This would have been my father's 112th birthday.
We lost his smiling loving looks in 1985 a few months after he turned 70. He was always proud to be a Texan while living in St. Louis MO or near Boston MA. But my parents returned to Houston TX when they retired in 1980 or so.
Christmas Dinner 1938, two years after my parent's marriage. Dad was known as Junie, or Junior, since he carried the same name as his father. Here he's on the left standing behind my mother with her eyes closed. Next to him is Alec who had married in 1933 to pretty Sissy who's seated in front of him. Centered behind the funny tree is Chauncey, then the youngest brother, Jimmy. And on the far right my grandfather, Poppy with his wife Ada (aka"Gummy") seated in front of him. They must have set up the camera on a tripod and shown some bright lights around, rather than a flash. Those men enjoyed various gadgets. I remember my father told me he built a crystal set for an early radio.
The other interesting thing about this picture is the women being seated, since they'd been in the kitchen for hours putting the dinner together. But everyone dressed in their best for the photograph!
This home was in San Antonio TX, and the address is given as 400 E. Myrtle.
I wonder if my Texan father would have still been voting Republican these days. Oh wait, I remember now. My parents decided to not vote, because they planned to vote on opposite sides each time.
Strange people, eh?
I just found a dozen years of journals I kept. I don’t do that any more. I started reading one…it was the year of a momentous event. I left it out while I boxed up the rest…a very heavy box and it’s not even full. Wonder what to put in it to fill it up with something that doesn’t weigh a thing.
The journal I plan to read? It had my youngest son’s birth, and the year following. I moved about 3 times in that year, if I remember right. One period was living with a teacher at a massage school in Gainesville FL, and her daughter and another boarder.
My oldest two sons had moved in with their father at that time, so I could live in just one room in someone’s house, with my baby’s crib and my bed from cushions from the camper van.
I kept the washing machine, my sewing machine, my rocking chair (still have it!) and a three level book shelf full of books. Maybe a lamp also. Suitcases of clothes. I was traveling light those days! And within a year I went back to college to get two degrees.
My father would have been proud of my education, though I think he didn’t like that I shared the counseling ideas with them. My parents were straight Christian Scientists…so learning about Gestalt, or any other way of defining the world was just not welcome. Interestingly enough, I learned about lots of things because my parents did believe an education was a good thing.
