My cousin, Warren Cleage Evans, checking Santa’s beard. I think it’s about 1952.
Read last years Santa post HERE.
Remembering 1963
Week 49. Historical Events. Describe a memorable national historical event from your childhood. How old were you and how did you process this event? How did it affect your family?
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| Me in the upper left corner. News photos from 1963. |
In 1963 I was 16 and a junior at Northwestern High School in Detroit. In the news were pictures of dogs attacking people who were peacefully demonstrating, high pressure hoses being used on people who were peacefully demonstrating, bombings of homes and churches, people being abused while sitting at lunch counters, people being arrested. Governor George Wallace of Alabama, stood in the door to block the integration of the University of Alabama. Women were dragged from demonstrations to the paddy wagon. Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson, MS in front of his home. Four girls were blown up while attending Sunday school in Birmingham, Alabama. Two teenage boys were killed during the rioting afterwards. There were two gigantic demonstrations that year, the Detroit Walk to Freedom followed by the March on Washington. Both drew over 100,000. President Kennedy was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald was killed, Cassius Clay who had not yet become Muhammad Ali was winning fight after fight. Malcolm X was speaking out and Martin Luther King, Jr was arrested in Birmingham, AL. Here and there people began to wear their hair in afros. In Detroit, the Freedom Now Party was seeking petitions to get on the ballot for the 1964 election and Malcolm X spoke at the Grassroots Conference.
How did all of this affect me and my family? I was angry but I also felt I was part of the struggle of the black community. I wondered why the federal government didn’t send troops down south to protect people who wanted to vote. I wrote revolutionary poetry. It wasn’t very good poetry. My family talked about everything that was happening. They were publishing the Illustrated News during that time and wrote about changes that had to come and the movement of the struggle from the south to the north and what the differences would be as this happened.
Thanksgiving – 1991, Idlewild, Michigan – Part 2
After I wrote my Thanksgiving 1991 post several days ago, I talked to several people about what they remembered. Some remembered nothing. Several others remembered the snow, Zaron with his head wrapped in a towel and the status discussion. Someone remembered it was Christmas but I was lucky enough to have the Ruff Draft article saying it was Thanksgiving. A reason to keep a journal or a family newsletter.
Yesterday I was reading the post “Had to Walk Home in the Snow” on the blog A Hundred Years Ago. The blog is set up so that it always begins with a diary entry by Helena Muffy in 1911 and is followed by information her granddaughter, Sheryl, has found that relates to the entry. This entry was about Helena Muffy walking home from church in the snow. Sheryl followed with a weather service report about conditions in that area on just that day! Sheyl was nice enough to explain to me how I could find the information for Thanksgiving, 1991 in Lake County, Michigan. I highly recommend this blog.
According to the chart from the National Climatic Data Center it started snowing on Nov. 24 and left us 4 inches. We got another inch on Nov. 25. By Thanksgiving there were still 3 inches on the ground. By the following Monday the snow had changed to rain and the snow was all gone.
And for my daughter, Jilo, I add these photographs of Pearl in her yellow shirt and Zeke with his head wrapped in a towel.
“I look the same now” Part 2
I’ve spent some time looking through my Graham grandparents photographs for a clue to the identity of the Mystery Nurse. To read Part 1 click here.
I came across one photograph, unfortunately also unidentified, that looks to me like it could be the same person. Who is she is still the question. 
This is what I can make out now…
“Made in K.C. Mo.
but just found a
duplicate and had
this developed 10-(3)0-1918.
Over 1 yr ago.
Your Sister M.G.F. (or T?)
A and M C(olle)ge
Normal Ala.”
“I look the same now.”
I found this photograph in my Graham album. I have no idea who it is. I don’t know who’s sister it is. I know it isn’t my grandmother Fannie’s sister because I would recognize them. I don’t think it’s my grandfather Mershell’s sister because as far as I know she was a servant with several children by 1918. I looked for information about nursing schools for African Americans Kansas City, MO. in 1918 and turned up nothing, but Zann, a friend of mine, found several short pieces and some photos of the General Hospital for Negroes in Kansas. The uniforms the nurses are wearing look like the same uniforms. So, here is my mystery nurse for this weeks Sepia Saturday.
I can’t make most of this out very well, but here is what I make of it “Made in K.C. Mo. but just found a duplicate and had this developed – 10-10-1918. Over……….your….F. A dm………Normal Ala.”
To read more click Along the color line.
For more Sepia Saturday offerings click the logo —–>
For Part 2 of “I look the same now.” click here.
The first dollhouse doll – Wordless Wednesday
Thanksgiving – 1991, Idlewild, Michigan
In 1991 we lived in Michigan on Lake Idlewild in an old house. Two of our daughters, Jilo and Ife, were in college Jilo was at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and Ife was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. The four younger children had been homeschooling for several years. My Uncle Henry lived several miles away on Water Mill Lake. My sister Pearl and her husband drove up from Atlanta.
