Dan, Maggie and Friends on Western Trip in 1920

 Maggie Pearce and two friends in Portland, Oregon, many, many years ago.  Maggie as you may know from my earlier posts, are my grandparents on my mother's side. 

Here they are with the woman who, along with her husband, accompanied them on the trip out west from Peoria.  Again, I am amazed at the way they are so very dressed up for their traveling.  Maggie even had a fur stole and a lovely hat and Dan was in his suit, tie and a hat, also.  I imagine that might be their car they are standing by.

Here the are with the fellow that was with them on the trip and they are at Lake Louise, which I googled and it's in Canada.  What a long trip for the Pearces and their friends.  They are enjoying the snow here.

I am so glad they wrote on the front of their pictures!  Otherwise, I would not have a clue as to where they were or when.  Dan and his friend are wearing their topcoats  and Maggie is snuggled in her stole.   

Here is another picture that I have posted before that certainly was taken at the same time as the others in this post.  It fits so well I just have to repeat it - Snow flakes.  My grandfather is on a rock.  Click to enlarge

Postcard Friendship Friday

Back in 1973, our daughter was a sophomore at Kansas University and we were living in Newton, Kansas, just north of Wichita.  This was a postcard that she sent just before coming home a couple of weeks before  Thanksgiving.  I laugh at her mentioning the time of her departure for return to school depended on the "food".  What a difference in communication there is now compared to way back in the "old days"!   Glad I saved the card - I thought it was so very pretty.  Nice to run across little pieces of the past like this.   Go to

http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/  and check out more postcards at Beth's blog.  Happy PFF.

(Click to enlarge)

Granddaughters

My late husband and I were blessed with three granddaughters - such joy they brought to our lives and are still bringing to mine. This is Norah - married to Chad and living in Chicago. They were married a little over a year ago on Mackinac Island in Michigan. The entire family was there and it was such a great weekend.

This is Molly - she was just married to Doug in Portland, Oregon, a little over a month ago. The whole family was at the wedding and it was another wonderful weekend.

And this is Hannah who just graduated from Michigan this spring in three years and who will leave for Mozambique, Africa, next Monday morning for 27 months in the Peace Corps. Needless to say, this stirs up a mixture of emotions in all of us who love her so much - pride and happiness in her quest to make this happen, and sadness that she will be gone for so long and be so far away. I have written a post on my other blog http://funoldhag-carol.blogspot.com/ if you would like to read it. I have also put a link there to the blog that she will be keeping during this new and exciting time in her young life and she has put up her first post.

Even though these three beautiful young ladies don't go very far back into the past, they will carry things on into the future for all of us. I am so very proud of all of them.

Three Little Kids

Here is a cute picture of our little kids and the little neighbor boy, Mark, who is on the right . Bill and Mark were such a darling pair of little boys - both full of enthusiasm, impish and lots of fun. Mark was a year older than Bill but they were pretty much the same size. There they stand with Sherry in our back yard in Ft. Madison, Iowa, in 1957 according to the date on the side of the picture. Love those dated photos! That was the first summer we lived in Iowa. Very, very good, fun years - a great place to live. If I could have stayed in one of the places we moved to, it would have been Ft. Madison. This is one of my favorite pictures - what cuties! (Click to enlarge)

Postcard Friendship Friday

I am surprised to find that I have more postcards than I realized. This one turned up in a box with other pictures and it is from the Chicago World's Fair which, I think, opened in 1933 although this card was mailed in 1934. Regardless, a long, long time ago. I am particularly taken with the way the fairgoers are dressed--quite a bit different than what people wear in a like situation today! I can remember dressing up a bit to go shopping or to the dentist or doctor. We are truly laid back in this day and age - I guess the term is "casual". It must have been a warm day judging from the fact that some of the men are carrying their suitcoats.

My husband's mother received this from a woman that Ray called Aunt Katie but who was not actually his aunt. She was related some way, though, and I know Ray spent some time with her. I do know, also, that Myles who is mentioned in the message was her husband and a policeman in Peoria. They had a daughter that was about Ray's age who was like a cousin to him. This, too, is a linen card. Many of them were back then, I surmise. So, Happy PFF!! And thanks for hosting, Beth, at http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ (Click to enlarge)

Old Printer's Drawer

In the 1970's after we had moved to the Kansas City area, printer's drawers were becoming very popular. I found this neat old drawer at an antique show in one of the malls and decided to fill it with little mementos we had around our house. Most of the spaces have things with real meaning - a few are just there to fill it up. In a space on the lefthand side is my birth announcement that my Aunt Nelle sent me when she was going through some of her things one time. I also have put in two little cards that I got at a shower when we were going to be married.

This little embroidery is something Sherry did - a teepee. I love it!

The main thing in this picture is Ray's Eagle Scout Badge. Boy Scouts meant so much to him - he lost his father when he was 12 and the men he was in contact with in scouts were special. He also worked with the scouts for a long time when he was older. He actually was a scoutmaster in Chillicothe for our church troop when Bill was a baby. When we moved to Topeka, Bill was in the scouts and Ray was a neighborhood commissioner. The troup had it's own campsite and would from time to time hike out on weekends for a campout. Bill made it to Star Scout which is great and his badges are also in the drawer.

These are Sherry's keepsakes - a tassle from her drill team boot and her eight year Sunday School attendance pin. So many neat little things lying around everyone's home.

