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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3102384" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Eighty-eight, “Brooklyn“,  Monday June 5th , 1882, 6:30 P.M. It was getting a bit late, but she still had some time to go see her teacher and perhaps get a lesson in.   Kate finds Manuel Gonzales in the library sitting in a comfortable chair and reading a book.  "Good evening, Grandpere," she said and came into the library. "Are you up to some lessons today or would you rather have some quiet time with your book?"   "No, I can take a break," he states as he puts the book down. Kate notes that it is written in Spanish. He comments, "This is one of the volumes that you had found last January. It's an adventure story, swashbuckling heroes, damsels in distress. Not altogether different than the life you lead."  "I?" Kate laughed. "Those days are behind me, let us hope. I'm a western school ma'rm and rancher now. No more desperados who are afraid I know too much looking for me. I don't think I like the idea of being the damsel in distress and I'm not dashing enough to be the hero."Gonzales says, "Ah, so that's why you picked out the dashing boyfriend instead! Well, I'd say you don't have to worry too much about your ranch at the moment, between Morand and Shaw your ranch is now well protected. Now, what can I do for you this evening?"  "We'll take that over ourselves soon enough.   It's been a while since we had a good lesson. I'd like to be the student rather than the teacher tonight. Whatever you think will be useful or handy or just plain interesting."Gonzales says, "Well let's see, I would say we should start with an Alarm spell, it creates an alarm whenever someone or something enters a warded off area. You might need it to help protect your ranch. The beauty of this spell is that it not only can create an audible alarm but also a mental one that will alert you telepathically when you are within a mile of it." They spend the next ninety minutes with him teaching her the spell and having her practice it.  He says, "Okay, enough work, time for something fun. This next spell is called Cat's Grace. It gives you the ability to move gracefully, with the agility of a cat. You may not see the need for the spell now but once you are around six or seven months pregnant and your normal movement is impaired by your condition there will be lots of times where you'll find it handy to have.""Ah, something truly useful," she laughed. "I would have thought first of something for these weak muscles, but I've learned how to handle not being strong. I'm used to being able to get around easily.   I'm not looking forward to the day I have to stop riding, but sacrifices must be made. How does it work?"He explains how the material component is a pinch of cat fur. Once cast, the spell will give the caster the cat-like agility for one hour per level of experience in arcane wizards magic. It says that it will help both regular movement and reaction reflexes. They spend the next two hours working on the spell.   When they are done he pours them each a glass of grape juice. He says, "I heard about Shackelton's baseball uniforms. Will you and your students feel inferior against them? If you want something similar it could probably be arranged."    "Is Shackelton behind them? I thought that would be more Doctor Eaton's doing, or Ashley King.  I don't know if I'd want something similar, but the children would probably enjoy it. We were talking just today about how the other team might be afraid to get their new clothes dirty, so we'd want to make them dive and get into the dirt a lot.   I wouldn't mind something for them that's really made for playing and getting dirty in. I don't think the children feel inferior, but the older ones realize that's part of the idea of those uniforms in the first place."Gonzales says, "Well then, figure out exactly what you want and I will try to get them for you. I have some friends who own a clothing warehouse and manufacturing shop in Brooklyn, New York. They've done work for me before on very short notice. New York is a few hours time ahead of us, so if I leave here at dawn I should be able to get something and return by late morning Promise City time.  I might need to bring Ginnie along with me to verify sizes. Would you want full uniforms or just a team shirt? Perhaps hats? And what colors were you thinking of?"She replies, "Hats and shirts for certain. Nothing too showy, so dark blue and white? The dark blue should hide dirt well. You know what, lets go with the pants as well, even for the girls. If they want they can just wear the shirts over their dresses. If we need to use them again we can either order skirts for any girl who wants them or have Mary Kelley make some to match.  Thank you Grandpere. The children will feel proud to have uniforms."Gonzales says, "Okay, they should have numbers in stock so we'll number the uniforms. I doubt they will have time to put on individual names, but if the numbering is in white you could maybe have Mrs. Kelley help with that. She's bound to have white material in stock and probably stencils for letters.  