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Since I had surgery on my foot April 17th, I’ve been confined to bed with my foot raised in the air above my heart for at least 20 hours a day.

I’ve watched TV and read and just in general fought boredom tooth and nail.

Twice a week, on Monday and Friday, my cousin Crystal comes to do the floors (vacuuming and mopping) laundry and housework in general … because that is what families do for each other. I look forward to her visits so much that I fear I am wishing my life away, looking forward to the next time I see her. We mainly talk about our lives as children of summer. We spent the summers with our grandparents working in tobacco and all that entailed.

This week VBS (Vacation Bible School) starts for Douglas Mill Baptist Church and many of the other churches in the county. I remember the wonderful things that we did for our craft work, like making wallets and word burning Bible verses into planks of wood, but most particularly the snow globes we made.

My Aunt Margaret (Kneece) collected baby food jars for weeks to form our globe. In the lid we put florist clay. In the clay we placed a small artificial flower limb. Then we filled the jar with mineral oil and moth ball flakes, carefully placed the lid on the jar and closed it tightly. Shaking lightly, it snowed on our little flower garden. I kept mine for years.

Isn’t it funny how something so easily done by small hands can leave such an impact on our lives? We made these little trinkets over 50 years ago and yet I can tell you that the lid was blue and the flowers made of plastic were lily of the valley.

I hope all the children involved in VBS this summer will look back in the year 2062 and remember the people who provided them with this wonderful time in their lives and tell you exactly what they crafted from inexpensive items.

To my Aunt Margaret … thanks for the memories.

— Sandi McBride is a resident of Jefferson who blogs regularly and enjoys her garden and her furry and feathered friends. She is a wife and mother of two sons.