Parties to Pass the Winter

We moved into a small rural town years ago...when my last child was in 3rd grade. There wasn't much to do in this town during the winter. We women decided to get together once a month in our homes and do crafts and have a potluck. We knitted, crafted, shared recipes, ate wonderful food, and solved all the problems of the day. Our kids stopped there after school and the little ones entered in on our fun.One of the "gals" was Polish. Her best friend was Italian. They decided to have a "Polish Party" during one particularly hard winter. We were all to dress in crazy clothes and get together for some fun. We all gathered with our nylons rolled below the knees, hair drawn on our legs and moles drawn on our faces with eyebrow pencil, aprons, hair in hair nets, some of us carried shopping bags. We had many "gift exchanges" So much fun. We had these parties every winter. We had a Polish wedding shower, a Polish talent show, we celebrated Casimir Pulaski day, and so on and so on. One thing that stands out in my memory was our Mayor's wife's talent. She brought out her old tap shoes and did a tap dance on a bread board.

One year the snow was so bad that night, but it didn't keep 25 or so women from trekking out in the country to a house for a party. We were desperate for entertainment.

Coming home my friend couldn't see the road...I got out of the car in my "getup" and walked in front of the car down a deserted country road...so she would stay on the road.Our husband's just shook their heads and said, "Girls will be girls." We had a "Polish" slumber party one year. We all dressed in crazy pjs and with hair in curlers, we ordered a pizza late in the evening. You can imagine the look on the delivery boy's face. This was just innocent fun...we weren't really making fun of the Polish people...after all the ring leader was as Polish as they come. We did the same thing, but to a lesser degree with our Italian friend. We stopped the parties when our Italian friend passed away and several others after her. Our hearts just weren't in it. A few years later the Red Hat Society became so popular and many of us became Red Hatters.These crazy parties were the highlight of the winter. Everyone in town knew about them and many new people joined in, when they heard about the fun we had. I'm glad that I met these women in my younger days. We were such a close knit group...it got us through many of life's challenges. Cancer, marriage problems, school concerns, potty training, and so many other issues. Things were better for us when we could laugh at some of life's problems. We were there for each other.

Balisha