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January 1941. "Guest of Sarasota, Florida, trailer park at the beach with her family." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.
The "ugly" shoes are called open-toed oxfords.
... is another's torture. This lady appears to be having a relaxing time, yet I can imagine few things more stressful than being required to sit on a hot, sandy beach in the sun while performing menial tasks (or reading a book, for another example). And I know, because my wife requests that I try to do so with her every year during the family beach vacation.
[Generally speaking, Sarasota in January is not hot. - Dave]
And those pot holders came out much smaller than they looked on the loom. No wonder there were so many burned hands back then. When I made them in the sixties, the loops were made of some kind of stretchy polyester so they melted easily too.
And her shoes look like toeless bowling shoes
Seeing the woman's loom took me back to when I had rheumatic fever. Recuperation was centered around lying flat on my back without moving.
Bit by bit I was allowed to have a pillow, then to sit up, and so on. Eventually I was given a loom like this one. It kept me busy without being active. Possibly I was not as well as everyone said I was because I found the weaving both exhausting and painful. And just as I would get about halfway through one potholder, a loop would pop off, triggering more loops to do the same.
I could have supplied the entire world's potholder needs with all the potholders I made on that loom, and still have had a warehouse full.
As a kid, we had a few of those little metal looms and between me, my mother and sister, we had about 100 hotpads in the kitchen and a few more as coasters, lamp pads, you name it.
To make that many pot holders. My mom had one of these looms when we were little and she used the pot holders for many years that we made on the loom. The loops you bought to make the holders didn't hold up to a lot of heat like some of the newer pot holders do.
There must be a name for the open-toed, low-heeled, lace-up shoes the woman is wearing ... besides ugly, that is.
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