Family Keepsakes Fun, Part 4

I've been through most of the boxes at this point, so I think this may be the last post in the series, unless I decide to post some of my (and my husband's) baby photos. All poetry, quotes, and pictures this time. Hope you enjoy!

This was on the front page of my grandma's 1932 scrapbook. I couldn't figure out if it came with this inscribed on it, or if she wrote it herself:

I thought this was a very odd collection of quotations. It was especially perplexing to see Gandhi and Al Capone quoted in the same article:

Most of the poems my grandma pasted in her scrapbooks are cringe-inducingly bad (lots of 1930s over-sentimentality), but I really liked this one:

I included this because I enjoy these men's old timey names, especially Streeter Stuart and Oral Clemens:

My whole life, until I opened up this box, I had no idea that my great aunt had a baby that died at 7 months. This was the great aunt I grew up with, the only one I ever really knew (she died in 2003). Ugh, I just found her obit online and she also lost an infant son. That's heartbreaking. (Note: she did have 3 children that lived.)

I gather that the baby was either born premature, or that she was somehow otherwise born underweight, because, as you can see below the obit, she was placed on an incubator 4 days after she was born. Poor thing never thrived. 

I'm going to assume that "Ruuth" is a typo and her name was actually Ruth. In my great grandmother's obituary, the same newspaper listed my grandma as "Lester" (her name was Esther), which made me feel awful for her. Obviously, I've edited out last names/street names in the below article to protect my privacy.

According to the hand writing on the back of this pic, these vaguely creepy little girls are my grandma (on the right) and her elder sister (not the same one as above, who was her younger sister).

I love, love, love this adorable photo of three friends who clearly adore one another, Swoosh, Pop & Boots. I believe Boots is my grandma. I wonder how all of them got their nicknames?

I also love this candid family shot. Other than my grandma, in the middle on the couch, and my uncle next to her, I don't recognize anyone, but everyone seems to be having such a great time. Also, it's like a time capsule of 1950s interior design.

Now for some super old timey pics! I'm guessing these are late 1800s/early 1900s. I don't know who any of them are.

I like how fantastically fresh-off-the-boat this guy looks. Also, his amazing unibrow.

This dapper gent is my favorite:

I included this because I liked the how the small, photo booth-like pictures were tucked into the frame. I wonder if they were all related or if whoever stuck the smaller photos in there did so arbitrarily?

Not so old timey. This is another great aunt, my grandpa's sister. I never met her because she lived in another state. Isn't she pretty? Also, I really like her blazer. Tucked in with this photo, I found a program to her college graduation in 1946. So that means I'm not the first female in my family to get a BA!

My mom, around eight months old. We had that swan rocking chair thingie around our house when I was a kid:

My mom at her high school graduation. I included this photo because I'm absolutely astounded by her hair. How did she get it to poof up so high? I have the same hair as her. My hair does NOT do that! Not that I want it to, but still, I'm fascinated. I wish she was still around to ask.

And here's little me! Unfortunately, it's horribly faded, in that way that only late 1970s/early 1980s film faded, so that it looks like we spent a decade surrounded by red air (Well, it was the Cold War!). I have a vague recollection that my mom was annoyed that I chuckled so hard. I think she thought it was a waste of a professional photo session.

Family Keepsakes Fun, Part 3

To read more of this series, click on the family tag at the bottom of the post.

In the recent move, my family keepsakes were transferred into banker's boxes. This was done by my husband, so I have no idea what's in each box. Opening one up is like a treasure hunt. Someday, I would like to organize them so that each box is cohesive, but for now I enjoy going through them and finding random stuff. This post is going to be picture heavy because that's most of what was in this particular box.

I don't know who this dapper young man is, but I really enjoyed the various poses and props in this photo booth-like strip:

I like the juxtaposition of the two following pictures, both of which feature my great uncle (grandma's brother) and his wife and child (they're in the middle in the second picture), likely taken only a few years apart. I remember this great uncle, and his daughter. In fact, his is the first funeral I remember going to.

In the second picture, that's my great aunt (grandma's sister) playfully hiding her face, with her husband on the far left. My grandma is on the far right.

Once again, I'm not sure who these men are, but I'm amused by the high-water pants of the two men on the right. I wonder if this car actually belonged to any of them, or if posing in front of a fancy car that's not one's own has been a tradition since the dawn of cars.

I think Iola, WI is where my grandma's family lived before they moved to Michigan. I understand wanting to keep mementos from there. I don't understand wanting to keep a postcard that features the starch factory. I mean, honestly, the vast majority of my grandparents' postcard collection is downright perplexing (think lots and lots of banks).

My mother was pretty bad at taking pictures. She would often send me photos of my nieces and nephew that would make me think, "Why on earth would she think I want a blurry picture of the back of this kid's head? I can't even tell which kid this is!" And so on.

