Joyce Hanley Vucurevich

My father was born in Tombstone in 1895, his parents having come there in the late 1870s from Ireland. As teenager my Dad came over to Bisbee. He married my mother in 1917. She was seventeen when they got married. My father was in the Army in the first world war. My Dad worked for the city as a fireman for many years. He (then) worked in the highway department for the County until his retirement.

My mother is from an old pioneer family. Her father and mother both came from Texas. Her father came here in The early 1870s. He and my maternal grandmother were married in April of 1887 in Charleston, Arizona Territory. My grandfather was a cattle rancher. My mother was one of nine children. She was the only one born out of Cochise County. She was born in Buffalo Gap, Texas.

I was born in Bisbee in 1928. My family lived on Youngblood Hill. My neighborhood was ethnically mixed. People took pride in their homes and they had nice yards. The women were proud of their housekeeping skills and judged all newcomers by the whiteness of their wash. "She hangs a nice wash" (they would comment).

The Historical Use of Textiles in Everyday Life

You didn't waste anything you might use. You always kept scraps. They had printed embroidery. They used to call it printed material work, but it is actually stamped. You have the pattern and it is already stamped, all you have to do is sew it. Someone used to give (my mother) a pattern and she would press it on to a piece of cloth. She liked her own ideas better than what she saw. I remember she bought a pillow top with parrots on it. I thought it was so pretty and I was told I could have it to embroidery. Boy, that was a mistake! I had to rip that thing out dozens of times and I finally got it finished. I never liked it after it was completed because I worked too hard on it.

If (my mother) had a coat and it got shabby, she would wash it and turn it wrong side out and make me a little coat out of it. She never wasted.

I remember sitting with (my mother). We had to do that a lot, especially if we got in trouble we would have to sit and do something. You could not just sit! She's the one who taught me how to embroider. My sister crocheted. Actually, my sister...learned at the Catholic Church. They used to have summer programs. My sister had a hard time because she was left-handed and she told me how the sisters would kind of tie or hold her hand back to try to force her to use her right hand. She crocheted left-handed and did beautiful work. They never were able to change her although they tried!

Sometimes I think (my mother) stayed up maybe all night long. She never wasted a moment. She would say to me, "don't just sit, read." When she ironed she would get these books that she wanted to read but she would never have time to read. While she ironed she would have me read to her. Lots of time I would read these books and didn't know the words. She would help me with the words when she was ironing or baking. She was careful about not wasting your time, too!

I can embroidery quite well now, and, no, (my mother) didn't each me how to crochet. I seemed to be all thumbs. But when my mother got real sick I got a crochet hook that had instructions so I learned on my own. My mother would smile at me, she was so pleased that I learned. When I was young I just had no desire to learn and I didn't until I was older.

I think my mother had a pretty ordinary life for women of her day. She was liberated in her thinking. It was important to her that I went to college, and that I (be) financially independent. My mother was more attached to her home and her family. We lived comfortably and never wanted for necessities. My mother worked hard to make a nice home for us. This was her pride and joy and her main source of satisfaction.

l thought (my mother) was smart. We took care of our things. We knew the time involved. I still have things she made (for) me that are old now, but I value them because I remember all the hours she put in them.

l think, mother didn't do anything other than stay home and go to Church. That was her world. She was too tired. If I can sit down and embroider I find it very relaxing and I think it was for her too. It was a way to settle down. There was no TV and when you were hearing radio or records, it was natural to do things with your hands. She (embroidered) because her mother did it and because it was the natural thing for a woman to do - to do it and lo teach it and for her daughters to do it. It was a thing that was handed down. I have a daughter that I have been trying to teach. My grand-daughter has more interest in it. She is eight and when I am embroidering she likes to sit near me and help me. She loves to sit there and watch.

My mother was always a very strong person. She always kept everything going. From what my mother tells me I think her life was hard. Things are easier now. Life is not easy, but life will be easier for my daughter and granddaughter, I hope.

