From Funoldhag Fashion Friday

(I will continue to feature one of the Fashion Friday posts on Funoldhag that I did for a long time.   To refresh your memory, Leah was my dear aunt - the youngest sister of my mother, Nan Pearce Droll.  She was my favorite aunt and I so loved being around her.)

Leah, Nan's lovely younger sister and also kind of a tomboy, is shown here wearing an outfit featuring a sailor collar and either a skirt or bloomers of some sort - can't really tell - and looking ready to take part in a game of football! Aunt Leah, you're a cutie! I know her brother, Ham, was a football player in highschool so that is probably his ball.

Here she is wearing a very pretty white summer frock, high button shoes and a big taffeta bow in her hair looking very feminine and sweet.

My mom's family took a lot of pictures and were pretty good about identifying the subjects. As you can see, many times it was on the front of the photo!

From Funoldhag Fashion Friday

(As I start posting again to Pieces of the Past, I am continuing to feature old family pictures that I used each Friday on my blog, Funoldhag.  I don't think most of these made it to this blog;  but, if they did, it will be fun to  see them again.)_

 

Today our sweet little models are Nan and Nelle Pearce, my mom and my aunt, when they were very young little girls back in the late 1890's.  I have this picture in a pretty old antique frame hanging by my fireplace in a group of other old photos.  This is so sweet.  Nan is wearing a dark long dress with a lace trimmed collar.  Nelle wears a lighter colored dress with a double ruffle feature around the neck and shoulder line.  Both little girls appear to be in awe of the camera - do you suppose it was one of those that the photographer went under a dark cover when the picture was being taken?  

From FOH Fashion Friday

(This post was originally on Funoldhag a little over a year ago.)  On this cold, winter morning in March, I thought you might like to look at a picture of some lovely ladies in their swimming attire. I am very confident that these outfits would have been the latest in style as the Pearce girls, Nelle and Nan, were always dressed very fashionably and their friends would be no exception. Nelle and Nan are on the left of the photo. The picture was probably taken at the Sionilli, the Pearce cottage up the Illinois River from Peoria. The fabric of the dresses looks as if it were still wet, giving a bit of the "wet t-shirt" look. My, how times have changed! I doubt if this style will ever return, don't you agree? (Click to enlarge)

From Fashion Friday on Funoldhag

(This was posted on Funoldhag about a year ago)

Friday has rolled around again - the weeks fly by anymore. Today I will feature a picture of Ray as a baby with his Aunt Leatha and her son, Jay. Leatha has an absolutely darling haircut and she was such a pretty woman. Her frock has a dropped waist and long sleeves. The shoes she wears feature a big buckle. Jay, her little boy, is all dressed up in a white shirt, pants and a tie.

If you will note, Ray is wearing the shoes one of which I have and it was featured in a post on Pieces of the Past some time ago. Very fashionable!! (Click to enlarge)

From FOH Fashion Friday

Our models today are my cousins in California, Ken and Bob, and Uncle Lambert, the sons and husband of Nelle, my mother's sister who is in so many of the pictures. The boys are wearing uniforms and I am unsure if they are Boy Scouts or not. Bob, in the center, has some really great high boots. Now Uncle Lambert - what a great outfit he is clad in. A checked sweater, knickers and checked socks - handsome attire. And it is topped by a really good looking cap. Looking good, fellows! I am sorry this photo doesn't enlarge - I would love to see it closer.  (This was posted on Funoldhag in January, 2010.  Ken, the older brother, just passed away a few weeks ago not long before he was to turn 90 years old.  It was interesting that I really got to know him in the later years over the intermet.  My brother, Ken and I did a lot of e-mailing about the Pearce side of our family.  What a nice man he was.)   

From Funoldhag's Fashion Friday

(This is a repeat of a post I did on Funoldhag back in March of last year. I love these two old pictures of my mom.)

This Fashion Friday I am featuring Nan in a picture that shows what a lovely young woman of her era wore for swinging on a gate in front of a giant castor bean plant (I am fairly positive that is what the plant is). Nan is wearing a lovely light colored summer frock with a big collar and three-quarter length sleeves. The bodice buttons down the front. A soft, ruffly cap completes her very pretty look.

