Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 25, 1994 TAG: 9408250056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Jean Ferguson Mabes preserved her "Precious Memories" with needle and thread. An appliqued quilted wall hanging, four years in the making, records the history of the Garden City neighborhood where she lived from 1941 until her marriage in 1962.
One block shows the little house that her father and uncle built 53 years ago, when Springvale Street was a dirt road with only two other houses.
"Their hand prints and initials are still there in the steps," she said. "The house sat on two 50-foot lots. My mother traded a cow her mother gave her for one of them."
The double lot afforded room for pets and chickens and a hog to provide meat for the table. Sometimes, Mabes and her sisters would chase the chickens out and play dolls in the chicken house.
"Mama had a baby a year for four years - all girls," she said. "I was number three. We had a great time playing with our dolls and the Betsy McCall paper dolls that were printed in the magazine from 1949 until 1953."
Betsy McCall has her own square in the wall hanging, with two of her favorite outfits.
But Mabes does not let nostalgia create an artificial perfection. She remembers being switched by her mother for misbehaving and paddled by her father for hiding in the wardrobe when she didn't want to go to Sunday school.
Her parents' marriage was not a happy one, but they did not divorce until after the girls were grown. For 45 years, her father, Benjamin Roscoe Ferguson, drove a bus for Safety Motor Transit - the Riverdale, Garden City, Roanoke Avenue route. He often lived elsewhere but came home frequently to be with his daughters.
Mabes' mother, Nannie Holland Ferguson, struggled to manage financially with the money her husband sent her, supplementing it by sewing and baby-sitting in her home.
"Daddy loved us and saw that we had what we needed, but I know it must have been hard on Mama to be the one who had to keep us in line and raise us by herself," she said.
"Mama" is depicted in the wall hanging seated in a rocker quilting with little ones around her. To the children she baby-sat, she was "Granny." Both names are embroidered on the square along with the dates of her birth in 1913 and her death in 1983.
Another square shows Mabes' father driving his busload of passengers - his four daughters. He died in 1982, shortly after retiring.
A picture from a coloring book, altered to show a driver and passengers, served as a pattern for the bus. The female figures were adapted from a book of quilt patterns, and the buildings were original drawings.
Many of the neighborhood buildings have special meaning to Mabes. One is Garden City Baptist Church, where she "was baptized in the old part and married to Don Mabes in the new sanctuary."
She met her future husband at Garland's Southeast Drug Store, where you could buy "the best hot dogs for about 10 for a dollar."
Don Mabes was pointed out to her as the owner of a car she had noticed with a "For Sale" sign in the window.
"We talked about the car, but I didn't buy it because I was ashamed to let him know how much money I made," she said. She worked as a ward clerk at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Another building with many memories is the old Garden City Elementary School, which she attended until fourth grade when the new school on Yellow Mountain Road opened.
"First grade used the stage for a classroom, and I vaguely remember an old street car out back that served as a cafeteria for the children who bought lunch," Mabes recalled. "We always packed our lunches, and my older sister says she used to wonder what it would be like to eat in that street car."
Mabes' mother traded at Young Brothers' Grocery, which provided personal service. Mabes said groceries ordered by phone were delivered to your home, or you could go to the store and get a free ride home on the truck with your purchases. Credit also was available.
"Mama always had a balance at Young Brothers," she said. "Daddy would send her money, and she would pay $40 on her $80 bill. If the $40 happened to pay it in full, then she would charge $40 more until next month."
With money so tight, her mother once asked the owner what would happen if she should die. He told her not to worry; he would personally see that she had a decent burial.
"Mama was really touched," Mabes said. "She cried when he passed away, remembering how thoughtful he was of her. I showed his widow the wall hanging with the picture of the store, and she was really pleased with it."
Hearts border the hanging, with embroidered names of almost a hundred people Mabes remembers living in Garden City when she was young.
by CNB