Looking back, I don't ever remember being unhappy (or) depressed as we were growing up. We grew up with a bunch of friends and family that (were) in the same boat that we were in. There was no such thing as 'luxury.' It wasn't until after we got married and had our husbands that we got to appreciate things like running water, lights and inside bathrooms. It was just a way of life and nobody fought it. It depresses me to hear that (someone) committed suicide because he didn't have this or that. My goodness! There would be no one alive if we had taken that attitude. We accepted it, we enjoyed it. I was always thankful that we had a mother who was such a home person. All of us made it. As we look back, everyone has been very successful.

l don't believe that without my mother any of us would have survived because life at that Lime was so hard. It was only my mother's ways and mannerisms that kept us going. Later on, as we all got married and got on our own, "Thank God," we could say we went from rags to riches in comparison to what we grew up with. In looking back we can be thankful that we made it. I think her values mostly were to teach her children, to guide them, (and) to have respect. I think these are the values that we are missing today. As I look around me there is no respect for parents, law, (or) teachers. These are the things, as I look back now, that mean so much to us. We learned that life isn't fun. You have to struggle for what you get, (to) work for what you get. You can't sit back and say someone is going to give it to me. That is not the way. Whatever all of us have gotten is because of hard work. We worked to establish our home, educate our children, and to help them when they were on their own. I find that you don't have time to think (that) you don't have this or that.

(Women made the time to do handwork) because it was the way they expressed themselves as women in those days. They did not have a lot of outlets. They didn't have careers in Bisbee in the 1920s and 1930s. They didn't work outside of their homes. Woman only worked outside of the home if they were widowed or never married. A married woman stayed home and took care of her home and family. She cooked and washed and cleaned and shopped. They expressed their femininity and womanhood and took a lot of (pride) in their handwork. Our homes were modest, clean and well organized. They made them as pretty as they could with what was available to them.

My mother wasn't loved as a child. She was left alone at age seven and she struggled. There was no love in her life. She didn't know how to love. It took me a long time to understand this. This was lacking in my life. Maybe her needlework was an expression of her love for us. I think she wanted to leave us her legacy. She left it in needlework.

Decorative Necessities

The front room was a large room by my standards at that time, and it was more like a parlor. We had a parlor which my mother kept immaculate. My mother was a very fastidious housekeeper. We didn't go into the parlor. It was for company and celebrations. The middle room in the house was the dining room is where we would sit and do our homework and play games. My brother and I used to laugh and still laugh that we were never allowed to go into the living room.

My mother's home was very important to her. She liked beautiful things, they enriched her life and she enjoyed having them and owning them. She never did knit, but she could crochet and embroider. She was an accomplished seamstress. Her home, her neighborhood and her friends were the focus of her energy.

We made quilts. In fact, having the roomers upstairs, the quilts would get dirty and my mother was always recovering the quilts. We had a quilting frame.... It would take us maybe one evening to tie one quilt. She would poke the needle through from up above and I would stay under the quilt frame and push the needle back up and tie a knot. Then she would buttonhole-stitch around the edges or crochet. The tops were generally calico. She would use darker colors because the men had their hands dirty and spilled things on them. She kept up the blankets. They would get ragged on top and so my Mom would buttonhole-stitch and she would turn a hem and baste it and crochet on top of it.

(My mother) made gorgeous quilts. My Dad made a quilting frame that fit over the dining room table. When she wasn't quilting, even though there was a window (and) it would block the light, he would scoot it up and it would not (be in the way). The quilts were made from scraps from the clothes she had sewn for us. My sister and I used to laugh. We could tell you where we had worn each dress! My mother couldn't see very well so every day (I would) thread so many needles at a time so that she would be ready all day long.

(My parent's) bed was always done in white. She either had white sheets or white bedspread. She always had crocheted pillowcases that were starched and she raised six children and none of us dare touch her bed!

(My mother) had quilts on the bed that were pieces of dress trousers.... When my Dad would wear out a pair of pants, the knees or the seat, she would cut them all up into a certain size and stack them up until she got quite a few and put them in the trunk in the wash house. (T)hen when she got so many she would piece them together and they'd be different colors of wool. Sometimes they would be our old coats, or hand-me-downs.... She pieced them all together. She did this by machine and then she would feather stitch all of them.

My grandmother was a great quilter, out of necessity. At the ranch house she had a quilting frame that was kept against the ceiling in their dining room. When her friends and relatives would come or when she was ready to quilt, she would just lower the frame from the ceiling and they would take up their chairs around it. They would let the quilt down and quilt. They all used to dip snuff. These were pioneer women from Texas.

