Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A Letter to Maggie

This was a letter I found in with some of the old pictures that belonged to the Pearce family. Maggie, my grandmother, had gone to California to be with Nelle, my aunt. I think she had had some surgery. The baby "Carroll" Dan was referring to was me - and the picture above is of the two of us, taken about the same time the letter was written. He spelled my name like my grandmother's maiden name. I was not the first grandchild, but I was the first one that lived in the area. The letter is a little hard to read, but if you want to click to enlarge it, I think you might be able to make it out. It was written when I was a year and one month old - a long, long time ago. A lovely little memento from the days long gone by. (Click to enlarge)

Monday, March 29, 2010

A Little Bit Tom Sawyer


Here are my husband, Ray, and his cousin, Bill, down by the river doing some fishing.  I just love the expression on Ray's face.  Have no idea what they were showing off as I certainly don't see any fish anyplace.  Looks as if Bill is showing off his bobber and hook.  Regardless, they were two cute little guys.  Ray kept his love for fishing all through his life and I did a lot of fishing with him - and liked it.  Nothing nicer than sitting in a boat or on a bank on a beautifuly evening and watch the sun set and hear the froggies croak.  Good times.  

Saturday, March 27, 2010

A Pretty Old Card

Along with my new computer, I treated myself to a new combination printer-scanner so I am using the scanner for the first time. I found this beautiful old card in a little box with some other old things when I was cleaning out some drawers - maybe I should do more cleaning.

This is the back of the card. "Lilyy" sent it to "Ethell" with love and at a later date some little person, I would assume, was trying to mimic the writing. I think this card was from Ray's mother's things and that the card was sent to his Aunt Ethel, his dad's sister.
Ray and his mom were very close to Ethel and her family through all the years, and they would spend holidays and much other time with them. (Click to enlarge)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Maggie's Receipts

Here is a picture of my grandmother, Maggie Pearce, in her housedress maybe posing after having fixed a dinner for her husband, Dan, and their five children, Nelle, Nan, Harry, Leah and Ed. I have this old notebook that holds some of her "Old Fashioned Receipts", and I have scanned some of the pages for you to see.

This is the cover and written on the top is the title - it is very hard to read but if you click to enlarge you might be able to.



Here is a receipt for Annie's biscuits and another from a friend, evidently. On the biscuit receipt, the word "flour" is written very faintly right after "salt". Maggie probably forgot to include that when she jotted down the original and added it quickly the first time she used the recipe.

The first one is for Nelle's prune cake and then Margaret's Cookies. The cookies I remember were her icebox cookies which she would form into a roll, wrap in waxed paper (just think, no aluminum foil or saranwrap!!) and chill in the ice box. You would then slice off as many as you wanted and bake them. Where do you think Pillsbury got the idea? However, the ones they make are not as good as Grandma Pearce's. Don't you love all the spots and spills on the pages? A cookbook without them is an unused cookbook!! (Click to enlarge)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Another Great Old Picture

I just got a new computer (it's exciting!) and still don't have my family photos back in my files so today I am posting another of the old pictures I have found on the internet that I think is so neat. These pretty little girls are dressed so prettily with wonderful hats and lots of lace, eyelet and ruffles on their frocks. Why are they not smiling? Again, I don't remember where I found the picture and am sorry about that. Enjoy these little ladies! (Click to enlarge)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Five Pretty Girls at the Sionilli

Here is Nelle and four of her friends posing by and on a tree on the beach in front of the Pearce cottage in Rome, Illinois. Usually Nan, my mother, is with the group and she may be - could be the one taking the photo. The girls are all in light and airy summer dresses, and it would have been many years before shorts came into the picture. Even when I was in high school, we were still wearing dresses or skirts and sweaters to school. Actually, Sherry wore dresses to school.
A nice picture of pretty girls spending a nice summer day together. (Click to enlarge)

Friday, March 19, 2010

A Bride and Her Attendants

The beautiful bride and her attendants are not related to me or any of my family. Unfortuately, I don't remember where on the internet I got this picture but I just think it is wonderful. The gorgeous clothing, the huge bouquets and the sweet girls are fascinating. I think they look like they are sisters. What beautiful dresses and they are street length - even the bride's gown. Despite that fact, she has a long veil and and it falls from such a really cute cap. The girl to the bride's left is her maid of honor since her dress and jewelry are different than the other four girls. All of them are wearing different shoes, also. Just wanted to share this pretty picture with you - hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I have several other pictures I have found that I like so much that I will post those over the coming weeks. (Click to enlarge)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The 1935 Ford


A few months after we purchased our first computer back in 1996 and I had learned how to cut and paste and some of the other necessary things, I started putting together a book of all the old family pictures on both sides of our families. After my husband became ill and passed away, I couldn't bring myself to work on it for several years, but I did finish it in 2001 and am quite proud of it. It contains lots of the same pictures here on Pieces of the Past.