After finding the below pic, I've begun to wonder if it's a family trait. What's going on here? Why would someone want to memorialize it? I have two theories: 1. Something was buried in the sand, either as a joke or as part of a scavenger hunt, and the picture taker wanted to remember the moment it was found or 2. The picture taker really appreciated dat ass. In my heart, I believe it's #2.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think is my grandpa's sister, who owned a rock shop near where I grew up and was alive well into my adulthood:

I wonder if this is my grandpa's other sister, who I never met, but who sent me money when I graduated high school. I wanted to include this photo because I find her very beautiful, and because she's so 1930s:

This is the Daily Advance from Lynchburg, VA. The date on it is November 30, 1933. It hails from the time that my grandma worked as a telephone operator there, and it's so fragile that I don't dare open it. I'm not sure which story caught my grandma's eye, making her want to keep it. Maybe there wasn't one particular story. Maybe it was simply the last one she picked up before she moved back to Michigan.

At any rate, I wanted to include it for two reasons. 1. The copy in the subtitle under "Killer's Body Found In Ditch Skull Crushed," which (paraphrased) says, "underworld does what cops can't." A very Great Depression/Prohibition anti-cop sentiment. and 2. Under "Habeas Corpus Frees 4 Lynch Mob Suspects," the article that states that the prosecutor had the evidence to convict the men but chose not to present it AND the judge agreed.

The mind boggles.

I'm frequently blown away by how terrifying kids' Halloween costumes used to be. This is my mom as a witch:

And finally, I'll leave you with something cute, my uncle as a baby, wearing his dad's police hat:

Family Keepsakes Fun, Part 2

For the first post in this series, click here.

I've been meaning to do another post in this series for a while, so today I cracked open the second box of keepsakes. This box is much larger than the first. It was difficult to limit myself in terms of things to share. I'll have to revisit the box later and post more. For now, here are the items that caught my attention, posted in no particular order.

First, let's start with some postcards. Below is my favorite, a colorful view of Sparks Fountain in Jackson, Michigan. Growing up, Jackson was only known to me as the place with the state prison. Needless to say, we never visited, but those fountains sure look pretty. I'm tempted now. They're still there, called Cascades Falls. They charge for admission.

The below is one of the worst postcards I've ever seen. I completely forgot to write down the information on the back of the card before I put it back in the box. Since it's all taped up and put away now, I'm not going back in. Just know that it's a motel and the back didn't explain what the white thing in the grass is. I think it may be a bird fountain?

I'll never understand why people used to buy postcards of motels. Maybe they didn't - it's entirely possible that motels used to give these away for free as a form of advertising.

Here are a couple of postcards that I sent to my mom. I'm too shy to tell you what I wrote on the back (although it's pretty mundane). The first was sent in 1995. I lived in Hamburg, Germany at the time, but this is from my trip to Berlin. It's the Berliner Dom (capital building). The second was sent in 2008, when my now-husband and I were on vacation on Maui. It's a picture of the Lahaina harbor.

I could resist including a scan of this brochure of Luray Caverns outside of Luray, Virginia. I wanted you to see the stylish couple in the picture. This tourist attraction still exists. It actually sounds pretty cool, with a hedge maze and a historical museum. Also, I was amused to discover that someone coopted the name for the game Diablo.

Below is a picture from my uncle's (mother's brother) wedding. I don't know who any of these ladies are. In fact, I labelled this picture "church ladies." However, I greatly admire that epic cake, so I had to include it.

And this is a picture of my maternal grandfather when he was a police officer. He's the one standing behind the seated guy in the middle. He has such a baby face! Also, it's rather uncanny how much my brothers look like him.

I've talked a little bit before about my maternal grandmother's scrapbooks. They're such a treasure trove of information for me. Since I never got to meet her, they help me get to know her a little bit. It's fascinating, seeing what was important to her, trying to figure out why it was and what all of it says about her. She liked to clip poetry and inspirational articles from the paper. There are also a lot of notices such as deaths, accidents, and illnesses. I presume they're about people she knew, although it's possible that, like me, she was simply interested in death and destruction. She was fascinated with telephone operators long before she became one - I can tell that it was a dream job of hers. Also, from the poetry and articles, I got the sense that she was somewhat ambivalent about love and marriage, a narrative consistent with some of the things my mom told me about her.

She had a lot of articles by this woman, Dorothy Dix (her real name, I wonder, or a pen name intended to invoke Dorothea Dix?). This one (in two parts below) left me equal parts depressed and enraged. The sad thing is, the sentiment is still alive and well today, especially given the backlash toward feminism in the last few years. It's funny/disheartening to think that people still say, "Yes, women are oppressed, but they're not as oppressed as they used to be, so chill!" I bet this author never dreamed that people would look back at the time in which she lived and shake their heads about how bad women used to have it.

