Ingrid Baptiste
Bio
Aren’t we all just a little crazy.
What’s normal anyway?
Stories (2/0)
Sewing up the Past
I am 6 or 7 years old, the air is stale filled with dust, moth balls, and cotton fabric, I am sitting on the floor between the racks of fabric in the tenth store my mom has dragged me into. I am bored and rather be playing on the block instead of spending time in fabric shops on my Summer breaks, weekends, or anytime my Mom found an extra minute. If you couldn't guess, my mom was a Creative and her main outlet was making clothes, clothes for me and my sisters as well as herself. As a child watching Saturday morning cartoons the sound of mom's sewing machine blazing in the other room was a constant. The older we got the less, we girls, wanted to wear a home creation over a designer one. As any good(typical) daughter I tried to seperate myself from home and traditions of sewing (which my mom would have loved to pass on) to carve my own way and that meant not doing things my mom thought I should. Ironically, that didn't last long because by the end of High School I wanted to go to design school and make clothes my career and my Mom said 'No'. She, like all immigrant parents, wanted her children to become professionals which meant medicine, law, or banking. I was more like my mom then she would have liked, she wanted it as a hobby/skill for entertainment I wanted it as a career. After all the arguing and parental guilt, I did what she wanted and got a degree in Economics. The day after graduation, I showed her my degree, Suma cum laude, top of my class and I've spent everyday since making a living in one form of creative enterprise. Looking back I was defiantly living the life she didn't want for me and I hope she was proud of me but I never asked. I don't remember my mom ever showing me, formally, how to sew until now. I guess I was always learning when I was watching her. I would get up for a snack and walk into her sewing room to see what she was up to. I’d see her Mcall patterns organized and in order of her next project with fabric swatches, threads and zippers or buttons attached to the pattern in little ziplock bags. She would plan and envision what she would be working on next when she had time to herself, away from her husband and three girls which she cooked and cleaned for. For years, she’d lay yards of fabric out and pin the brown tissue sheets of Mcall pattern paper over the fabric and with the biggest Shears I ever saw would cut out the pieces of the fabric into all these weird shapes (I thought). I’d go back to watching movies, studying, or whatever. I didn’t think I was that interested, it was just something my Mom did like my Dad in the garage: cutting, carving, hammering. When I was a kid, I’d walk through spaces watching my parents working on their projects, alone, and I know remember I was always interested in what they were doing, what’s it gonna be? What's it gonna look like when it’s done? As most pestering children, they shood me away and I got used to staying out of the way until I found friends, boys, MTV to keep me away.
By Ingrid Baptiste 3 years ago in Families
I want s’more:-) please
Thinking of a time before COVID, sitting by a campfire, laughing, dancing and eating S’mores (with friends). There are such fond memories of the combination of Graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows, but mostly friends. This is in honor of the memory of the destination wedding weekend in Texas where it was the last time the “motley cru” got together. We all, first, met while working together at a small bistro in the heart of the city. A bartender, a waiter, a chef and a Maitre’ D. We formed a bond that lasted years; even after leaving one by one and moving onto bigger or just other things. Significant others have come and gone, life since then has Happened!! We joined together on a lake in Texas to celebrate the wedding of our chef, we sat by a campfire roasting marshmallows, barbecuing meat, peppers and anything else we could expose to heat. It was a sweet, spicy and deeply flavor full weekend.
By Ingrid Baptiste 3 years ago in Feast