Hank Sanders: Sketches #1717 - A stitch in time saves nine

  A stitch in time saves nine. This old folks' saying is personal to me. As a child, I was really rough on pants. I kept ripping them in the seams. Each time it was just a little rip at first, but it would keep getting bigger and bigger. My mother, who required us to sew our own seams, urged me to sew the rip as soon as it started. That way, she said, I would have to put in just a stitch or two. But if I waited, the rip would get bigger and bigger, requiring a whole lot more stitches. Sometimes I would not put in a stitch when the rip first started. I would just hope that the seam would not rip farther. It always got bigger and bigger. A stitch in time saves nine.