A dear friend of mine works as the executive director of a good and worthy non-profit, Save Our Cemeteries, which, as it sounds, works to preserve the unique cultural heritage of the cemeteries of New Orleans. Every year the SOC holds an All Saint's Soiree featuring a fundraising auction, food and drinks galore. This year the soiree was held on October 24, 2009 in one of the largest and most interesting cemeteries in New Orleans, Metairie Cemetery. Nick and I both volunteered to help out by serving wine and French 75s. I also donated a couple of dolls that I made to be auctioned off in a kids' package, Lot 9, so I was kind of excited to see how the bidding would turn out.
I knitted a little girl doll.
Then I made a smaller doll to be the little girl doll's toy. I sewed and knitted the clothing, embroidered and sewed the faces, spent an alarming amount of time threading all that hair...
and needlefelted a tiny bear for the apron pocket of the little girl doll's doll.
We arrived around 6:30 p.m. to witness a truly gorgeous sunset over the tombs of the cemetery.
The attendees began funneling in and over to the food and drinks tables, including ours. We were soon busy pouring drink after drink to this very thirsty, but not always pleasant crowd. NB: Rich people really do have a proclivity to greed and rudeness in small matters - I noticed this when I worked at an upscale guest ranch as well. My apologies to the monied folks who have excellent manners and generous hearts (of whom there are many, I am certain), but there are among you sourpusses who are no fun to interact with. Boo.
Okay, that said, Nick and I were relieved of our duties after an hour-and-a-half and we were able to take a carriage ride through the darkened cemetery. Beautiful! I also enjoyed some delicious oysters on the half shell and some great conversation.
My only let down was that the auction lot of which my dolls were a part went for a measley $50.00. Not only was this not exceedingly helpful to the cause, but I found it depressing considering that another lot, which contained bottles of liquor that you could buy at any reasonable liquor store, went for a few hundred dollars. Talk about disappointing -- still, I dream my dolls found a home with a child or collector who will love and value them. I enjoy picturing complete strangers interacting with objects I have manipulated and fashioned with care, perhaps appreciating that I brought something into creation that didn't exist before.
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