Maybe she could actually help with the morning class, each student could cut out their own name and when I arrive with the uniforms they could help to sew them on."Kate answers, "And it never hurt anyone, boy or girl, to learn to sew a little bit. Even a boy needs a button put back on now and then. That's an excellent idea, Grandpere.  Of course, I spent part of today explaining why uniforms weren't important. I'll have to figure out how to explain that we have them now too."He says, "Just tell them it was a gift from a school supporter and it would be rude to turn down a present. You can also explain that you are planning to take them on field trips in future months and it is easier to keep track of students if they are all in school uniforms, which these could also be used for as well."   She replies, "You're right about that, it will be easier to keep track of the children in uniforms. And it would very rude indeed, and quite impossible, to turn down the charming gentleman who is making sure we're well-dressed."He replies, "Well, I came into some money last month when Arcade's Gang and I fought those French soldiers. It's about time I found something worthwhile to spend it on. Supporting your school is certainly a good cause. I had great fun today teaching them! They're good kids. Let Ginnie know that I expect to see her here at sunrise if not before.""I will. And may I recommend you spend some of that money and some furniture for this place? You sold it once because you needed money, why not replace it?"   Kate hugged her teacher and kissed his cheek. "Good night, Grandpere. Thank you."   He replies, "Good, then it's a plan. Well, I guess it's time to call it a night. If I'm heading off early I should get some rest."The walk home was short, but it was too late to try and see Mary Kelley. She would have to run over in the morning before school started. Instead she went home and joined Ginnie in the parlor where she told her about the plan to get uniforms. They stayed up for a little while, Ginnie studying and Kate reading until their eyes dropped and they both headed off to sleep.Morning came and Kate was up earlier than usual to see Ginnie off with their teacher.   Ginnie arrives at the El Parador about 4:30 am looking for her teacher.    "Well hello Ginnie, I trust that you have the sizes for all of the children. Shall we be off?"  They head into his workshop and prepare for the journey. Gonzales is wearing an old suit over a worn but clean dress shirt and a plain necktie. The pink powder is sprinkled and he says the incantation. They arrive in an alleyway in the city of Brooklyn, New York. They head out into a main street which already has considerable hustle and bustle of hundreds of people going to and fro. Based upon the hair, eye and skin color as well as most of the talking going on around them the majority of the people appear to be Italian humans, although there are also quite a number of wood elves speaking Spanish as well. Gonzales explains that they are in the "Brooklyn garment district, not as fancy as the one across the river in Manhattan but productive none-the-less"   She states, “The fancy places always charge more but don't always have the better quality of work. Ginnie's eyes are automatically drawn to the first dump pile she sees looking for cloth scraps to judge the materials that are available.Gonzales brings her down the street to a large four-story brick building with the sign reading "Garcia Cloths and Sewing". They enter and Ginnie is amazed by what she sees inside. At least 100 women, mostly wood elves, are busy at work using mechanical sewing machines. Tables near the back are filled with bolts of cloth were several dozen women are busy cutting with large shears. Several other sections of the room are separated into sections, in one a dozen women are sewing buttons, in another two dozen women are sewing hems into pants. Several Wood Elvan men in suits and carrying clipboards are also hurrying about. One stops and asks Gonzales if he can help him. Manuel replies, "Could you please direct me to Pepe Garcia? I am an old friend of his and have a small order for him to fill." The man escorts him and Ginnie up the stairs to an office on the second floor where the windows overlook the street below.Ginnie watches the treadle machines with fascination. The speed and accuracy of the stitches are amazing. Ginnie remembers spending nights with her mother when she was very small doing piecework sewing buttons like the women are now her fingers itch to get a needle in them as she watches so she pulls out one of her traveling laces so she can work on it as she follows her teacher to the upstairs room.A wood elvan couple arrives, human equivalent of late thirties. The female yells out "Manny" as she gives him a big hug. "Tani" he exclaims and hugs her back. He turns to the man and says, "I trust you are still taking care of my darling girl Pepe?" He laughs, "Your girl? She and I were married for eighty years before you met her." Gonzales replies, "Yes, but her father had told me of his young beauty half-a-century before that, so I knew of her first." The woman laughs, "But you were too slow to find me, too busy chasing after other women I suppose." "More likely than not," Gonzales replies. Manuel introduces Tani and Pepe Garcia to Ginnie and explains that they are there to get baseball uniforms for a school team. Pepe replies, "Well then, you came to the right