Ray wrote a story for me to put in the book about his dad playing poker and how they got the "new" Ford back in 1935. I thought you might enjoy reading it----------
My dad worked on the barge at the McGrath Sand and Gravel Pit. We lived on the end of Finney Street in Chillicothe, Illinois, very close to the Santa Fe. I could see the trains come into the depot from my bedroom window.
Even though my dad didn't know how to swim, he worked on the water his entire life. I can remember him walking home after work in the winter in frozen clothing from falling into the pit after slipping on the plank they would put between pontoons between the rafts that he had to navigate to get out to the pumping barge.
He loved to play poker, and he would deal cards for "Slim" Harland at his poolhall in downtown Chilli on Saturday afternoons. On paydays, he and my mother would sit at the kitchen table and put the money in piles to pay the house payment, food, cothing - anyhow, they had their way of budgeting. After all bills were paid, Dad had a little bit to play poker with. He'd take me to the show on Saturday afternoon and leave me. After the show, I would go to Slim Harland's and he would then take me home. One Saturday in 1935, (I was 9 years old), I went to get him at the pool hall, and he had a big pile of money before him at the poker table. He kept me busy getting food for the players at a restaurant across the street and doing various chores for Slim until 4:00 A.M. when the game finally broke up. In a game of that size, if you were winning big, you just didn't take your money and go home until all players went broke. When we got home, mom was hopping mad even when dad put over $800.00 on the kitchen table. The following Monday, we all went down to Jogo Mattice's Ford and bought the 1935 Ford (above) that we drove until after Carol and I were married.
That is the car he used to drive when we dated - no heater. He told my mom it had an "Armstrong Heater". Ray's father died in a VA hospital in Dwight, Illinois, when Ray was 12 years old.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Ladies in the Bushes

First off in this picture of four ladies, my mom, Nan, is on the left looking very pretty standing in tall flowers with her three friends. I so don't want to be a mean girl, but Nan's three girlfriends weren't the prettiest girls in town. Maybe it's the bright sunshine making them squint or the pollen from the flowers - however, I am sure they were some of the nicest. (Click to enlarge)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

My Siblings

Oh, the seventies! Here are my siblings and I posing for a picture. Me with the big hair and cigarette. I smoked for a long, long, long time but will soon reach my 18th anniversary of being a non smoker. It was a terrible habit, but I did enjoy smoking and back when I started there was nothing much negative about it. The main reason I quit - although knew it was not good at all - was there was no place to smoke anymore. So with the help of the patch, I was able to quit and I am so very glad I did. As for the big hair, I saw a cute caption to an old picture where the gal had a similar hair style and it was "The higher the hair, the closer to God".
Here are the kids - and my brother thinks he is one of them! Sherry and Bill, Bud, Mike (Bud and Dot's son) and Dan and Craig, my sister's boys. Oh, so many years ago.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Featured on Funoldhag's Fashion Friday


Here are Dan and Maggie Pearce who are featured today on Funoldhag's Fashion Friday. Just click on the lady by the fence to the right and you will be there if you wish to read about this very nice couple. I feel like all the old pictures should be here, also. (Click to enlarge)

Fun Old Advertisements

I so love the old advertisements - especially in the first couple of decades of the 1900's. Here is one I found on the internet that is a favorite. When do you hear the term "stout" anymore? Really, "plus size" does sound much better for us "stout" girls. The dresses are beautiful though.
Lane Bryant has certainly changed from this ad that was in an old Workbasket magazine I have from the early 1950's. So sometime in the last 60 years the term "stout" has been done away with in advertising. It does sound frumpish! Look at the prices of the dresses! Of course, the paychecks back then were pretty small so it's all relative.

Then, there is this that I found on the internet. These bathing suits, caps and slippers were undoubtedly like the ones my grandparents' family wore at the cottage. Cute guy! The bathing suits for the girls would make cute dresses today, don't you think? (Click to enlarge)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

How Bill Got Around

We lived in Newton, Kansas, for three years - Bill was in high school at that time. He had this little motorcycle while we lived there. I'm not sure if it was a dirt bike or what it was called.
Later, he bought this '57 Chevie - a very popular old car. He actually yanked the engine and had it redone. There was a frame that looked like a swingset minus the swings in front of our garage for awhile. It was a very complex operation but he got it done. With him here, of course, is Sherry who was home from KU. Most of the time while we were in Newton, it was just Bill and me since Sherry was in Lawrence and Ray's territory on the Santa Fe was huge so he was gone a lot. Bill worked at Safeway in the produce department after school and on weekends, and I had a job as a secretary in the parts department of Hesston Corporation in a little town about 11 miles away. We were all glad to get transferred to the Kansas City area.
Can't remember what he did with the 57 Chevie, but this is his little VW that he had when he went to KU. Looks like he was growing his hair out! I will put in a hippy picture of Sherry one day soon. (Click to enlarge)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Our Little Kids