Our bedrooms always had crocheted or embroidered dresser scarves. We all had dresser sets out of china or bone. We always had quilts. My grandmother was a great quilter and we had her quilts.

My mother wasn't a seamstress even though her mother was. She said the reason that she never learned from my grandmother that much is because she was the oldest girl and there were ten of them. She was in the kitchen and taking care of the kids while my grandmother sewed. Mother learned a little bit and she would hem something. She used to like to make blanket covers, like quilts. When they would get (worn), she would make another cover for it and put it back on. Mother would always make covers for (our pillows). The pillowcases were always embroidered with a little crochet on the edge.

I remember when (my mother) was making this article. It used to be white with scalloped edges and satin stitch and I asked her what she was going to use it for. She said when I get my home I am going to put my comb and brush in this and it is going to be on my dresser. I thought, "Boy, is she ever off!" I had never heard of anyone ever putting a comb and brush in this envelope thing. That's the way they do things in Europe. She had two of those, one for her dresser and one for my sister's. But we didn't use it. It was used by a higher class.

I remember I wanted a vanity with ruffles. My mother made a vanity with pink ruffles and curtains to match. Everything was pink and ruffled.

(My mother) made rag rugs. She would get a piece of burlap (and) draw a design on it. She would dye wool in different colors. We would use an awl and bend the burlap and poke (the flannel) through the burlap. We spent a lot of time cutting the flannel and making those rugs. My mother used to do this on the Isle of Man.

From Mothers to Daughters

My mother always crocheted and embroidered. She was a great curio and knick-knack collector. We had a lot of stuff in our house. She would crochet doilies to put under all of them. The scarves for the buffet and sideboard were embroidered with a crochet edging. Even things inside the cabinets were sitting on doilies. The things she made were always used. I can't remember my mother ever buying much.

There was a lot of dust (on Youngblood Hill). That was one of my jobs. I would hate to dust. You had to dust all those figurines and shake out the doilies!

I had an aunt who was an accomplished embroiderer. I had another aunt who crocheted lace. I have some of her doilies which look like lace - very delicate. They always brought their work with them. That's what women did. I don't remember them doing too much knitting. I guess that was to do with the weather in Cochise County.

There was a publication called the "Work basket" that my mother took. She sent for it. Then the newspapers sometimes had ads for patterns, like the Denver Post. She would sometimes send for those. My mother bought everything in ecru color. I liked white. (E)ven the curtains were ecru. I always thought that they looked like they needed to be bleached!

You always saw somebody with their embroidery hoop in their hands or their crochet hook. (My mother) never sat down without something in her hands and if she wasn't darning, she crocheted, embroidered and did the punch work. Or she was making clothes for someone's baby. She did these fine things by hand, all the baby dresses. I think that is something that a lot of people are still doing.

My mother got needlework publications. We used catalogues like Sears and Mont-gomery Ward's a lot. There were needlework fads. Women at that time didn't need directions. They would just look at things. My mother and six women...would sew together and have refreshments on Thursdays. They had a cup of cocoa and a cookie or two. They would go to different houses. They would help each other out with their designs and show them how to do it.

(My mother) made flowers of silk or georgette crepe, and later she used silk from siLk stockings. My mother happened to know a lady who wore silk stockings all of the time and mother asked if she could have the silk stockings that had the runs and holes in them. And she would wind this copper wire she got from screens on the window - copper screens - and she would pull the screens out until she got a single strand and she would form it into a petal or something. And then she would tie the silk stocking. She cut a piece off and then she would tie it around and make the petal. Then she would tie the copper wire around the end. Sometimes she would dye the flowers, and use spinach and beet juice to dye them because it was a pretty red and because of the green. She also bought dye - black, navy blue (for bloomers) or sometimes she would buy red or yellow. She liked to have the colors she wanted.

The Textile Arts

I learned how to embroider. (My mother) taught me the basic stitches. She tried to teach me to crochet, but I was so fumble-fingered that I didn't do well at it. I enjoyed embroidering, but it became a chore when I sometimes had to finish things!

When I was seven years old my mother sent me to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart to learn to crochet. It was very important to my mother that I learn the womanly arts. I was pretty much of a tomboy, but my mother was determined. My mother was not a patient teacher. She tried to teach me to sew, but the sewing machine and I were never friendly.

