Tag Archives: mendota-cemetery

The Winner of the Mendota Quilt

After months of planning, buying fabric, cutting, sewing and coordinating the work of others, the 2012 Mendota Cemetery Quilt “Common Ground” came to life. More months followed of selling tickets, and then it came to a climatic end at the Mendota Homecoming today when the winner was drawn.

Chris was the ring leader of the Mendota Cemetery quilt. Without her, there would be no quilt. She’s been out of town all summer helping a family member. She’s back–and just in time to draw the ticket.

Over 1600 tickets were sold.

I had about 1/16 chance in winning. It didn’t matter. Today was not my day. It was Libby’s day!

Libby bought a $1 chance from my neighbor Margie. Next week, she’ll be enjoying the Mendota Cemetery Quilt called “Common Ground.” I would like to be a fly on the wall when Margie calls her and tells her!!

This was not my original post for today but I was so excited I had to share it. Living in a rural community means many things…and today, these things are all good.

We’re already whispering about next year’s Mendota Cemetery Quilt. I’ll take you along when we get the fabric. We’ll be working hard to top this one.

Only 10 More Days

Only ten more days and I am unemployed. It’s a little scary, but it is so necessary. Check me out. I’ve got so pudgy I could be a chipmunk. Ok…maybe a chipmunk is a little small. How about a hog? I’ve got to lose weight before fall as that’s hog killing time in southwest Virginia. I will keep you abreast of my progress. It all starts on May 31. My new healthy life.

Back to the hogs. I can never recall my family setting down to a Thanksgiving dinner when we grew up in Mendota. I remember other families having Thanksgiving but not us. I asked one of my sisters, and she explained that Thanksgiving was hog killing time. Oh. Yuck. I wonder…why was it Thanksgiving?

What do you think Dale Jett is thinking in the picture below? He’s digging around hunting raffle tickets, but I’ll bet he’s really thinking…”she’d better be careful at Thanksgiving.” Or…”hummm….I smell bacon.”

That’s okay…go ahead and make fun and think pig thoughts. I’m gonna be skinny by summer’s end!!

Oink Oink Squeal

Mendota Cemetery Benefit 2012

Dale Jett & Hello Stranger

Last night was the Mendota/Mt. Vernon Cemetery Benefit 2012. Here’s what went good and what when bad:

Good things…people came! They came to our benefit. I never doubted the talent of the artists — Dale Jett & Hello Stranger (in the photo…that’s Dale Jett, Theresa Jett and Oscar Harris). They have played at the Opry. However, I kept thinking of Oscar’s comment that sometimes “at home…people just think that’s ol’ Dale and ol’ Oscar…we see them at the Rally Mart.”

That was not the case. They played their best, and the people gave their best. They clapped and clapped and when Oscar thanked them, they kept clapping. I teared up. Bet that Dale, Oscar, and Theresa were sniffling around on the stage, too!

Note to self: Next year bring tissues!

Bad things…we ran out of food! Given the opportunity, we’ll do better next year. We planned for 200. 350 showed up. We totally underestimated this benefit.

My feet are hurting but my heart is full.

Oh….and we raised money. It looks like each cemetery (we divided the proceeds between Mt. Vernon Cemetery and the Mendota Cemetery) will get about $1500 to help with the mowing expense. We sold a bunch of quilt tickets, too, and that is not in the count.

I recall my sister, Pat, nudging me a few years ago when we were sitting at the Mendota Homecoming. She said “don’t you just love living in the country?”

I do.

Cemetery Quilt

My parents are buried in a community cemetery. It’s so pretty. So peaceful. My husband and I will be buried there. I hope that’s not for a while.

At one time, the Mendota Cemetery had enough money gaining interest to pay for the upkeep, but that was when interest rates were 12% and gas for the mowing was 60 cents per gallon. Now, we have to do fundraising. We are quite a little fundraising machine. There’s bingo. We have afghans with screen printed pictures of our rural scenes. We have cookbooks. Did I tell you that we never charge any community member for burial there? Part of the tradition of rural life is pulling together during hard times, and death is a hard time.

We’re raffling off a quilt this year as part of our fundraising. We’re having a benefit, too, but I’ll write about that later.

Quilt called Common Ground

The quilt is a compilation of 30 women, but there were really only a few that did most of the work. I was not one of the few, but I did sew six or seven strips together, so I can claim my piece of the quilt’s history. It’s called “Common Ground”…or maybe “Uncommon Ground”? See, I don’t even know but I’m still taking credit for part of the quilt!

As the quilt neared completion, we wondered if we could sell 500 tickets. Margie called me. I called Nancy. Nancy called Margie. Margie called Lisa. Lisa called Chris. Chris called Linda. Maybe not all in that order, but you get the picture. We could not decide.

I ordered big. I recalled my neighbor Jennifer saying “we serve a big God…think big!” She was talking about another subject, but I recalled her statement when ordering the raffle tickets, so I ordered not 500 — but 1,000!!! Guess what? Tonight I ordered another 1,000 tickets!

We will have to do a quilt every year following this success. Maybe I can do more than six strips!!