In this photograph my mother, Doris Graham Cleage, was at my Cleage grandparent’s house on Atkinson in Detroit, Michigan. I don’t know what the occasion was. I don’t know why she was turned like this. There were no pets. My sister and I were unlikely to be crouched down by her chair. She’s wearing both of her earrings. She wasn’t shy and also unlikely to be sobbing softly with her face hidden from the camera. I think that it would be a good photo for a story starter.
My uncle Henry Cleage probably took the photo.
The year before we had moved from Springfield, Massachusetts where my father was pastor of St. John’s Congregational Church back to Detroit where he was pastor of St. Marks Presbyterian Church. The parsonage was down the street from my grandparent’s house and I walked by it every day on my way to and from kindergarten and first grade. I might add that I walked it all by myself, crossing the busy street of Linwood at the light and walking past the isolated and wooded seminary to reach school. My sister Pearl was a preschooler and stayed home playing and napping while I toiled, uphill both ways, to and from Brady Elementary School.
In 1953 there was a church fight and my father left St. Matthew’s with 300 parishioners and started a new church, Central Congregational Church. We moved to the new parsonage on Chicago Blvd.
I first shared this photograph on Sepia Saturday in 2010, sixteen years ago.
Moving Springfield to Detroit – 1951
The Fabulous Cleages – 1952
My mother was a teacher
A Church and Two Brothers – Two Splits 1953
Tribune’s Neighorhood of the Week – Central Congregational
What an intriguing photo of your mother! It definitely would be a great story starter. I’m already coming up with ideas.
So many possibilities!
Such captivating photos. I wonder if your mother was simply caught up in thought and the photographer saw a chance for a fascinating photo. Agree this would be a good story starter. Your uncle Henry appears pensive and dapper in his photo, and that’s such a great photo of you and your sister!
One of my favorites 🙂
That is a rather unusual photo of your mother. One does have to wonder what was going on? Maybe she had to cough and turned away just as Uncle Henry was starting to trip the shutter? You were sure a cutie in the pic’ of you & your sister. 🙂
Or maybe she was laughing hysterical and turned away to get herself together.
Wonderful to consider what your mother was doing/thinking/feeling in that first shot. Loved seeing you all as little tykes. Quite grown up you were to walk to kindergarten! Impressive.
It was the early 1950s. I think everybody did. Neighborhood schools.
Beautiful photos! The first one of Doris has a quality like a deliberate work of photographic art playing with twisted shapes and b&w contrasts. Henry’s photo could be a scene from a Hollywood movie. The cracks in the paper actually add more drama. And the last one of you and your sister has that wonderful quality of innocence when children don’t know they are being photographed.
I know that when the photo of Henry was taken the family photographers were dealing with contrast and shadow. They had good eyes.
My favourite image was the one of you with your sister Pearl. I enjoyed your comment on the difference in your lives at that age, withe the view Pearl had it easy plaging and napping at home whilst you had to toil to schoolthere and back. Did you feel a bit hard done by?
Actually it was the reverse – Pearl envied me going to school. I found the walk interesting and didn’t feel put upon. It wasn’t up hill either way, Detroit is very flat. I enjoyed school okay, especially kindergarten where I got to paint.