Then we have this photo of what the lovely young lady would wear when sitting on the porch in a rocking chair back in the early 20's. Nan is attired in a sweet summer gown featuring a white collar and cuffs and maybe the same little bonnet that appears in the first picture or a bonnet very similar. Two more favorite pictures of mine. Enjoy. (Click to enlarge)

From Fashion Friday on Funoldhag

They come around so quickly - Fashion Fridays, I mean. On this rather gloomy day here in Michigan, I am posting a picture of little Carol (who grew up to be Funoldhag) as she sits on the bannister of her grandparents' porch. What a fashionable little girl in a faux fur coat, cute little tam and shiney shoes with straps. She is wearing stockings and mittens so it was probably kind of chilly that day.

And here she is again, this time with her favorite Aunt Leah. It was a different day most likely since she is wearing laced up shoes but the same coat. Probably a little warmer since there is no tam or mittens. Aunt Leah is looking pretty with a chic hairdo, very pretty fur trimmed coat and strappy shoes. This would have been in the early 1930's. So many of the pictures taken at my grandparents' home were taken in the front yard and you can see over time that they enclosed the porch and made a sunroom and closed entry.    This was posted in October, 2009,  on Funoldhag. (Click to enlarge)

From FOH Fashion Friday

It says right on the picture that this is Anna Pearce in Champagne, Ill, but I don't know how Anna is related to my grandfather's family. I do know that Dan and Maggie had some very good friends in Champagne. This pretty lady may have been married to the son of one of my grandfather Dan's brothers. Most certainly, it looks as if there is a bird perched on her hat! Her outfit is fresh and summery with a skirt and overskirt and pretty blouse sporting a pin or brooch.  And the hat!! Anna wins the prize for the best hat in pictures of my ancestors! Don't you agree? Interesting little purse she is carrying - looks like it could be a carton of Chinese food.  How fun it would be to know where she has been, with who and what is making her have such a beautiful dimpled smile on her face.  One of my favorite pictures from the Pearces.   (Click to enlarge)

From Fashion Friday on Funoldhag

Today finds Nan, wearing a summery white frock with three-quarter sleeves, a pretty satin sash, and lovely dark hat with a light band, posing with her sister, Nelle, and a very pretty friend that I am unable to identify. Nelle, looking very sophisticated, is wearing a chic dress with a three tiered skirt, many buttons, and a dark belt. Her hat is beautiful and features a very large floppy brim and a pretty band. She looks to be carrying gloves. The pretty friend also is wearing a white frock that features a two tiered skirt and a lovely wide sash made of a printed fabric. She is hatless so we are able to see her cute hairdo. I always wonder where the girls were going in their lovely outfits. In front of the front porch at the Pearce home was a favorite place to take photos, and I appreciate those photos more all the time. Hope you enjoyed today's show.  (Posted earlier on Funoldhag - click to enlarge)

From FOH Fashion Friday

(Continuing with posts for Fashion Friday on Funoldhag.)  

This morning I am posting what is probably my favorite picture of Nan, my mom, posing beside a bench on a spot by the Illinois River somewhere in the Peoria area. Such a stylish outfit she wears - a lovely striped skirt (is it red and white, gray and white?) topped by a dark jacket that features white turned back cuffs and a lacy jabot (is that a good word?) that is adorned with a pin or button. Topping off this lovely ensemble is a very pretty, big hat. She also wears chic white stockings and very cute shoes with curvy little heels. Very classy lady! (Click to enlarge)

From FOH Fashion Friday

When I looked at this picture, I realized that this one was taken the same day in Glen Oak Park as a previous one I posted of my mom, Nan, and her friend in the plaid skirt in the conservatory admiring the flowers. In this picture, Nan has her hat on and it is such a pretty one. Joining them are Nelle, Nan's sister, who is seated on the bench on the right. She is also a very stylish woman with a confident air about her. Her outfit appears to be a suit and her hat is stunning, along with her light shoes. The fourth lady on the far left is unknown but is wearing a plain but pretty skirt and blouse. I hope they all had a lovely day in the park.

Standing in front of Ben Franklin Print Shop in Peoria is Nan and a friend both dressed in a timely fashion. It is hard to see the friend's outfit except it is obvious that she is wearing a lovely hat and is clad in a stylish manner. Nan's hat is very pretty and her fur stole is showing an appearance again worn over a plaid dress that is probably made of cotton fabric. Note her shorter skirt, high button shoes and her lovely purse that appears to be beaded with a metal chain. (Click to enlarge)