My mother and I would sit and embroider together. Her friends would come to visit and they would bring their handwork, their embroidery, knitting, and crochet with them. There was a lot of visiting on the hill; women would do their mending or darning. I remember watching a woman darn with a darning knob and being fascinated watching her darn. I thought this was fantastic! My mother would mend, but she didn't darn like this.

Mother did a lot of embroidery by candlelight or kerosene lamp. I remember as a little girl my mother would tell my Dad that "I can't see very well, this light isn't very bright," so he would get the kerosene lamp. My Dad would draw designs for my mother. If she had something in mind she'd ask Dad to draw birds, moose heads; she did punch needlework. She did some moose heads because they belonged to the Order of Moose. They had one hanging up here in the lodge in Bisbee for years, framed. It was just beautiful. She had a way with colors that I used to admire.

Punch needlework is where you have a long cylinder that looks like a fountain pen with a needle on the end and you thread it by using a straw from a broom. You push up and down in a certain way and you make a coating on top that can be sheared. It does not unravel; it just stays. It is making a comeback now. It was done on a heavy cloth. When you use hooks for the rugs, it has the same effect. Punch embroidery uses embroidery thread. You use one strand or four or six, depending on how full or fine you want it to be.

(My mother) never wrote anything down; it was ail in her mind. She learned how to do needlework by watching and observing and picking it up. She would watch someone and she would go home and try it. I am sure this was instilled in her when she was very young. She couldn't read directions and they didn't have directions in those days. It was handed down.

Most of the things were her own creation. I wished I had her mentality. She could (simply) do things; we never had a measuring tape or ruler. I think she learned a lot of this in Mexico. She had a natural talent which none of us have. There are some people that have that. She taught us. We had to learn mostly in the summer; during the school year we did not have a lot of time. All of us enjoyed what she taught us. All of us picked up some of her characteristics and design. Necessity is the mother of invention. The necessity pushed her talent. As I recall, she did not have a choice, either she made it or we didn't have it. Money was scarce. It was up to her. My father was a good father and provided whatever he could but it was up to (my mother) to see how we lived and how we grew up. I think it was not a matter of choice but of necessity.

(At first) my mother did not use much (of the stuff she made) to decorate the rooms. She used some of the pillowcases she had crocheted the edges on. The rest of the things she put in what she used to call her cedar trunk. It was a big trunk - a steamer trunk. Everything she made or embroidered she saved in there for the house they were going to build. That was their plan. They worked toward that home all the time I can remember. When the house was built, all of the beautiful things were put on display and I was amazed how pretty they were. She had scarves and bedspreads. Every Sunday she would put a beautiful tablecloth on the table. She kept her sewing machine in the shop where my Dad had his business. It had a great big window they would use to display things in the front of the shop. She would sit in the front and do her embroidery and sew clothes. She was quite a remarkable woman.

We would make curtain hangers and baskets from crocheted cloth. We would starch them with a mixture of sugar and water. While it was warm, you would stick the object in and shape it. (For) the large baskets we put a glass in the middle to shape it; the same with the curtain ornaments. We put them down flat, and then let them dry. The curtain ornaments were put on window shades, in the center. I had two round doilies which I shaped on the griddle on my stove. I wanted to dry them real fast. They were white ones. I formed them and shaped them and left them for a moment and when I came back they were cooked. They dried real fast!

In the summer my mother would sit and crochet or knit while listening to the radio. My mother taught me to knit, but I didn't like to. I knit one sweater and that's enough. My brother even learned how to knit. My mother made me learn, but I would much rather be outside playing.

When I was in high school during WWI, they would let us take home gray yarn to knit socks for the soldiers. (my brother) and I would bring home enough yarn to make one pair of socks. My Dad knitted, (my brother) knitted, (and) my mother knitted. We would start the sock then my mother would turn the heel for us. She could knit faster than we could. The four of us would knit. We would get one pair of socks done each night. I think (my Dad) learned to knit from my mother.

I saw a kit of a sweater in pink lambs wool that I just had to have. I took instruction on how to knit and purl. I just made the pocket.

