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Dear Reader,
To inspire you to enter this year's 15th Annual Write a DearReader Contest, I'm taking a look at Judith C. Brightman's winning column from 2013...
THE BUTTON BOX
An old wooden box sits on the shelf in Nana's closet. Made of dark wood, it has dovetailed corners that Gramps had hand-cut. Yankee thrift allows no waste so buttons from worn-out clothing are saved in the box.
To keep me amused, Nana lets me sort them. There are metal ones from overalls, rubber ones from union suits, shirt buttons, coat buttons, dress buttons, trouser buttons, wooden ones, plastic ones and some that look like bone. They are cool to the touch and smell faintly of camphor and lavender.
While I string them into sets, Nana begins to tell the buttons like telling rosary beads.
"These are from Gramps' coat, the black one. You remember; oh, no, 'twas before you were born. Well, there, the black plait in the braided rug, that's Gramps' coat."
"These little blue ones from your father's first shirt, matched his blue eyes like a cloudless sky. He was too soon grown and gone. It's not natural, you know. Mothers should go first."
"The red are from my house dress, the apple print one, the one in the quilt in the spare room."
Tiny black ones like the eyes of a teddy bear caught my attention and I looked at her with the silent question.
"They're shoe buttons, from the shoes I wore when I graduated from Normal School, in Adams, you know."
"The green are from Uncle Harry's wool shirt. He was a gandy dancer for the railroad. Wanted to be a signalman, but he was colorblind. Found that shirt hanging on a nail in the barn, years after he'd passed on. Mice had found it too, but I saved the buttons."
"The tiny pink ones are from Baby Sarah's only dress. She never was very strong, that one, sickly from the first. Buried her in the family christening dress. Some thought it a waste, but it was mine to do with and so was she. Little bit of a thing she was. Looked so pretty and peaceful."
"The plain white ones came from here and there. Some I found and some came from hand-me-downs that only made it to the quilt scrap box."
The big black ones with the diamonds are her favorite. "Gramps brought me these from the city. Wanted me to put 'em on a fancy dress. Never had call for a fancy dress. If I'd wore it to meeting, people would have thought I was putting on airs."
She seems tired and lost in thought. Slowly I gather them up and put them back into the box. She stands on a stool to put the box back on the shelf.
Everyone is gone now, but I remember well the hours we spent studying family history with the button box.
You could be this year's winner, but you have to enter to win. Cash prizes, rules and deadlines, and last year's winning entries, read all about it at here.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
Today is the last day to enter September's Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway. If your name is drawn, I'll send you some of my homemade cookies. They are amazing. To enter the cookie giveaway, click here.
KIDSBUZZ: For any kid who has ever felt underestimated, look no further than WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, a just-right for middle-graders novel by Brigit Young. For a chance to win a free copy and learn more, see http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.
This month's Penguin Classics book is PENGUIN BOOK OF MIGRATION IN LITERATURE: DEPARTURES, ARRIVALS, GENERATIONS, RETURNS, edited by Dohra Ahmad. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading today and enter for your chance to win.
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