BEADS IN THE FAMILY
My Aunt Virginia Spilman and my Grandma Scarborough started a business in their chicken coop in Kansas making and selling beaded moccasins and purses--more handmade than Minnetonka mocs but with the same sort of outlined Indian designs on them. When my Uncle Russell's lungs became weak, Aunt Virginia bought out Grandma's share of the business and she and her husband moved to New Mexico, near Albuquerque, where they opened the trading post in the family pictures below. My grandma still had plenty of beads left over from the business for me to play with and I also had several pairs of her handmade moccasins and purses when I was a little girl. Thus I was corrupted into being a beader at an early age.