Blankets make me think of the outdoors and of times spent at my grandparent’s farm in the Midwest. Blankets were pulled out and used for various occasions. As kids, our job would be to sit on a blanket and shell large bowls of peas for my grandmother’s creamed peas and new potatoes. We’d watch plays performed by my older cousins (Little Red Riding Hood is one I remember) while seated on blankets. Blankets were the surfaces where we emptied our “pretty jars” (my grandmother’s name for them). We each had our own jar of small things like marbles, buckeyes, and gum machine toys that we played with and admired. Blankets were spread for picnics in pioneer cemeteries and other historic places.
We continue to have picnics today, with blankets spread on the ground of the hilltop cemetery where my father is buried.