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Are you a fanatic?
My late husband and I were avid road cyclists. At age 76, I still enjoy the sport with friends cycling three times a week. In 1993, we rode across the U.S.—Florence, Oregon to Mantoloking, New Jersey—a total of 4,202 miles in three months. We were self contained with panniers and a tent. Since then, our trips have taken us all over North America, to five countries in Europe and to New Zealand. Some might call us fanatics, I call it having fun!
In the early 1990s, my BIL and I took a “Sunday drive“ and ended up in a secondhand store in a small town east of Albuquerque. I discovered a book entitled “The Cottey Sisters of Missouri.” Being a P.E.O., I had to buy it, but because of caring for my father and then going back to work, it lay on a bookshelf until after I retired in 2004 and finally had time to read it. WOW! I was hooked!
The book was written by Elizabeth McClure Campbell (and my copy is signed by her!), daughter of Medora “Dora” Cottey McClure, one of Cottey's three founding sisters: Virginia Alice, Mary and Dora Cottey. The book starts with the Eads family (Virginia Alice's grandfather); the beginning of the Cottey family (when Sarah Elizabeth Eads married Ira Day Cottey); on to the fascinating history leading to the opening of Cottey College in 1884 (and its support by the whole Cottey family); through the gifting of Cottey to the P.E.O. Sisterhood in 1927; and finally the years following Virginia Alice's retirement until her death in 1940.
It is the most incredibly fantastic story that every P.E.O. should read! It is not only a history of the Cottey family and school, but a wonderful everyday family history of the USA from the early 1800s!
And then after becoming hyped from reading the book, I learned that Kit Milam Elliott (the granddaughter of Virginia Alice Cottey's husband, Sam Stockard) was a P.E.O. here in Albuquerque! Her enthusiasm matched my own so during the next year Kit and I collaborated and I wrote a script. Then several local P.E.O. sisters, Kit and I presented the script as a program to our Albuquerque Area Reciprocity at our Founders' Day Luncheon in 2008. I have also presented it to some individual local chapters. In the program, we referred to Virginia Alice Cottey Stockard as P.E.O.'s eighth founder.
I'd never felt such zeal (fanaticism!) to share such an amazingly beautiful story—and to think we as P.E.O.s are still carrying out the dream and vision of such a “fanatic” 19th-century lady (to give women as good an education as men) through her, and now our, Cottey College today.
My favorite book of all time is “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. This uplifting true story is about Greg in Pakistan as he tried to climb one of the highest mountains–K2. When he lost his way and was helped by the villagers, he noticed that the children did not have a school building. He wanted to do something to help and promised to return and build them a school. Greg realized that girls have the least access to education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I find Greg’s story is similar to P.E.O. because education for girls and women is a main goal. He discovered that educating girls is the way to peace. At this time Greg and his foundation have built or supported 131 schools with 58,000 students including 44,000 girls.
This book really inspired me and I would recommend it to all of my P.E.O. sisters.
My mother was a P.E.O. and two of my sisters are P.E.O.s. I was not yet a member when all this started. When my mother died, I inherited several pieces of crystal–plates, a punch bowl, cups and some serving pieces. Then one day my sister brought me a purple, slag glass bowl and asked if I thought the lacey edge looked like the pieces I had from my mother. Yes, it did, but why? And why was the bowl purple?
My research to answer those questions took me to book stores and libraries, where I could find no book completely describing this type of glass. I did find several books that mentioned the glass and gave information that conflicted with other books. Primary sources such as old catalogs, salesmen’s notebooks, and price lists offered better information.
Another form of research was done in antique stores, where I learned to identify many varieties of this type of glass. Once I realized that most pieces were not very expensive, I started buying every different piece I could find.
The National Imperial Glass Collectors’ Society, Inc. (NIGCS) was another source of information through their annual convention and the local study group. When their museum opened in Bellaire, Ohio, in 2003, I saw pieces of my glass I had not seen before.
The result of this growing fanaticism was my book, “Imperial Glass: Lace Edge,” published in 2004. I have been on the Board of Trustees of the NIGCS for several years and am now the President. My collection numbers to about 1200 pieces. I speak at glass or antique club meetings and to anyone else who will listen to information about this beautiful glass. Although my interest might appear to some as excessive enthusiasm, I am convinced that Lace Edge is well worth the time I have spent with it.
Simply put, I am crazy about my vintage wrought iron patio furniture. When my husband and I were stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, we were assigned a darling set of limestone quarters with a screened in porch. My mother gave me two pieces of her patio furniture--a chaise lounge and an easy chair. Years later (17 to be exact) my girlfriends and I were at a used furniture store in Paris, Texas, when one of them said I might like this wrought iron chair in the store. I was so excited when I realized it was identical to my parents’ furniture pattern. The girls asked me if I was sure it was the same. I responded by saying, “Oh, good grief! I have been sitting in my parents’ furniture since I was in junior high school and of course I am sure.” I felt like I got the biggest bargain for $25. I called my husband to tell him I had found a piece of wrought iron furniture even better than my parents’. Skeptically he asked how it could possibly be better than my parents’. I very proudly answered because it rocks and swivels. When I finished painting that chair it instantly became my husband’s chair. It was indeed the best of all I had.
I found the next chair outside of Dallas at an enormous flea market. Every inch of it was covered in rust and I almost hid the chair from my husband because I was afraid he would think I had truly lost my mind. It took me a week to hand sand that chair and another week to prime and paint it. Now my set was looking good. I had a chaise lounge, an easy chair, a rock-and-swivel chair and another easy chair that my children nicknamed a “do-nothing” chair. I was told not to buy any more “do-nothing” chairs, but to buy more rock-and-swivel chairs. My family acted like I could march into any store and magically find more matching pieces.
I haunted the first used furniture store and low and behold, I finally found two more pieces for my set--a bouncy chair and a loveseat that matched. I almost missed these pieces at the store because they were painted such ridiculous colors, but the pattern could not escape my keen eye.
Occasionally I would browse eBay and see pieces for sale on either the west or east coasts, but never anything nearby until one day I noticed some pieces that were located in the Chicago area. I was so excited that I called my husband (who had already moved to our next town while I stayed behind so the children could finish the school year). I asked if he would mind my bidding on something on eBay and he asked why he should mind. I told him because he would have to go pick up my purchase. He was so nice and said that he “owed” me for three deployments so he would do that for me. He drove 12 hours in one day to pick up the “mother lode” as my one dear friend nicknamed the find. My set now welcomed a three-person sofa, a table (I’ve only seen one other like this), two more rock-and-swivel chairs and a footstool, all in my parents’ pattern. I spent so little on the unwanted furniture, but I feel like I’ve kept a bit of history alive having started with my parents’ set and discovering the same pattern all over the U.S. It has been such fun to collect. I reap the benefits when my family gathers and lingers on the comfy furniture with multiple choices of where to sit.
My husband thinks we have enough furniture now, but of course I am still looking for that other matching piece I don’t have or have never seen in my pattern.
