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Eat Your Peas... They'll Make Your Hair CurlyBy Patricia Blankenship
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As I was growing up, we often had Sunday lunches, picnics and holiday dinners together with my dad’s large family. My favorite uncle, Uncle Putt (yes, I’m from the South, and everyone in my family has a nickname) would say to me "Eat your peas. They’ll make your hair curly." I really didn’t like those peas, and I hated my curly hair.
I tried everything to get rid of that awful curly hair. In the Sixties, I tried sleeping on orange juice can rollers. Do you remember those? You get no sleep with them. Next I tried a chemical relaxer; it was messy and smelled bad - forget that. Ironing my hair straight was out of the question; it was never long enough. I found that with enough hairspray and teasing I could make my hair almost straight. That worked as long as the humidity was low, but that doesn’t happen often in the South. When I discovered that blow-drying my hair was a good option, I lived with that for many years. In the Eighties, to my surprise, curly hair was in again. My mom thought I was crazy when I spent I spent $60 to get a curly perm. Why try to fight Mother Nature! As usual if life, I have come full circle. The folk-art quilt shows four self-portraits of me as a child - curly hair, glasses, and a big frown on my face. All those green peas still make me think about Uncle Putt. My uncle died a few years ago, but I know he would get a laugh out of this quilt and that I still remember to "eat my peas." |