Postcard Friendship Friday

Here is a sweet little postcard from a fella to a gal - and I think he may be smitten.  Love the illustration - she is sweet, shy and very open to his attention.  Looking very spiffy in his straw hat, the fellow is looking at her with adoring eyes and so sweetly sincere as he talks to his sweetheart----

  Say what you would say

If I were to say

What I want to say

Today

The message on the card is not that romantic, but he most certainly is taken with Mattie or he would not have picked out the post card he did.   It would be so interesting to know if this budding romance almost 100 years ago between Mattie and  C. C. ever culminated in marriage.  What do you think?

 Thanks, Beth, for hosting PFF through your delightful blog - http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/.

For Keeping Warm and Cooking

I started to thinking about our life when I was a little girl growing up in Rome, Illinois.  I have posted pictures of the very modest home we lived in - my parents, my brother, sister and I.  There was no bathroom - and, of course, no central heating.  This is a picture of a heating stove that is similar (as I remember) to the one that was in our living room.  I don't think it had the ornate doodad on top, but it did have a fender.   The fender was chrome and had cutouts in it.  That is clear in my mind since, when we were little, we would put kitchen chairs on either side of the stove and put our basin of water on the seat of the chair.  That is where we gave ourselves a "bath" so we didn't freeze to death!  One morning my little sister backed her little bare bottom against the fender and had imprints of the fancy cutout on her poor little butt.  It is such a vivid memory.

This is similar to the cookstove in the kitchen, and, of course, it helped heat the house.  The doors over the top were for the warming oven where you could keep food warm until dinnertime.  What a handy place, also, to hide things like dirty skillets that you hated to wash!  Jo and I were responsible for the dishes getting done and did hide things in the warming oven sometimes.  The right side of the stove had a reservoir of hot water that could be used for instant hot water when the stove was being used.  Oh, my, so many memories stirred up with this post. 

In the summer, of course,  it was way too hot to use the coal stove so we had a kerosene stove similar to this.  The four little cannister like things along the bottom had a reservoir of kerosene in each with a wick that could be turned up and lit (like a kerosene lamp).  I can't remember how the oven was heated - probably one of them was for the oven.  There were little windows made of something called micah (I think) in the cannisters.  I was always fascinated by that. It's been a long, long time since I have thought about all this.

 Here are a couple of accessories for the coal cookstove.  The top one is to attach to the stove and shake the ashes down into the ash receptacle.  The other with the coiled handle is to life the lids from the surface of the stove.  There would also be a poker.  I would say alll this is quite a stretch from the microwave!  I marvel at all the things that have come - and so many of them gone - in my lifetime.  What on earth will another  83 years bring? 

Postcard Friendship Friday

This little fellow evidently discovered that smoking a pipe just wasn't what he thought it would be and was feeling a little green around the gills.  This side is cute, but the back has me puzzled--

Miss May Babcock in New Mexico is getting a message from what looks to me like Beckie.   The message, as I read it, says "This is simply to inform you that I don't love you any more.  Why don't you write, you fickle.   Beckie".  Another mysterious little message on a postcard.

PFF is hosted by Beth at  thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com.    Thanks, Beth, and hope all is well with you! 

Love What They Can Do With Old Houses

This picture has been in the blog before, but I thought of it immediately when I looked at pictures on Pinterest this afternoon.  That is Sherry, our daughter, sitting on the steps of the little house we lived in when Bill, our son, was born back in 1953 in Chillicothe, Illinois.  It was a two bedroom, one bath, dining room, living room and kitchen with a coal burning furnace (that was lots of fun - we got a stoker after a year which was better but not much!).  Anyway, when I looked at the picture right below----------

 I immediately thought, that looks like our little house on Truitt Avenue!  And it does, seeing them together.
The porch could have been enclosed, newwindows, new paint, darling new storm, screen door and window boxes, all that would change it completely. Add a white picket fence and lots of flowers-----I'd be willing to move right back in!

Ephemera

I am so drawn to everything about the 1920's and 1930's - the artwork, fashions, etc., and I have found such wonderful examples of what came out of that time.  I was born at almost the end of the Roaring Twenties (1928) and many of the old pictures of my family and that of my late husband are from that time.  My childhood was in the 1930's - I finished 8th grade in 1942.  Yes, I am old!!  So, along with other things, I will do posts from Pinterest as part of Pieces of the Past.

Today, I post this piece of sheet music for "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" which was sung and was kind of a theme song for a woman named Kate Smith.  I can remember hearing her on the radio and I also think she might have sung in a movie or two.  Her other big hit was "God Bless America".

 Here is Kate and if you wish to here her sing the song for the first time, click on the arrow.  Enjoy a big Piece of the Past.

Postcard Friendship Friday

 

Here is a sweet little Easter card from a mother who is evidently away to her little daughter, Gladys.  I love the messages on the old cards and always wonder about the situations under which the cards are written.  Gives a person something to mull over and imagine what the circumstances could be.  For whatever reason the mom wasn't there, I hope she returned home safe, well and happy.  

Thanks to Beth, at http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com  for hosting PFF.   Wishing a lovely Easter to all, Carol.

It's Been a Long, Long Time

Almost six and one half months since I have posted anything on Pieces of the Past.   The reason for this is mainly that I had just about run out of old family pictures to post.  With the onset of Pinterest (if you have not heard of this you can go ahead and google the term), it is such fun seeing all the things that people find interesting and post on their boards.  Of course, you will find many that have the same interests you have and therefore can pin from each other to fill your boards with pictures of things you love.  My interests, of course, are the needlearts, color, anything vintage, nature, to name a few.   

I have always loved things from the 20's and 30's and I adore the lovely illustrations and greeting cards, etc., in the art deco manner.  This bridge tally is beautiful.
 Another of my favorite things - head vases.  I have several and my daughter has two or three that I had purchased quite a few years ago.  They are so very pretty and are becoming very collectible now raising the price considerably.

One of my boards on Pinterest is "Absolutely Dotty" and here is one of the pictures I have posted there.  Shirley and I are the same age!

In the time I have been away from posting on POP,  my new little great-grandson, Henry, is about to turn 8 months old and is, of course, adorable.  His grandma and grandpa and I skype with them and that is so amazing.   Here he is all ready for crazy hair day at day care.  I laugh everytime I look at his adorable face in this photo!  Would love to squeeze him!

 So, I think I will start resurrecting Pieces of the Past and take it in a slightly different direction.  There will still be some family photos but of my more immediate family.  I also have a new book by the Historical Society of Chillicothe and I will probably post some of those pictures, too.  Oh, yes, I will do Postcards on Friday - that was always fun!