Friday, August 14, 2009
Glebe resident is a reserve of practical tips for life
Evelyn Blake
Priscilla Richardson is columnist The Botetourt View. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.
Priscilla Richardson
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Evelyn Blake, a widow, is very short, very attractive and still very interested in the single men who move to the Glebe where she lives. Her age? Eighty-nine.
Maybe gardening, along with her daily yoga, has kept her in such good shape. When she moved into her ground floor apartment last year she had all the construction rubble removed from the bed outside her door, and replaced it with good topsoil. She then planted an array of perennials, such as black-eyed Susans and day lilies.
This wasn't enough for her, so she also got permission to put another garden on a hillside near her own place. She chose the hillside location so she doesn't have to stoop over as much. "I'll have that done by the time I'm 90 so it can take care of itself."
Blake taught at the senior high school at Salem for 40 years, covering biology, home economics, art, interior design, and dress design. She modeled and taught her students how, too. She has two huge closets full of clothes she either designed and made herself or found at resale shops at low cost.
She used to frequent charity resale shops for the best items. She'd find "wonderful dressy clothes, bags, sometimes even furniture and pictures. I bought sample shoes, too. A lot of the store give their things to them and take a tax write-off rather than putting them on sale."
Blake knows more about stretching any clothing budget. One of her secrets weapons is Rit dye. "I've had students who dyed beads," to get just the color they wanted. "You can dye prints and plaids, to mute the colors or cover them."
"The garment has to be absolutely clean and free of all oil and grease. And you have to keep the cloth moving. If not, it will streak. And if you're using dye that you dissolve yourself, use boiling water and then strain it to make sure it's completely dissolved. If you don't like the color [results], use bleach and get rid of it."
You can even dye hose, Blake said. She uses a jar of dye, colors a pair or two, then caps it up and saves it for another time.
This former model, slim herself, knows how to look thinner than you really are. "Don't wear anything shiny. Shine increases your visual size. Keep the same color all the way up. Coordinate your hose and shoes with your outfit to give you a longer line." One way to do this: have your hair color the color of your shoes (although she does not recommend white shoes). This works because the eye notices two things that are alike.
Being careful with a food budget comes naturally to Blake. When she first came to the Glebe, she noticed that "the punch here was awful, like old Kool-aid. So we were looking for good recipes. I had one that's cheap. I used it when I had to serve 200 or 300 teachers. The base is Kool-aid and lemon. You freeze it and put it in your bowl, and then you don't need ice. You just add cold ginger ale. When you see the guests, you pour it in at the last minute."
Worsening vision keeps Blake from driving, but not from attending church, or participating in yoga classes, or enjoying every party the Glebe throws. Her two cats keep her company in the apartment she and her late husband had been planning to share. The cats, which according to Glebe rules cannot go outside, are getting plump. But not this former model whose brain is full of practical things.