I was so shocked when I discovered these articles! My grandma was the young woman in this accident, which I never heard anything about before. I wonder if my mom even knew about it. I don't know who her male companion was - presumably her beau at the time. When I first went through her scrapbooks, I found his wedding announcement (I couldn't find it this time; must be in another box). I sort of wondered if she still carried a flame for him at the time he got married.

And this is my grandma's notary certificate (name redacted for privacy). I think it's so funny that she had this elaborate certificate. I was a notary for a while when I lived in Texas, and believe me, it involved no fancy certificates. Note that it was signed by George Romney, father of former governor and sometime presidential candidate Mitt Romney. I don't actually know why my grandma became a notary. As far as I know, after she married my grandpa, she was a stay-at-home mom for the rest of her life. I wish my mom was around to ask.

That's it for now! I hope you enjoyed this trip through my family's memorabilia. More to come in the future!

Family Keepsakes Fun, Part 1

It's been a while since I posted any of my old family photos, so recently I cracked open one of the boxes where I keep them and went through it, picking out whatever caught my fancy. There's no real rhyme or reason to any of it. I simply found a few things that I thought would be fun to share.

First, let's start with this lovely 1920s bride. I don't know who she is. Either a relative or family friend; there's nothing on the picture that says. I think her 1920s wedding wear is completely fab:

I found a series of souvenir postcards in a small box on which some jokester (probably my maternal grandfather) had written: LANA TURNER'S PICTURES OF HER FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. This one, I really liked the colors. I think my grandpa went to some kind of revival or some such at this place:

This one cracked me up. I mean, honestly, why would anyone think to make a postcard of the celery bleaching process, let alone buy one? I had to look up what it even meant.

I thought this was a real nice view of Columbus, OH. I highly doubt it looks like this anymore.

These steps look killer, but also very cool:

I enjoyed this juxtaposition. Here is a postcard (I'm guessing circa 1930s) view of the mouth of the St. Joseph River, opening out into Lake Michigan:

And here's Grandpa's picture of the same thing. The picture was taken in 1940:

I was thoroughly intrigued by this photo so I had to do a little research. Apparently the Bonus Army was a group of WWI vets and their families who marched to Washington, D.C. in 1932 to demand that their bonuses be paid immediately, rather than in 1945, as was initially promised. It's a rather interesting and sad story. You can read the Wiki about it HERE.

I don't know why this photo was in my family's possession. The note on the front says "We are there B.E.F. 6-24-32." My maternal grandfather's last name began with "F," so it's possible that this came from one of his relatives, an uncle would be my best guess.

My maternal grandmother liked to clip poems out of the newspaper. I have several scrapbooks of hers that are full of them. So I believe that she kept the loose clipping below for the two poems on it. I, however, am including it for the TOTALLY AWESOME ad for Honeymoon Love Drops.

"Secret Aroma Helps You Win the One You Love," it says. "Unforgettable as a lover's first kiss! Bewitch, allure and captivate with this rare, stimulating fragrance. Just ONE DROP of this secret aroma will endure for hours . . . enchantingly encircle lovers like a binding knot . . . and will add a more thrilling, irresistible charm to you!"

Enchantingly encircle lovers like a binding knot? Okay, maybe it's slightly more creepy than funny.

Speaking of Grandma, I'm pretty sure this is her. The picture frame matches the one below of Grandpa, as though at some point they hung side by side in the home they shared. It's not always easy for me to identify Grandma in photos because, if you'll recall, I never met her. (I apologize for the poor quality of the scan. The back of the frame is nailed shut and I didn't want to mess with it/potentially break it, so I just scanned the whole thing. It looks blurry due to the glass front.)

I love this picture because out of all the pictures I have of her, this is the ONLY one where she's smiling like this. She looks so happy!

And here is the matching picture of Grandpa. It has the same quality issues for the same reason. I love this picture because you get a real sense of why he had so many lady friends when he was younger. So dapper!

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this trip through my family keepsakes. I only went through the small box this time. Next time, I'll have to crack open one of the bigger boxes, and see what goodies I can find!

Family Pictures: A Study in Plaid

About two weeks ago, I posted a photo tribute to my mom on the second anniversary of her death. If you're too lazy to scroll down the page, haha, you can read the post here. The last picture I included in that post, from 1970, featured my mom in a pretty rad plaid coat. Here it is:

Later, I went through my own childhood photo albums, trying to see if I had a picture of my mother holding me as a baby (sadly, I do not). But I stumbled across this gem:

I'm pretty sure I'm somewhere between 2 and 3 in this photo, so this is circa 1977-78. Note how I'm wearing a plaid coat not unlike my mom's in the first picture, complete with faux-fur collar. However, I also got a matching faux-fur hat. Take that, Mom!

In all seriousness, I love this photo. I love this coat and its little matching hat. I love that my mom, for some reason, always posed us in front of this closet door to take photos. I have countless photos of my brothers and I posed in front of this closet door, haha. Why? Who knows!

If only I had a picture of me and Mom wearing our plaid coats together. :)