My mother would buy stamped goods. We would go to Woolworth's. They had embroidery floss and yarns and crocheting material. My mother would take left-over scraps and make tablecloths or scarves. FW Woolworth was the place you went to buy all of that. JC Penney had a lot of fabric yard goods. I never go into House of Fabrics (today) without thinking of my mother. My mother would have been in seventh heaven if she could have seen House of Fabrics. Occasionally, she would order things from Sears & Roebuck, but she didn't trust what she couldn't see, handle and look at.

We had money to buy supplies for needlework. My grandfather was not wise in the way he used his money. (My mother's) mother was always poor, even though my mother was not poor. (But) in her brain, she was poor. (My mother always had the needlework supplies) she needed because my father knew this was a very strong interest of hers. He knew she needed to do this. We didn't appreciate my mother's skill when we were young. In looking back, I appreciated it (now).

Sewing, as much as she did and as beautifully she did it, was her outlet instead of joining clubs. It was a creative outlet for her. It used her extra energy. She was doing something all the time.

The Sewing Arts

(We put value) on what my mother did. (Even as a kid,) I liked everything that was hand made. She made beautiful clothes for my sister. She never used a pattern. She made a suit for herself. She made all of my sister's clothes and all of mine. She made our jackets and our coats, unless they happened to be on sale and she thought it was a good bargain. I remember home-made coats. She made my youngest brother's trousers and jackets to match. My Dad and my brother - she made their shirts. She made all the pajamas. She really was outstanding. I appreciated it when I was little.

When I was a young girl we would buy sacks of salt which were like small flour sacks. They were sewn at the top. That was the way we bought our salt. My mother would open them up and wash the labels off them. She would make me hem them and crochet the edge. Those were my hankies and I would use those all the time. She would make our bloomers out of flour sacks. I think she would use Iye to get the labels off; they were printed on. She made me a couple of dresses out of flour sacks when I was fourteen or fifteen. She took some flowered material and put rick-rack on the top and made a border and maybe made the collar out of the printed material, and then the cuff. The white part was the flour sack. That was good material!

Sugar came in cloth bags. (My mother) taught me how to embroider these for handkerchiefs. The feed sacks we embroidered for pillowcases. We would stamp embroidery patterns on them and then embroider them. She made our nighties and our slips out of the feed sacks. My Mom would put together four feed sacks and make sheets out of them. They were real cuddly. They would just wrap around you. She would bleach out the name of the company from the sack. She would make bloomers, too, great big things. "You know," I said, "girls don't wear those; you don't have to make them like that!" So then she made them short. My mother made my clothes and she would hand embroider the front of the bloomers with flowers.

All my clothes - these were Sunday clothes, of course - even my school clothes (my mother) made. She sewed everything I had. My mother, on my father's clothes, used to take the collars and turn them, and the cuffs too. She always wore little aprons over her house dress with two pockets (where) she would have her keys. She would make these aprons out of the (back of) men's shirts. The sleeves would make the ties and the pockets. (When) my younger brother came along she made all of his little blouses out of these men's shirts. There were pretty little stripes and they were good for a child. She sewed a lot.

I had little dresser scarves with Sunbonnet Sues in pink hats. It was made of scraps from dresses she had made (for me).

My mother always wore an apron. It was a like a pinafore. It totally covered her.

After gardening, (Granny) would change her apron. Incidentally, it was white with crochet on the bottom. Yes, it was a nice apron made out of white linen or white, very fine muslin with three to four inches of lace around the bottom. She had a supply of them. They were all beautifully ironed. She made these herself (on) an old Singer sewing machine.

(My mother used do her needlework) in the evening, never in the daytime. In the evening after things were put away and after the dishes were done...after seven or eight. My mother was always sewing, mending or ironing. She still loves her sewing. Now, I keep her busy mending and putting buttons on. We always had a big button box at our house and we still do. She was good at darning socks. We wore our clothes until there was nothing left. When we couldn't wear them any more is when she would cut out the little squares and make the blanket covers. She used to be really thrifty where clothes were concerned. It's sad that I didn't think about saving the stuff (my mother had magic). I think that we appreciated the things she made and we do more so now. I hope my kids appreciate mine.