place. We make uniforms for several of the professional teams of the American Association, as well as lots of amateur leagues and schools."Ginnie states, “It may be a more unusual order than you are used to it's a umm very mixed team. The measurements are here along with the sexes but we're also unconventional as the girls are fine wearing pants that will let them move without tangling in their skirts. the ages range from 4 to adult and we have mixed races too some humans, some elves and a half ogre. We're looking for uniforms that fit but will also allow for growth room.” The entire time Ginnie is talking her fingers are flying with her needle as she builds the lace she is working on.Pepe leads them up to the third floor to a back storeroom. Along the way he says, "We started making baseball uniforms for the two semi-professional two Brooklyn teams, the New York Mutual and the Eckfords of Brooklyn, but both of those teams closed up in the middle of the last decade. But that business got us noticed and the Pittsburgh Alleghenies began to contract with us. When the eight-team American Association was formed the Alleghenies became the Pittsburgh Pirates and recommended us. In addition to them we now also make the uniforms for the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Blues, Philadelphia Athletics and Saint Louis Browns. The only teams who wouldn't go with us were the Louisville Colonels and Richmond Virginians, they insisted on getting a southern mill to make theirs. We also make uniforms for four National League teams, the Buffalo Bisons, Hartford Dark Blues and Troy Trojans and Worcester Ruby Legs. The room is packed with uniforms of various colors. Gonzales says, "Well our team has children as young as three and adult teachers. We were thinking of something in a dark blue with white trim and lettering."Ginnie exclaims, “Nothing that will be hard to clean. We want the team to be able to get down if they need to and not worry about grass stains or mud. Ginnie fingers one uniform "your workmanship is amazing the double stitched rolled seams will take all sorts of stress and the materials are light but durable." Ginnie turns to her teacher and whispers "I think this is out of the price range you were thinking about workmanship like this is expensive."Pepe says, "This business would not be here if not for Admiral Gonzales, I would not think of charging." Manuel says, "Ah, but you will because I'm planning to purchase three dozen. I insist that you at least charge me your costs." Tani says, "Cost would be $ 20 per dozen and another $ 10 if you want the team name, number and player name."   Gonzales replies, "Numbers but no names, the students will do that themselves. As for the team name, would your employees be able to stitch this in the next few hours?" He hands them a drawing that he made which is identical to the sign that was made for the Hoover School.  Tani says, "We could do that on a new machine, it works off of a stencil block with coded movements. We would have to do those on a separate piece of material but we could then cut them out and stick them onto the fronts of the uniforms."Ginnie says, “I would love to see how that machine works it sounds a lot like some of the weaving patterns we used for full sheet lace weaving only we used cards that ran the warp threads. It would be nice to be able to show up that all human-only school but the work is very extravagant.”Tani says "You can watch them being made Ginnie." Gonzales says, "But first let's pick out the uniforms. He shows them the uniforms made for both the Cleveland Blues and the Hartford Dark Blues. They decide they like the Hartford color. He says that they make uniforms for sale to younger fans of that team as well as for two schools in the Hartford area that want to dress like the professional team, so would have in stock enough to fill the order. Ginnie helps to pick out the sizes. They pick out twenty-four to cover all of the children except for Rocky, who will need an adult size. They then pick out a dozen for the adults, Gonzales explaining that they are also getting uniforms for Rocky, the three teachers, the two coaches and the five sponsors of the school.   Ginnie states, “That's a lot of uniforms but we should be able to pass them down if we need to. I just hope that we don't let you down your putting a lot into this and I'd hate to disappoint you.”Gonzales replies, "Now you're being silly. I'm planning to take the school on several field trips around the territory. These will double as school uniforms for those trips, so we'll look like a united group."  Once all the uniforms sizes are picked out Gonzales says to have them numbers 1 to 24 smallest to largest. Of the adult uniforms he asks for the one picked for Rocky to be 25 and the others he designates as 90 to 92 for the teachers, 93 and 94 for the coaches, 95 to 99 for the sponsors and lastly 100 for himself.  Ginnie goes to watch them make the patches with the school logo.Gonzales watches as Ginnie takes it all in her fingers fly with her own needle. He can actually see her breaking down the machines in her mind as she watches the machines work. Someday I'm going to have one of those sewing machines she thinks to herself as she watches the threads become the school's logo.  "It would take months for me to sew all of that it's amazing"They spend most of the morning at the shop while the uniforms are prepared. At one point Gonzales grabs Ginnie to go get a bite to eat. They head down the street stopping at an Italian restaurant where Gonzales orders a large flat dough pie with a tomato sauce and cheese melted on top that is called 'Pizza'.   It only takes Ginnie a bite to decide that she likes pizza. The time she has spent at the El Parador has expanded her palate and let her explore with food more. She eats at record speed packing away three pieces without any problem.They return to the clothing warehouse. The uniforms are all completed, numbered on the back of each shirt with the six-inch diameter logo of the Hoover School on the center of the shirt front. Gonzales is surprised to see that a smaller three-inch diameter patch of the same logo is on each of the hats. Pepe reluctantly takes $ 70 from Manuel for the work. He also purchases a cloth bolt of the same navy blue material for another $ 15. The uniforms are places within two large cloth shopping bags. He and Ginnie make their way back to the alleyway and he lights up the brazier. The teleportation spell is cast and they return to his workshop. He says to Ginnie, "Okay, it's probably now around 11:00 in the morning here. Shall we go deliver these to the school?"     She replies, “We do need to get back but maybe we might be able to come back again some day?? when I have some money to spend on material and I could try pizza again?”   He replies, "Sure we can go back there Ginnie, and next time we'll spend a whole day in New York instead of just the morning."  They leave the bolt of cloth in the workshop and each pick up one of the bags of uniforms, heading over to the school. Hours earlier, Kate run her early morning errand to Mary Kelley's. The shop was barely open when she arrived and explained her needs to the seamstress. "I know it's short notice, but might you be able to help?"  Mary indicates that she will be happy to help. She will put together what she needs for the class and be along in an hour. When Kate arrives back at the school she is greeted at the door by Caitlin O'Hara who says, "Mrs. Kale, good news, the Covington children (a out-of-town farm family that only attend a few days are week) are in school today. They should be of great help during this afternoon's game!""That's wonderful news! I'm glad they're here to get the chance to play, I'm sure they would have been disappointed to miss it. Are you going to be able to study at all today?" Kate smiled at the bouncing girl. "And we have a surprise for you this morning," she teased before the girl bounded off.   She gathered Meagan and Mollie and let them in on what Mr. Gonzales was doing this morning, with a few modifications as to exactly when and where it all got started. "Apparently an anonymous supporter wanted to supply us with uniforms. They're being shipped in from somewhere back east. Mr. Gonzales and Ginnie are going to bring them by later, and Mary Kelley is going to come in and help the children cut out the letters of their names and sew them on the shirts. I think he's been keeping this under his hat for a few days.  Hopefully whoever it was thought to get enough for the Covington children too. If not Mary Kelly might be able to get us a couple men’s work shirts that match closely."Hours later everybody is hard at work when Gonzales and Ginnie enter the room and he announces, "We have them! The finest quality in baseball uniforms. And unlike our opponents these don't just look like what the professionals play in, these are what the professionals play in. None of you have to worry about getting these ripped or dirty, they were made for abuse.""They certainly were," Mary Kelly said as she pulled one out of the bag and examined the workmanship. These will last years... and the color will hide dirt and stains." Kate was pleasantly surprised that the children remained in their seats although they obviously wanted to get up and look. She and the other teachers also crowded around the bag to see inside. "Beautiful, thank you," Kate said to her own teacher. "We'll get these handed out so all of you can sew your names on. I'll ask any of you who already sew well to help the others. Girls, there are pants for you as well. If you're really uncomfortable with wearing them, you can just put the shirt over your dress."Gonzales adds, "And we can have skirts made as well, but not for today. Mrs. Kelly, I also got a bolt of cloth of the exact same material!" "Thank you!" she exclaims.  Gonzales suggests to Kate that they have the class line up and distribute them by height. That way when children outgrow them and inherit hand-me-down's from other students they will always be getting a higher number than they had before.Kate readily agreed and the students were soon lined up along the walls of the room with Rocky far and away the tallest and little Gina down at the end. She hadn't been sure the uniforms were a good idea after trying to convince the students they weren't necessary, but the looks on their faces as each was handed the dark blue cloth banished any lingering doubt.  Once all the uniforms were handed out the children returned to their seats and the sewing began.</blockquote>

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