This little sheriff's star was on a little jacket and pants outfit Bill had when he was probably six or seven. It never hung in the closet - it either was on Bill or dirty. As soon as it was laundered and ironed, he wore it. I love this, too. The little snowman is an earring I used to wear at Christmas time. The caboose is part of a little N gauge railroad that Ray had. And there are Sherry's jacks. Also in the box are my DAR award pin from high school, Ray's class ring, a badge for hiking the Lincoln Trail, his dogtag, a Ft. Madison Rodeo Badge, a night owl badge for dancing after midnight at a square dance, an archery badge Sherry won at Camp Pin Oak and the Beatle-like birthday cake toppers we had for Bill's birthday one year. Hope you enjoyed this little piece of fluff! (Click to enlarge - probably will see some dust, too)

Bad Timing for a Transfer

(This is the treehouse in the shelterbelt beside our house in Newton, Kansas, as mentioned later in this post. In the picture are my two nephews, Dan and Craig, my brother-in-law, Bob, and Bill, our treehouse architect. Isn't it something?)

Ray received word that he was being transferred to Newton, Kansas, as Acting Asst. Division Engineer right about Thanksgiving time in 1968. What a bad time to move - Sherry was finishing her senior year at Topeka High and Bill was in his last year at Boswell Junior High. We just could not take them out of their schools and plunk them down in Newton where everything would have been so strange. So Ray found a room in Newton and the kids and I stayed in Topeka and he came home as often as he could. It took several hours to drive to get home. As spring approached, the three of us drove to Newton and went house hunting and moved the day after Sherry graduated from high school. It was still not a lot of fun for the kids, but much better than if we had moved earlier. You can be certain Ray welcomed us with open arms - it had been a long winter.

Bill took a job working at the Safeway in the produce department. He also made friends with the son of the people we bought our house from - they lived right across the field behind us. Jim introduced him to some other guys so all was well with Bill. We lived at the edge of a shelter belt and Bill and buddies built a two story treehouse - wired for light and sound and all the comforts of home. He slept in it most nights. It was pretty darned cool! I added the picture above after I had done the rest of this post.

Sherry had some of her friends from Topeka visit her and she was also getting ready to go to KU in the fall. So that summer did pass by and all was well with the world. The following summer, she took a job as a counselor at the girl scout Camp Daisy in Topeka so spent most of her summer there. At least, I think it was the following summer and not the first one. A long time has gone by since then.

Me? I took a job at the Hesston Corporation in the little town of Hesston which was about 10 or 11 miles from Newton. They made specialized farm equipment. They needed a legal secretary and I was offered that but there was too much overtime that I just didn't want to contend with. The only job I had ever had was being a legal secretary. I really enjoyed it but just wanted to go home at 5:00 and not work on weekends. So I took a job as a secretary in the Parts Department. In the picture, the tall fellow between me and Verna is Chuck Wood and he was manager of parts. I would make a pot of coffee for him each morning (it all pays the same). One morning he stuck his head out of his office and said "You Pollack secretary!" I had forgotten to put the coffee in so he had a cup of hot water. He was funny and we got along great since I could tease him right back. Nice to be able to have fun along with working. Had never worked with a lot of people before and enjoyed that a lot. In the picture, the fellows on the left side in suits worked in the office and the fellows in the white coats were in the warehouse. Note that there are quite a few sideburns in the picture! The fifth fellow from the left is Ernie - Ernie was one of the cutest, funniest young guys I have ever met. He could have been a standup comic.

We lived in Newton three years and were very happy when Ray was transferred to the Kansas City area. (Click to enlarge)

My Family

My parents, siblings and children pose for a picture at my sister's home when we came back to Illinois for a visit at Christmas time in the very early 1960's. Bud stands between Joanne and me, my dad, sitting next to Mom, holds Craig, Jo's youngest boy who is not wanting his picture taken. Sitting in front is our smiling cub scout, Bill, our daughter, Sherry, and my sister's older boy, Danny. Mom blinked her eyes, but it still is a pretty good picture of the family. Notice the little cup on the table to the right - painting cups and plates was the rage back in those days. And on the table to the right - Marlboro's and a book of matches - ever present. Not good, but that was the way it was. I am ashamed to say I enjoyed smoking but am so very happy that I quit and would never take it up again- just wish I had done it sooner. As my mom used to say, "Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which gets full the quickest!" Isn't that a gem? My parents had some funny little sayings they would spout off once in a while. One of my dad's was, "I'd like to buy him for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth!" Mom used to refer to our home as "Nan's Nut House". That was a joke, of course, but maybe a little truth in it occasionally! Enough witticisms for today! Maybe I will come up with more later on. (Click to enlarge)

Postcard Friendship Friday

This is a postcard that the fellow I eventually married sent me in late summer after we had dated for a while although nothing serious. He was a lot of fun and we had a good time together that summer. He eventually went into the service during the time of occupation in Germany. We didn't write each other - probably didn't even think about each other. I was in my senior year in high school and having a fine time, and he had a fine time in Germany, also. It was about four years later when he was out of the service that he and a couple of his friends came down to my house to see me. Ray and I started dating again and this time it became serious - we married on September 4, 1949.

Although tomorrow would be our 61st anniversary, we had an actual 48 great years together. So that's the story behind this little old postcard. Happy PFF

Thanks to Beth at http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ for hosting PFF. (Click to enlarge)

Working Girls

Back in the late 40's after graduating from high school, I worked in Peoria in a lawyers' office. I rode the bus from Rome to Peoria each day and always was with the same group of people. The pretty girl on the end of the standing back row in the above photo boarded the bus about two miles down the road - I had never met her before. She worked in the same building as I did and also worked for attorneys. Billie and I became very good friends and spent a lot of time together. There were also two or three other girls in the building that we ran around with - fun times, those were. The woman who had been the only secretary in our office for years and years was in a business sorority and she was instrumental in forming another chapter of the sorority for the younger girls. This picture was at a function of some kind for Lambda Chapter. What stands out for me is the fact that Billie and I used to always go buy carnations and wear them in our hair when we went anyplace - looks like that was something that was just our thing. Fun to think about those sweet old days! (Click to enlarge)