Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 14: MEDICAL Grace M. Rood, Nurse, 1936-1962
Grace Margaret Rood (1897-1988)
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES
A Zipper in a Sleeve
Unknown. [1940s ?] Grace Rood Album II. rood_139
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES A Zipper In A Sleeve
R.L., a lively boy of 14 years, has just, through an accident, lost part of three fingers on his left hand. With his hand bandaged up, he can’t get the sleeve of his coat on, So, we must fix the sleeve of it [the coat].
We are afraid of what the loss of these fingers will do to him. He will no longer be physically perfect, and he may be embarrassed at folks seeing this loss. We don’t want him to sit around and brood. We want. him to get right back to school and to enter into all the activities that he always has, and to have the hand as inconspicuous as possible. Now he has to throw half of the coat over his shoulder and sort of hold on to it.
At first. I think of slashing up the sleeve of his old coat. But he would not be comfortable in church and school in that, so I decide that whatever I do, it will be to his good plaid jacket. I carefully rip up the underarm seam about to the elbow, and try it on to make sure that the hand goes through all right. Then there is the question of fastening it. Safety pins won’t look so good, and he will need help in closing them, so I arrive at the thought of a zipper. It is war times, so no new ones are available, and anyway, it is just for a short time, so I do not need a new one. One from an old, discarded skirt serves the purpose very well. This I sew in carefully, by hand, with the idea that later on, I can rip it out and again sew up the sleeve as good as ever. However, the zipper was so inconspicuous that it remained a part of the coat as long as the coat was used.
R.L. puts on his coat, pulling on the sleeve over his large bandage, and goes off happily to school, carrying his schoolbooks and those of his girlfriend. In the afternoon, I hear him shouting with the other boys as they slide down the back hill.
Fixing the sleeve of his coat so that he can get his bandaged hand through has been worthwhile, I think, as I hear the “noise” [what others are reporting]. I am also encouraged when I hear that in his mathematics class, he has helped one of his classmates out on an answer to a problem. The answer is one 1 1/2, and R. L. put up his 1 1/2 fingers!
SEE ALSO:
GRACE M. ROOD Staff Biography
GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1940
GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1962 Fern Hayes
GRACE M. ROOD 1897-1988 Life and Stories Introduction ‘Amazing Grace’
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 My Life At Pine Mountain Settlement School
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Come To The Mountains
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Room For Six Strangers
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 My God My Jeep and I
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Now I’ve Seen It All!
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Billy and I Go To Asheville For Thanksgiving
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 DARRELL
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 A Zipper In A Sleeve
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 ‘Lum And Bertha And Little Joe
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 My First Night Trip
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Harlan County in 1955
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 We Take Teenie To Graduation
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Marie Pennington
GRACE M. ROOD Tributes “My Most Unforgettable Character” 1951
GRACE M. ROOD Photograph Album One
GRACE M. ROOD Photograph Album Two
GRACE M. ROOD Staff – Biography
GRACE M. ROOD 1940 Correspondence
MEDICAL – Introduction
