To the Post Office

 Sunday afternoon we put our Christmas letter inside the Christmas Cards and we sealed them all up.  Monday I went to buy stamps, the cards had so much fru fru that they were heavy and needed more postage. 

I bought one post office out of extra postage stamps and had to go to another post office to buy the rest of them...attach them and send them off in the mail.

I can cross a couple of things off my list.  I also mailed my far away cousins old photos of their family members.  Yes it would have been fun to visit my cousins in Tennessee,  Kansas, Alaska and Florida...but that was not happening. 

My brothers have picked up their old photos, my sister still has a box full here. 

I figured I was all done with that project WHEN my baby brother announced that he found another box or two of photographs while searching for some sewing material for Mom in her storage unit. He said I will be busy next Summer.

Seems like that movie Ground Hog Day except with me and photographs. 

Far Side

Wistful Wednesday : 1917

I always wondered who was in this old photo.  From reading the old farm diaries and from other old photos I finally have a really good guess. Sadly the diaries from the early part of 1917 are missing.

This is the old barn at the farm.

James X., Marvin (Far Guy’s Dad), Tracie, Francis, Mattie, Bill and Bryan.  Mattie and Bill are the parents of Francis, he was an only child born in 1914 the same year as Marvin. Mattie was James X. sister and Bryan was their brother.  Bryan worked at different farms in the Osage area in 1916 and 1917 ( perhaps longer than that).  I always thought Bryan lived in Iowa…the diaries are proving some of those assumptions have been in error.

Mattie and Bill lived in Harrison County Iowa until 1939 when they moved to Tekamah.

So in 1917 they would visit Minnesota from Iowa.  How would they travel?  By train?  No it looks like it was a road trip.  What an adventure that must have been.

Francis and Marvin (right) cousins born in 1914.  Francis in October and Marvin in August.  From the smiles it looks like they were fast friends!   These boys would become men who were friends their entire lives.  Francis died in 1981 and Marvin in 1994.

I am slow in getting diary entries transcribed lately.  It is a work in progress.  Here is a peek into farm life in 1917.

July 1917

19 Thursday Sprayed potatoes finished hog fence, set post west of the barn.  Gave Maurice Robinson music lesson

20 Friday Finished fence by barn, post holes in pasture fence, sawed posts

21 Saturday Set posts, hoed cabbage, plowed beans

Wistful Wednesday: 1971

 

I ran across this old photograph..it was a long time ago.

Even after I was married, my Mom insisted on sibling photos..I think that this one was for the church. You know the kind, disguised as a Church Directory..a photographer sells photos to everyone in the church.

It was 1971 just before Christmas.   I was wearing one of those heavy wool dress jackets, it was two shades of beige and had big gold buttons, it’s only saving feature is that it was fully lined. ( I was pregnant and it was roomy.)   My baby brother must have got a new suit to graduate in the next spring. My other baby brother had a new red suit jacket and a bowl haircut. It looks like my baby sister has a sailor dress on.

We were all younger 40 years ago. I was 20, my baby brother was 17, my other baby brother was 11 and my baby sister was 5.  Next month when I turn the big 60, my parents will have children that are in their 60’s, 50’s and 40’s:)

Wistful Wednesday: 1964

Forty-seven years ago.  We stopped along the highway on what was more than likely a Sunday afternoon on our way to Grandma and Grandpa Drewes house. My Dad must have taken the photo, most likely it was taken in early January of 1964. 

My baby brother (just about 10), me (on my way to age 13), my other baby brother (not yet 4)  and our Mother (not yet 35).

Many of these old photos have faded over the years. After I scan them I take them into my Photoshop Elements program and enhance the color, and I fix any bad spots.

I wonder if it was cold that day?  My baby brother is the only one that looks cold..he has hunched up shoulders..the rest of us look warm..and my coat is unbuttoned.  Obviously we didn’t have very much snow that year because I can still see weeds in the ditch.

This area still looks the same..the trees are much taller. Nowadays there is way too much traffic to stop and take a photograph along this road, I know..I have tried.  You have to find an approach or drive-way and pull off of the road and walk back. It is a “Scenic Byway”..but one of those that you have to  enjoy out the window..because they didn’t allocate any funds for turn outs or spots to stop and take photos:(  

Wistful Wednesday : Relaxing

Today I picked a summertime photo of Far Guy's Grandparents H. They are in their yard at the farm, sharing a spot on the old buckboard seat. I love that Grandpa has his arm threaded through Grandma's arm, they are not holding hands but touching arms. Grandpas hat is barely visible on the left, he apparently took off his hat for the photo. I also looked at his feet, and wondered..Grandpa did you have a really thin pair of dress socks on? Or were you barefoot? He had been in the garden, or fixing a piece of machinery as his hands tell the story. Grandma's print dress and apron were probably a shade of blue or green..the patterns did not match.. she wasn't a matchy, matchy kind of person.. and didn't "put on the dog for anyone." This photo would have been very typical of how they looked on a warm summer day if you stopped by for a visit.

I first met them about the same time this photo was taken in the early 1960's. The old blue car

( I call it old..back then it was new.. I believe it was a 1963 Ford..bird egg blue) would pull into our farmyard. Grandma would get out and walk to the house with her egg cartons in hand, she was a regular egg customer. Grandpa would wait in the car for her. She always had something pleasant to say, she said that our eggs were the best.. and clean too! Grandpa..waited patiently for her ..or not so patiently..knowing family traits as well as I do now:)