Hand Portraits

 Holly Matucheski : Hands of  a Quilter

Nurse, Mother, Daughter, Wife, Gramma, Gardener, Reader

A few year's ago, the Hospital where I work celebrated Nurse's Week with Hand Portraits.  Many people didn't want their pictures taken, but they were perfectly ok with having their hands photographed.  Hands do the work; Hands do the caring.  It was a very moving display of so many nurse's hands. 

A few years ago, I saw a beautiful photography display at Evergreen, a retirement community here in Oshkosh.  They had beautiful black and white hand portraits of some of their residents.  Often with a moving quote.  I loved this display, and wanted to capture some of the hands in my family that I want to remember ...  So at Christmas this year, I took a few pictures.

Gramma Pickles - Violet Smitmajer

I love her red fingernail polish, and the sparkles!  Her ring-finger is missing a knuckle from when the cow kicked the shovel she was holding in the barn ...

Frank Matucheski - being goofy

Rosita Matucheski's Hands

 Ray Matucheski's Hand

 These are my hands, full of cranberries!

“Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.”  

-- Carl Sandburg 

My own hands again, with currants from the back yard. 

Teacher

Here's another one prompted by Story Corps' National Day of Listening : Debi Thomas skating to George Michael's "One More Try" way back in 1988 at the Calgary Winter Olympics. This was her Thank You to coaches and teachers in the exhibitions after she won a Bronze medal. The expectation back then was that she would win Gold. So this was kind of an apology and a disappointment. Looking back, it was phenomenal, marvelous and heartfelt.  Hindsight is 20/20, right?

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." -- Benjamin Disraeli

There are several teachers I want to give my heartfelt Thanks to : Mr. Harry Cramer, David Olson (DO), Anne Lundin, Doug Johnson. You, too, Dottie.  You all made a difference in my life, and I'm glad you were part of it. Thank you!

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Mr. Harry Cramer, my old Latin teacher in Antigo High School. He looked ancient even then in the 1980s, but he always had a smile through the wrinkles. What a great sense of humor he had. You had to have a sense of humor to wear the horrendous ties he wore everyday to school--they were a talking point. He made learning Latin painless with the help of cartoons and where the characters "clamat OW!' and "amat mel." 25 years later, I can even still tell you what that means. (Victor yelled ow! after hitting his thumb with a hammer (or some such). Anna loves honey.) He and his wife, Mrs. Cramer offered me my first regular job as a clerk in the local book store Mrs. Cramer managed : Book World in Antigo, WI. I tended to go there anyway because I was interested in books and song lyrics ... I guess they were looking for a kid who would be interested in the nature of the work.  I was.

Mr and Mrs. Cramer organized trips to Greece and Italy regularly for the Latin Clubs. My mom and I got to go on the trip in 1988. What an experience that was for both of us. My mom had never been in a plane or left the county before that time (me either, for that matter).

Mr. Cramer also introduced me to the Holiday Folk Fair in Milwaukee that I love so much. Back in the day, the Language clubs used to take a 5-hour bus trip down to Milwaukee the weekend before Thanksgiving for the Folk Fair -- 3 days of ethnic foods, folk dancing, and crafts from all over the world. It was love at first site for me! With a name like Matucheski, I could never deny that I was Polish, and the Poles were the butt of many Polish jokes in that neck of the woods. Well, the Polish stand at the Folk Fair Bazaar had the most beautiful wooden boxes and painted eggs as Christmas Tree ornaments for sale, crafted in Poland. Here was concrete proof that the Poles made a contribution to the world, and made beautiful things. The Folk Fair is still a fall tradition for my little family. I was saddened to hear that the Language Clubs no longer make the annual trek from Antigo. The Folk Fair was one of many gifts Mr. Cramer gave me.

Mr. C. developed Parkinson's Disease in his later years. Last year when I was home for Christmas, the phone rang. It was Mr. Cramer, who had accidentally and serendipitously dialed the wrong number--ours. It was good to catch up with both him and Mrs. Cramer that day.   I'm thinking of you, Mr. C!

Bread Labels from the Heart of Yorubaland

In 1993, I spent the summer in Nigeria, West Africa, with a group of college students on a Fullbright Intensive Group Study Project to study the Yoruba language and culture. We were based in Ile-Ife, the cradle of humanity. ;-)

All over the neighborhood where we lived, people had cottage industries selling soap, or bread, or soda pop, or mop strings, or pottery, or any other number of things ...



With a dozen students, we ate a lot of bread that summer. I started collecting labels from loaves of bread. I was intrigued by the names and creativity of each label. It was all home-made white bread--every one of them tastey.


Ok--The Ezekiel Bread is from the Madison, WI, area, but it was so much the same spirit that I kept it with the bread labels.

A few years ago, I was looking for these and couldn't find them anywhere. LOST. This week, a small box toppled down and there they were : FOUND!

These will now be properly scrap-booked with my pictures and writings from that summer.