A Wedding in the Deep Woods: By Lee Donaldson, Lumber Boy

In those days if a couple was going to get married their parents would buy materials and hire a cabinet maker and give him a room in their home.

Now, of course, the couple will need a wedding dress and a suit and linens and so on, so the parents hire a weaver and seamstress who also moves into the house.

And then you give (the weaver) the fleece off of the sheep and you bring her in a bunch of flax that has been broken.

(To break the flax) you have to grow (it), then you bury it in the ground and the next year you dig it up again and let it dry. Then you get right up on it with your feet and stomp, and you break the flax all up. And then you can sift it out and you get rid of the stalks and you’ve just got the tow (short soft fibers) left.

Well then (the weaver) takes the tow and works it and bleaches it until it becomes some of the finest of white linen. And you use the very most beautiful for your wedding garment … and for his shirt.

Then there’s another part of the flax that you can’t use for (the wedding dress). You can’t bleach it until it’s white and nice, so you make other things out of that, such as towels and so on. They used to make a hand towel out of medium material that was so harsh you had to wash it several times before it got soft. Then they had one (kind of material) beyond that yet that was sack cloth, to be used for sacks and bags and stuff.

Then (the weaver) would take the wool and she’d bleach that and she’d spin it into thread and into yarn. Then she would weave it——she had to weave the flax into cloth too, you know——and then make it up into garments, dress, suit and wedding garments and bed linen and stuff.

Well, you bring in the cabinet maker and him a young single fella and then you bring in the weaver/seamstress and her an unmarried girl, they kind of get together sometimes. And that’s what my grandma and grandpa done. They got together and they got married too.

Still hoping you’ll go to http://www.dawncreations and take a look at my book, Footprints Under the Pines. Or you may find it on Amazon or CBC. Footprints Under the Pines may also be ordered in most bookstores including Barnes & Nobel or borrowed from the Library of Michigan.