Thursday, April 24, 2008

Silk Jacket

Ta-da! Remember the three brown jackets? I ate up 8+ yards of my stash trying to find just 'the' right pattern for my silk. Here it is. I wore this to Sam's 50th Texas A&M reunion - Class of '58. I received several compliments. Sam overheard one of them. When I said, "Thank you," with a big smile on my face, he said, "She made it."

We headed out from northeast Texas to College Station without the frogs. We stopped in Longview on the way so that I could buy them. I initially thought gold frogs would be what this jacket needed, but they just didn't look good at all. I didn't like the white ones either; so, decided on black. I wore a pair of ecru slacks with a white knit top. I think it will look snazzy in the winter with a pair of black slacks.

Look at this photo of a small portion of the Texas A&M Class of 1958. This is all who attended the reunion - at least those who were there for Muster on Monday, April 21, 2008. In 1958, the college enrollment was about 8,000...now it is well over 40,000. If I remember correctly, this class had around 1,500 students. Only 270 preregistered for the events with a unknown number registering during the weekend.
If you are not a Texas Aggie, you may not know what Muster is. I have attended small local Musters, but this one on campus at Reed Arena was so emotionally moving that I can not adequately describe it. The Aggies gather and "Quietly call the Muster," by calling out the name of each Aggie who died during the past year. As each name is called out, someone - friend, family, fellow student - answers, "Here." When each name of a Class of '58 member's name was called, each and every one of the men from that class answered, "Here." I sat among those men wishing I were somewhere else in the arena to hear them. As it was, from where I sat, it was such still such an emotionally moving event.

The following two links can explain it better than I can.
http://aggietraditions.tamu.edu/muster.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muster_(Texas_A&M_University

The Class of '58 raised money (over $580,000) to give to Texas A&M for a special project. I made a lap quilt and some quilted postcards which were raffled off at the Fifth Group's reunion last spring.