In June of 1951, we had our little baby girl, Sherry Kay. As I have mentioned before, she was born on my Grandma Pearce's 80th birthday - how cool is that. Needless to say, she was doted on by the entire family.
Then on December 4, 1953, along came William Ray - and he was also such a welcome, happy addition to the entire family, also.
Sherry rides her little rocking horse next to her bed. The quilt on the bed - that is the one I used up and I wish I had not done that. However, as in a post I did on Funoldhag some time ago, I made several things that actually are keepsakes from the quilt. One is a pair of Christmas stockings that I hang on my mantle every year. I knew nothing about quilts as I had never been exposed to them. Now I do and I regret that I did not take good care of it.
Taken some time later, this is a very cute picture of our little kids and their happy dad. The time has flown by. (Click to enlarge)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Fishing Buddies

After we moved to the Kansas City area, Ray discovered a fishing "resort" outside Rogers, Arkansas, on Beaver Lake where one of the fellows at the Santa Fe went to all the time and where he and his wife eventually built a home. We started going to Shaddox Hollow and would go twice a year - usually May and October - for quite a number of years. You rented a trailer that was not fancy but had all the necessities, a boat, and you could rent a small motor. It was on a lovely cove with lots of old submerged trees where the crappie and other fish would hide out. Beaver Lake was a manmade lake for flood control. The picture above proves that we did catch fish - sometimes! Any we caught probably cost us maybe $200 a pound but we did enjoy it so much. I have always loved fishing and Ray and I did a lot of it. We would cast, fish with a bobber or on the bottom for catfish. Each time we went down, we would go over to Eureka Springs, a nice little town in the Ozarks. That is where I had my first quilts quilted in a little quilt shop there. In the fall, there was a wonderful antique show at War Eagle - we would get to go to that most of the time.
Here he is, just about as happy as a man can be. Looks like we were both into orange pants that year!

No, I changed to turquoise ones. Heck, the fish don't give a darn what you wear. Those were my big hair days, too.

This was taken on a lot we bought on another part of the lake. We wanted to retire in Arkansas but that never worked out. We sold the lot later. It did not have a lake front, but there was access to the lake up the road. What a lovely view the lot had being on a gently sloping hill. A nice dream to have but they don't always come true and that's okay. I have often wondered if the development every really grew as planned. We sold the lot to the folks who already had the lovely home right below. Lots of great memories of Shaddox Hollow Fishing Resort. (Click to enlarge)


Friday, March 5, 2010

Now Showing on Funoldhag


Over at Funoldhag, my original blog, today on Fashion Friday I have featured these pictures of Nan, my mother, in two pictures taken on summer days back in the early 1920's. The photos need to also be here on Pieces of the Past. Two more of my favorites, I am so glad the Pearces took lots and lots of pictures. I only wish I had asked more questions back when I could have gotten answers. So, if you think someday you may wish you had asked questions, if you can, do! (Click to enlarge)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Mother and Daughters

I do not know these pretty girls and their mother. I found the picture on the internet and thought it was delightful. The bonnets are such fun and the girls - and their mom - are very pretty. I wonder what the occasion was for these very beautiful outfits. It puts me in mind of a dance recital. Hope you enjoy the lovely ladies. (Click to enlarge)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Powers Camera Shop Ladies

I remember Mom talking about working at Powers Camera Shop when she was young. On the back of the picture that is what is written. Do you see on the front that someone has written "The 3 old maids"? That is a phrase you don't hear anymore. In fact, many women are opting to remain unmarried in this day and age. Not so much in the distant past. I think one of the ladies was named Lizzie Flanagan, but I don't know who the other one is. Nan, my mom, is on the right.
This is a photo of Nan and her coworker working diligently for Mr. Power. Maybe that is one reason why the Pearces took so many pictures during the years when the older two girls were young women. Regardless, I am glad they did. I am so enjoying posting them - and all the other photos, to. (Click to enlarge)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Ray's Aunt Leatha

Ray's Aunt Leatha, his mother's older sister, was like a second mother to him. The girls mother died when Clemie, Ray's mom, was still a little girl. Leatha, being nine years her senior, was more like a mother to Clemie than a sister. She was a lovely woman. Here she is with her husband, Frank aka Chubby.
This picture was evidently given as a Christmas present to their grandmother.
Another picture of Leatha holding Ray as a baby and with her little boy, Jay, at her side. She had one other son, Dale, who was quite a bit younger than Ray. I love her hairdo! As I look at this picture, I notice that Ray is wearing the shoes that I have posted last October. (Click to enlarge)