A Basket of Chips: An Autobiography

Basket of Chips, page 143

Rzlminations of Life and Art "What happened," she would say, "You have been out among people, while I have been here alone all day and have not seen a person." Yet she would have all the news. A look through the daily paper or some magazines and a few phone calls or answers, put her in line with the news more than my mingling. It did not worry her as she knew my limitations by then. But in our outs together we had such glorious enjoyment. The time we went to the Helgerson Gallery to see some fine colored etchings !19 When we arrived she said, "You go one way and I'll go the other and then say which one we like the best." How pleased she was when I pointed out the one she had selected. Our tastes were very similar except with the eatables. She preferred tea and I, coffee. The dark meat of the chicken was her choice and the white meat, mine. The sour fruit or hard apples for her, and sweet fruit and soft apples for me - raisins in my rice pudding and none in hers, and many other things likewise. I planted an abundance of potowatomy plums at the farm for her and now they have overgrown and must be grubbed out. On the twentieth anniversary of our marriage I stood in front of the building where we were married in Paris,`O and thought of the twenty years of joy we had had together. (I again visited the place in 1927, and saw a marriage similar to ours.) Ten years later was our pearl wedding and we were living in Oakland." We gave her a pearl pendant. I bought the pearls 10 Harwood uses the term "colored etchings" here presumably to mean works that have had color applied nfter printing. When he refers to his own work of this kind, he uses the term "color etching." Ione Harwood wrote "you will note it is `color etching' as Jim wrote it, not as some people say `colored etching.' The first refers to color applied to the plate before printing; the second is color ap- plied after printing. The first is first quality. Jim always uses it correctly." Letter from Ione Godwin Harwood, 5 September 1982, in possession of the editor. 20 This refers to his 1911 trip to Paris. 21 The date was June 25, 1921. 143