From Fashion Friday on Funoldhag

The lovely model for today is my Aunt Leah, Nan's sister, who must have been in her mid-teens when this photo was taken. Leah is looking cute and stylish in her high button shoes, dark stockings, possibly a pleated skirt and dark coat. Around her neck is a pretty scarf and she is wearing a wool cap with a cute pompon. I am sure she probably has some nice gloves or mittens but her hands are in her pocket since it is a cold day in Peoria, Illinois. I know exactly where this picture was taken - it is in the back yard of my grandparents' home and that is a very large old garage that is almost barnlike. Aunt Leah was very special to me - I loved being around her. She never married and lived with my grandparents all her life - there was just Grandma and Leah for quite a while. When I was a child, I used to love to stay at their house for a week or two in the summer and sometimes for a while during Christmas vacation. It was like a second home.   (Click to enlarge) 

From Fashion Friday on Funoldhag

Today there are several lovely models and outfits to admire. Nan, my stylish mom, is on the right end of this group of nice looking young people out for a day of an unknown activity. Nan's date has a piece of paper in his hand that could be a program of some sort - maybe a concert in Glen Oak Park? I think his plaid cap is so cool, don't you? The girls all look stunning in their pretty outfits and wonderful hats while the fellows tend to be wearing very similar suits except for the fellow who has made his stand out with the plaid cap. Another observation - there are three fellows and four girls so don't know which ones are couples and never will, sigh. A light bulb just went on over my head!! There probably is one more fella - who would be taking the picture? DUH! Another senior moment!! One more comment, the two little gals on the left must be very, very short. Nan was not tall - probably 5' 3" - but she looks tall in the photo. When I was looking closely at this picture, I spotted something around Nan's neck - and it dawned on me that it was her watch! I have that watch and above is a scan of it. Inside the case is engraved "Nan Pearce" so there is not doubt at all. On the outside of the case is an NP which I'm not sure will show up when enlarged. I have so grown to appreciate all the old pictures as I have grown older. Hope you enjoy them, also.  (Click to enlarge)    
 (Posted earlier on Funoldhag)

From FOH Fashion Friday

Here again is one of the best dressed chicks in Peoria sometime around 1915-20. Mom seemed to just love posing in her pretty outfits. This one features such a lovely hat with a gorgeous feather and a chic fur stole. According to the times, she wore leather gloves and high button shoes and her suit was probably wool. How times have changed. Most people rarely dress up to such an extent - at least the ones that I know. I do like the casual approach better.  (Click to enlarge)

From Funoldhag's Fashion Friday

There are quite a few pictures of my mother in her younger years that just fascinate me. At one time, my grandparents, although not wealthy, led a very comfortable life and some of the old pictures reflect that. My grandfather worked for Thomas and Clark Cracker Company and was active in politics in Peoria. He was city treasurer when I was born despite having only an elementary school education. Mom and her sisters, especially Nelle, the older one, wore such pretty clothes for the time. The Pearces also had a cottage up the river in Rome, Illinois, a wide place in the road  where I grew up some years later.

 This picture, I am almost 100% sure, would have been taken at the conservatory in Glen Oak Park in Peoria. Nan and her friend (I think she was a girl Nan worked with at Powers Camera Shop) are admiring the lovely blooms. Nan is holding her hat which looks as if it were trimmed with a lovely flower and she is wearing a pretty summer dress with three-quarter sleeves trimmed with lace and a big sash. I would guess the dress is white and sash blue. Her friend has a lovely plaid skirt and white blouse and straw hat with a halo of flowers around the brim. This most likely was a lovely summer afternoon and the girls had been for a walk in the park.  (Click to enlarge)

From Fashion Friday on Funoldhag

I have posted almost all of my really old family pictures (i.e., my mother and father's families)  here in Pieces of the Past.  I still have lots of our family and some of my childhood, but miss posting the ones in the early part of last century.   On my blog "Funoldhag" I feature a fashion show each Friday and there are pictures there that I am sure have never been on POTP.  The Pearces, my mom's family, took many pictures and I love looking at the old clothing and wondering where they were going and what they were doing.  So I plan to post those pictures here once in a while  and hopefully you will enjoy them.   I start out with my mom and me---------

What the well dressed mother and baby were wearing in 1928. Sitting on the "coping" of the frontyard of a pair of doting grandparents in Peoria, Illinois, were Nan and Carol. Nan is wearing a lovely banded cloche (I think that is what you call that hat) and pointed shoes with a strap. Her dress appears to be a silk or maybe rayon since it has a nice sheen. Carol, born when Nan was 34 and the first of three babies, is dressed in a frilly bonnet and dress with cute little booties. She also appears to be a very healthy, chubby little thing. (Click to enlarge)