Quilts, Tacos & Tattoos

And So It Is

Marmie & Me is a relatively small shop located on Broadway Street in downtown Marble Falls, Texas. Most of the shops in this strip remained empty. To the right of Mom's shop is Local Taco, the Mexican restaurant, and on the other side of it is Indigo Ink, a tattoo parlor. When Mom signed the lease eight years earlier, the landlord promised, "This location will be booming in ten years, Honey. We finally got a Wal-Mart in this town." The landlord had been overly optimistic.

I was not technically allowed to work at Marmie & Me until I was sixteen. "You don't work here. That is what you tell anyone who asks you," Mom told me every time I was in the store. I spent many days and nights there folding fat quarters, unpacking the new fabric bolts, taking out the trash and turning off the sewing machines.

Now I was seventeen and this was my second official summer working in the shop when Mom and I arrived at work early one hot Monday morning. We were the first to arrive. Mom stood at the door in her usual white polo shirt and blue jeans with white tennis shoes.

"I got on my uniform," she laughed and dug in her giant purse for her apron. She unfolded the red and white flowered apron and tied it around her waist before pulling the front door key dangling from a red plastic heart, out of a front pocket. Mom turned the key in the lock and smiled, "I bet that is Betsy pulling up right now." I turned around to see Betsy driving into the parking lot. Betsy was ten years older than Mom and looked out for me a lot. She often reminded Mom that I was still a kid and needed some time to just be a teenager.

"Morning Betsy," I called out as I walked to meet her.

She opened her car door and smiled, "Hi Cricket. I thought your mother would be running late today with you tagging along." She reached over the front seat into the back to collect one of her many handmade bags.

"Want some help?" I asked.

"No sweetie, you better help Ruthie."

"Really. I'd rather help you,"

"I'm fine. Go help her," she instructed. I stuck my tongue out at her. "With a sweet smile, please," she cajoled. I marched away with a big smile on my face. I heard Betsy whisper optimistically, "Maybe she will be nice today."

Ruthie was just pulling in. She has been working for my mother for years and she was old when she started and always grumpy in the morning. Now she was even older and grumpier. I watched as she slammed her old brown Buick LeSabre into the closest parking space and heard her stomp on the emergency break. The blinker on the front end of the car was still flashing. Even though my mother encouraged her not to park close to the shop so the spaces would be available for customers, she always did as she pleased.

"Good morning, Miss Ruthie," I said as I walked to her door.

"What's so good about it?" she growled.

"It's not raining this morning," I said, thinking it a simple, but positive observation.

"Well my yard needs rain," she quickly responded with a slam of the car door. Just then two motorcycles pulled into the parking lot and parked down at Indigo Ink. I had run ahead of Ruthie to hold open the door for her.

"Cricket, do you see those hooligans down there? Don't you become one of them with all those tattoos everywhere."

Mom yelled from the cutting table, "Ruthie they have names. Big Chuck and One-eyed Steve. They are our neighbors and you need to be nice."

Ruthie looked at me and grumbled, "Names. Those aren't names."

I saw Luanne's reflection in the front display window and turned on my heels. She had been dropped off at the edge of the street on the curb and was carrying a big cardboard box.

"Did you finish them?" I asked as I ran to peek inside her package.

"I did, and they are gorgeous. You can have one now if you like." She winked as she handed me the box.

As Luanne and I walked up to the store I saw Marianna on the sidewalk sweeping. She and her husband Mario operated the Local Taco. Every morning she swept the sidewalk for all three of the stores in our little strip mall.

"Hola Marianna," I shouted.

"Hola Cricket. You come by this afternoon for some guacamole. I'm trying something new this week. Pecans."

"You don't have to ask me twice," I shouted. Marble Falls was famous for it's Pecans and some of the neighborhoods were even built in old Pecan orchards.

I walked in the store and placed the box on the cutting table. "They look so pretty," I gushed as I showed one to Mom and bit into it. "And they taste good, too."

Luanne pulled out a cupcake for herself. They were decorated to look like sweet baby-faced heads with blankets wrapped up to their chins. We were teaching a baby quilting class that day and Mom thought it would be a good idea to have baby shower snacks for the quilting class to get people in the mood. Luanne could bake and decorate. Her cakes and cupcakes were as lovely as her quilts. Rich with loving details, they inspired one to create and dream big.

Luanne's husband did not get her creative obsession. She only worked at the store to show him that she could make money quilting, even though she spent every paycheck at the store on fabric and supplies for her next project.

Mom began handing out our weekly paychecks. "All right ladies, we had a good week thanks to Luanne and her selling skills." She grinned as she handed Luanne the first check.

"At least I am funding my habit," laughed Luanne as she looked at her paycheck.

"And you love it here." Mom bumped Luanne with her hip and then handed Ruthie her check.

"I think he is just glad I am out of the house all day so he can watch sports," Luanne said as she rolled her eyes, folded her paycheck into fourths and placed it in the outside pocket of her blue leather wallet.

"That man has no patience," Ruthie barked.

Hank had a special way of coming to pick up Luanne. When he was ready to pick her up, he let everyone know what kind of mood he was in. He pulled into a parking space backwards and honked the horn. If he honked twice, he was willing to wait three to five minutes. If he honked one long honk, she better grab her purse and bolt because it was not fun if he got out of the car and came in the store.

Mom handed a paycheck to Betsy, the bookkeeper who spent most of her time in the back office crunching numbers, ordering fabric, and talking to Mom about class ideas. She worked as the bookkeeper for the quilt shop part-time and for Marianna & Mario the owners of Local Taco the rest of the week. She was the rowdiest of the bunch. After spending all day looking at numbers, she liked to blow off steam by celebrating the shop's successes by dancing. She and Mom would crank up the music and act like they were Solid Gold Dancers.

Mom placed two checks in the cash register drawer for the two other part-time employees: Nana, who came to work when it did not interfere with her Bridge Club days or hair appointments, and Poncho, the sewing machine technician. He was very quiet and neat and had a big family who were all very proud of him.

That was everyone at Marmie & Me. We really were a simple little quilt shop with nothing too exciting to report. That was, until Mitchell Goose decided to bring in a sewing machine for repair.