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COPYRIGHT 2003 Curve Magazine, Outspoken Enterprises, San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 863-6538
MY CLOSE FRIENDS JOKE THAT I begin preparations for Christmas sometime in August. Of course, it would be a joke if only it weren't actually true.
Like a fifth of American children, I grew up poor. The clothes I wore came from the neighborhood thrift store, my mother's sewing machine and, for special occasions such as Christmas or Easter, the discount clothing store where everything was new but cheaply made.
Growing up poor teaches many lessons. During my childhood, I learned preparation for the holidays began early because gifts had to be made, not bought. My sister and I were quite young when we were taught the 18th-century arts of embroidery, crochet and quilting, and learned how to make candles, put up preserves, do elaborate paper cut-work. We learned, out of necessity, to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. But gifts that cost little money to make also took endless hours in time.
Last August, I should have been starting my Christmas preparations--the lap quilts I had planned for friends, the embroidered pillowcases for my lover. Those plans were set aside because...
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