood by her side at her sewing machine.
What she was doing with her hands, I hadn’t a clue,
but down by her leg was a wheel that just flew!
As she pressed with her feet on a pedal below,
that wheel by her leg would really get up and go!
As Grandma pressed down with her toe then her heel,
I crouched down to watch that big spinning wheel.
Around and around it went with great ease,
by now I was kneeling down onto my knees.
Grandma was pleased that I found fascinating,
the mechanical action that she was creating.
A very stern warning she did give to me,
“Don’t touch that wheel, just let it be!”
She said I could stay there and watch it some more,
so since my knees were aching I sat on the floor.
Around and around that big wheel it did go,
I sat there with patience and just watched the show.
Then a cramp in my leg, I felt with no doubt,
while watching the wheel, I stretched my leg out.
Oh geez the pain that I felt in my toes!
I’d forgotten how the pedal on the sewing machine goes!
I looked at my foot and discovered with horror,
My toes under the pedal smashed flat to the floor!
I let out a scream and my teeth I did gnash,
Grandma was cussin’ something about a backlash.
Pick up your danged heels! I thought while I wailed,
Can’t you see that my toes have really been nailed??
Once Grandma could see why her mending had stopped,
She pushed down her toes and my toes then out popped.
Crying, rolling, and screaming across the floor I did go,
not knowing for sure, but maybe missing a toe.
Soon Grandma caught up, and gave me the news,
no toes were missing, it’s only a bruise.
Through tears in my eyes, I checked out my toes,
I blinked trying to focus loudly sniffing my nose.
With her apron she tenderly dried out my eyes,
and then gently hugged away all of my cries.
She felt devastated that things happened this way,
and apologized profusely for hurting me today.
I told her that I knew that it wasn’t her fault,
“This sewing ain’t for Sissies, to me there’s no doubt.”
My toes soon quit hurting, as I watched quietly,
and Grandma used her scissors to cut her work free.
As the day finely wound down, and Mother returned,
She asked if there’d been anything that I had learned.
“Did you have a fun day while I was out going?”
“Oh yes Ma’am I did, I learned about sewing!”
CD in Oklahoma