The Woman in the Window, Sewing

I once lived in a neighborhood that was as silent and empty during the day as the top of the moon. I was a dedicated homemaker, and longed for the warm association of

other homemakers. I had grown up at a time when it was very easy to find other wives and homemakers at home. If a woman needed a little refreshment or inspiration, all she had to do was talk with another homemaker, and she would come away reassured that all was well.

There was one woman who was home during the day and I saw her quite unexpectedly. There, in an upper window, she sat looking at her sewing. At the same time each day, she could be seen from the end of the street. One day I noticed this same woman outside tending to her flower beds. I told her I had seen her in the window, sewing, and we began to talk about the many things that required a woman to be home during the days. I remarked how empty and lonely the neighborhood felt. I had grown up in the country, but with visits from other country people, had never felt isolated. I had not lived in suburbia before. When I married, I thought it might be
quite interesting to have such close neighbors and was really looking forward to it. Think of it--you could talk to someone without having to drive many miles or plan a visit for days and days. How disappointed I was to find that the neighborhoods were more isolating and lonely than the country. The women had gone away to work for wages. They rarely saw their beautiful houses in the day light.

I am fortunate to have lived at a time when the homes and families in America were different. I can remember when women talked to each other unashamedly and unselfconsciously about the house, the children, meals, marriage, and ironing.

One conversation I overheard was between my mother and a visiting neighbor. After I relate it, maybe someone can spot the basic difference between homemaking conversations today and the conversation then. The neighbor was asking my mother how many shirts she had to iron each week. Then she told my mother that she had to iron quite a few of them, and she had figured out how to iron four shirts in one hour, compared to two, previously. This was in the days when clothing was not permanent press.

One day a woman with a large family asked me to iron a huge box of clothes for her. In those days no one would wear something that was not ironed, not even a poor person. She had a lot of other responsibilities at home and offerred to pay me to do that ironing, and I was happy to do it for the money. It was not an easy job. I had to sprinkle each piece with water, and then roll it up and put it in the refrigerator. The next day I had to iron it and what a job it was. The fabrics in those days required hard pressing, and when you ironed one half of the garment, there was a problem with wrinkling the half you just ironed. It took quite a skilled person to iron something well. This is why I took such interest in the conversation between my mother and the neighbor woman talking about the intricasies of ironing.

Because the neighborhood was so dark and lonely, I always felt a warm reassurance upon seeing the woman in the window, sewing. I cannot explain all the thoughts I had but here are some: somehow, I thought that she was very brave. She was not ashamed of her homemaking and was not self-conscious about being seen in the window, sewing. It brought back memories of my mother singing while she swept the front porch. The other feeling was that it somehow made the world better. It showed that no matter what the current news media hype or world threat was, the woman in the window as still going about her daily work and taking her duties seriously. And still another feeling it gave me is one of wanting to go home and be very creative and industrious. The sight of her in that window was like a light in the darkness.

I wonder as women at home go about their work, who will see them sitting in the window. It is rare to see anyone sitting in their houses.

Have you guessed the difference between my mother's generation of homemaker's conversation and what you might hear today?

Here is the answer: In all the time that I was growing up, I never heard women talk about whether or not they SHOULD be home all the time seeing to matters of the family or husband. Today, a homemaker is more likely to get embroiled in a conversation about the issue of homemaking vs. the working woman. In my mother's time, they talked about how to best DO the homemaking. They never found it necessary to justify doing it. They liked discussing better ways of doing things like ironing or cooking or cleaning.