Take a break! Put your feet up!
We have three footstools in our house. They’ve all been here throughout my lifetime and longer. Sad to say, I take them pretty much for granted. One is in my office — more-or-less decorative only — and was made by my mother in 1936. It is of woven sisal with wooden legs. Mom made it as a “therapy” project during a nine-month hospitalization following my birth. We seldom use it, but I think I love it best.
Two footstools live in our East Room. The large leather one has become the “repository” for keepsake oddments — a 1943 Life with a picture of a woman steel worker on the cover; a 1973 LP by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “For The Last Time;” a booklet called “The Practical Meal Planner for Women Engaged in War Work” by Louise Espey, Home Economist, Bonneville Power Administration. I think we kept that Meal Planner because of the author’s name — no relation, but my uncle Willard Espy’s wife was also Louise.
The leather footstool, itself, isn’t very attractive. We had it recovered 20 or 30 years ago — I think by Mr. Mead in Astoria. Previously its leather covering was in four pie-shaped pieces which were sewn together but it was falling apart. It had seen lots of use — I can remember that my Aunt Mona (who was tiny; not even five feet tall) used to draw it up near the fire and sit on it when we gathered in the evening. She said that when she was a child all the siblings vied over whose turn it was to sit on the leather footstool and when they were little, two of them could share it. I wish Mr. Mead had replicated the pie-shaped pieces… It had a lot more character that way.
The other footstool in the East Room is tucked into the corner near the fireplace. It has a needlepoint top and is the prettiest of the three. I wish I knew who made it. It’s also the smallest — too small for sitting except maybe for a very young child. It’s the only one that I feel extends a personal invitation for me to “sit a while and put your feet up.” Good idea on this blustery winter day!