Stories

Christy Denault
Foster county, North Dakota, 1980 to 1990

I'm a Hoosier now, but I was a 10-year 4-Her in Foster County, North Dakota. One year, I was making a dress for Fashion Revue and finishing it at the last minute, of course. Two days before the event, I cut a hole in the dress and ruined it. My mom and I went out, bought more fabric and a NEW pattern. (Why we didn't remake the same pattern, we'll put down to a bout of deadline insanity.) In less than 48 hours, I sewed a red, double-breasted suit jacket and skirt. I don't remember how I did in the Fashion Revue, but I remember hemming the skirt by hand in the car on the way there. Later I asked my mother why on earth we didn't make something simpler since time was so short. She said, "Because that's not what 4-H teaches you." She was right. And I am still saving that suit.