Lori Duff Writes

Lately, I’ve been grateful for the existence of readily available fabric.

I was lying in bed, between snoozes of the alarm clock, appreciating how warm and cozy and comfortable I was.  I don’t have expensive sheets[1] but they are cotton, cool and smooth to the touch.  In that twilight, where my brain has not yet achieved a level of consciousness that has inhibitions, I thought of all the people in between me and the origins of the sheets surrounding me.

Someone had to grow the cotton.  Then pick it.  Then process it in a way that allowed it to be spun into threads no thicker than my hair.  I’m not sure if it got dyed the calming, sage green before or after being spun, but that happened.  Then someone wove the miniscule threads into fabric[2], and someone else sewed it into the shape of sheets. 

Go with me, if you will, to the early 1800s.[3]  Imagine you want to move out west via the Oregon Trail to try your hand at panning for gold.  In addition to trying not to die of dysentery[4], you had to do a lot of providing for yourself.  There was no big box store, no Buc-ee’s along the way.  If you wanted something, you had to provide it for yourself.  Davey Crockett didn’t wear a coonskin cap as a fashion choice: he needed to keep warm and he didn’t have time to shear sheep, spin the wool, and knit a hat.  There’s only so much room in the back of the wagon for a three-month supply of coffee. 

Or fabric.  We’re so privileged now, we don’t realize what a point of grace it is to be embarrassed to wear the same outfit two days in the same week.  On the Oregon Trail, if your shirt[5] got pulled out of your hands by the current while you were washing it in a stream, you were just s.o.l.  You couldn’t pop in to a Wal-Mart and buy a cheap replacement t-shirt.  Heck – you couldn’t even go to Joann’s and buy some fabric to sew yourself a new one.  You wore your dirty, tattered rags because you didn’t have any other options. 

I mean: I complain about laundry now, but all I have to do is throw it in a machine and wait.  Imagine lugging it to the stream and beating it against a rock?

If you’ve ever spent time with me in person, you know I like color.  I drive a bright yellow car.  My clothes usually have bright patterns on them.  I wear red lipstick that most people would say I’m too old for.  To heck with that.  Color makes me happy. 

But if I had to find the right berries and snail shells and who knows what else to dye my handmade fabric?  Oh, no.  I’d be wearing sheep-colored sweaters all winter. 

So, as you put on your socks tomorrow morning, say a little word of thanks to whomever you think is appropriate that you didn’t have to spin the wool and knit them yourselves. 

[1] No sheets purchased at Target can be labeled as “fancy”.

[2] Okay, I know, a machine did it in the 21^st century, but some human had to design the machine, then build the machine, then operate it.

[3] I feel like I should say something here about the American tragedy that was its use of enslaved people at that time and their role in the boon of cotton.  I’m honestly not trying to ignore that part of history: we should all be aware of it.  Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, after all.  However, I’m trying to keep this post light and about gratitude and I most certainly am NOT grateful for our shameful past. 

[4] If you’re not over 40, ask a Gen X-er what that joke means.

[5] One of only two you owned, because you were relatively wealthy enough to own two.

If you enjoyed this and want to read more like it, visit Lori on Twitter or on Facebook or read her award winning books.  You can order her novella, “Broken Things”, by clicking here.  The audiobook can be found on Audible or iTunes.  Look for her novel “Devil’s Defense” coming in August 2024 by She Writes Press.

Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.