Because there were so many girls, my father would buy a bolt of material. (My mother) would take it and make all of our dresses. She tried to make them different by making ruffles. She never used a pattern. She would measure you from here to here and cut. She was very talented. The same thing with her crochet. She would say "I'm going to make this or I'm going to design that." (She was) very artistic. She had a treadle sewing machine. Unfortunately, I don't have my mother's talent. I am lost if I don't have a pattern. I can crochet anything with a pattern. I have my pattern books. I have a whole stack of them. I looked at some and they were 10 cents.

Wash Day in Bisbee

The items were laundered, starched and ironed. The starch was a powder and boiled water and mixed it up like a pudding. It was thinned out according to the type of material to be ironed. The shirt band, collar and cuffs were stiff, but the other things were starched lighter. My mother used flat-irons. We had a box-iron that had an iron piece which went into the fire. And then you opened the back of the iron, the frame, and took the tongs and took that red-hot iron thing and put it into the iron. It was called a box iron. It had a trap door. It was cleaner; it was metal that you could polish. She did have a regular flat-iron on the stove if something needed to be done in a hurry. That was kept there all the time.

On the inside boiler there were two tubs. One of them had soapy water and a big scrub board - a washboard. Granny hired this Mexican woman to come down and do all the scrubbing for her and do most of the washing. She'd scrub them for awhile, then boil them for awhile, then take a stick and pull them out. (Was there a fire underneath?) Yes sir! There was a fire under the boiler. We would take those steamy hot clothes in a pan and put them in our wash where she was washing and she would scrub them on the scrub board again and then they would go into the two rinse waters. There were three tubs. One was just plain ordinary rinse and the other had bluing in it. Mother and Granny were the two that hung the things on the line. There were about five lines stretched across the yard. They would hang all our clothes and our sheets and then Mother would take her own in and iron the sheets and pillowcases. She would never put them on the bed without ironing them!

My mother always washed on Monday (and) ironed on Tuesdays. It was a common neighborhood schedule.

Everyone would wash on Monday on the Hill. They would talk about each other's laundry. Everything was starched. My Mom would make starch out of cornstarch. You would put a little starch in cold water and add as much hot water as you needed until you got the consistency you needed. If you wanted heavy starch you would make a paste. Everything was starched. She (even) starched the pillowcases! Our sheets were ironed (and) she would iron dish towels. We had an electric iron. Things were sprinkled and rolled and put in the laundry basket.

My mother starched everything so that when you would iron, it would get all over the iron. She used to starch my dresses. The raw seams in my dresses would fray (as they became worn), Then my mother would starch the dress and it was like having needles poke you. I would beg her not to starch my clothes. We would use good old Argo. They boiled the water and put it in. She would starch everything!

We didn't have running water or electricity. There was a spring and we had to carry the water. We enjoyed the rains at that time. The Gulch would bring water down which we would use for the wash. We were lucky to have a tub. My mother was so clean that she would wash her clothes and then boil them and then she'd rinse them in water and then rinse them in bluing water. I mean religiously! You couldn't find a speck in my mother's house. She was so clean! sometimes she would wash, but with the weather in Bisbee, you would have to p]ay it by ear. Everything was washed and ironed - our dresses, her bed things, my father's shirts.

Washing: (my mother) washed and we hung clothes. Everything had to be hung all together - the panties, the socks, and the dish towel. And you had to shake everything. If mother did not hear you snake everything she would say, "I did not hear you shake!" She would like to go out and straighten things. You didn't have to iron then. I hated that starch. I was always trying to get out of it. Then you had to sprinkle everything. You would get a big tub, sprinkle the clothes, roll them into balls and cover them up for awhile. My mother still has her ironing board. You would get the ironing board and you would iron and iron. You would iron everything. My blouses were starched and my Dad's shirts. My crinolines were starched. You had to iron your nightclothes. Now, mother still says I have to iron my flannel nightgowns!

(My mother) preferred to have the money; (my father) preferred to be modern. When we got the washing machine she just stood there and scrubbed on the washboard. My mother washed both by hand and in the washing machine. I remember putting the irons on the wood and coal stove to heat them up. We got this electric iron that had this thing to turn it on and off. When it would start to scorch you would turn the knob. I was ironing when I was ten years old. People wore their clothes for longer in those days. They didn't change clothes as often as people do now - or every hour like our kids do!

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