My memories of this Thanksgiving begin with the snow storm that dumped at least a foot of snow on us. It started the day before and continued into Thanksgiving day. I remember waiting for people to arrive, standing out in the yard looking through the woods at the road and seeing cars coming through the snow. There were more people there then we had ever had before and everybody but Henry stayed for several days. The 29 pound turkey fed us all. I know we had a very big table in our small dining room and we brought another small table in so everybody ate in the dining room… or did some of the younger people eat at a card table in the living room? My brother-in-law, Michael, video taped the dinner and conversation which lasted long after the meal was over. I looked for the tape last night but it’s not here. I hope someone borrowed it and we can get it back.
The conversation was about race, responsibility, aliens from outer space landing on the deck, why black men didn’t turn the slave ships around, had we ever fought for freedom, the Status Theory (this was Henry’s theory and will have to have a post of it’s own one day.) The men did most of the talking and as the night wore on, became pretty heated. Especially between college student, Isaac and my sister’s husband Zeke. I remember there being something of the young male challenging the older or maybe it was the older seeing a challenge and not giving an inch. Henry was right there in the thick of it. I remember asking several times, now that we knew the problem, could we make a plan?? What we were going to do? There was no answer because it wasn’t that kind of practical discussion. It was about theory and well, status. In fact, the whole discussion was sort of a proving grounds for Henry’s theory, which was in short that life is all about fighting for status. At least among the males.
I don’t remember what we had for dinner but I know we had turkey with cornbread dressing, greens from the garden (I put up plastic tents over them and we got greens into January, whatever the weather.), fresh cranberry sauce, rice, sweet potatoes, rolls, pound cake and pumpkin pies (from our own pumpkins). We had these on the table because we always do.
I remember Isaac taking the family photograph with all of us sitting on the rug. I don’t remember where everybody slept. By Monday, the snow was melted and the visitors had returned homes. Click to read Thanksgiving 1991 Part 2.
Below is an article from “The Ruff Draft” by Ayanna.
Thanksgiving
by Ayanna Williams
We are still recovering from our rip roaring Thanksgiving! We had LOTS of people here. Our Aunt Pearl and Zaron drove up from Atlanta, GA. Jilo and Isaac drove up from Evanston, IL., Ife came from Ann Arbor. They all got here by late Wednesday. Uncle Michael and our cousin STeven drove up from Detroit just before we sat down to dinner on Thanksgiving. Great Uncle Henry (Sage of Water Mill Lake) came for dinner too.
Henry led many discussions on The Status Theory and The Group. Michael video taped one of them and has promised us all copies. Pearl and Zaron brought some videos with them. We watched one called “Stormy Weather”. It is an all Black movie made during the 1940’s. We really enjoyed it. We also watched some short films that Isaac and Jilo did. One was called “Shoe Shine Rag” and the other “Metaphycosis of the Mask”. They were experimental type films and a quite interesting. Michael showed a video tour of his house in Virginia.
We got our turkey from the food co-op, who got it fresh from an Amish farm. It was organically raised and weighted 29 pounds. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope we can get together again soon!
Dollhouse Update – Floor Finished, Roof On.
I didn’t get much work done on the dollhouse over Thanksgiving. Yesterday I started back to work. I had to move things around back to the living room work area from the office. I did more work on the fireplace and finished the first floor wood installation. The tile in the kitchen turned out to be too fine and exact for my mat knife so I extended the wood floor. The fireplace is not going to sit in the middle of the room, I just wanted you to be able to see it. Still much to be done but I put some of the furnishings in to impress the family on thanksgiving.
 Outside still needs windows, trim and shutters. |
 Roof on and first floor finished. |
 Small lantern on table to left was specially made by Mike. He is making a bigger one to hang from the ceiling.The quilt on the bed still needs to be quilted. The table is from my father’s English Leather aftershave long, long ago. |
 One of my granddaughters claimed this as her bed and added an acorn for a pillow. |
 The granddaughter also saw some tissue paper on my desk, tore some off and showed me how itwould make a good fire in the fireplace. Still need to finish the inside and the hearth. |
 Attic wallpaper = mini-newspapers, and another aftershave table and some future pie pans. |
Moving – Springfield to Detroit 1951
I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and lived there until I was almost 5. We moved in April of 1951 when my father got a church in Detroit, Michigan. Here we are on moving day, my sister and I, with two little girls I knew then but I don’t remember their names. I have a photo of the oldest girl, my sister and myself, standing on the parsonage porch. I also have a memory of the oldest girl pouring milk in my dinner, which I wasn’t going to eat anyway, but still… we were sitting at the little table in our room eating. My mother said if I’d eaten it in a timely fashion it wouldn’t have happened. No sympathy there. I remember another time when this little girl hit me and my mother told me if I didn’t hit her back, my mother was going to hit me. I hit her back. Don’t remember that she ever hit me again.
 Me, sisters I cannot remember the names of, my sister Pearl |
I saw them one more time, after we moved to Detroit. In the winter of 1967 my father returned to Springfield to preach for the Men’s Club. I went with him. We also went to New York on this trip where I bought my first pair of bell bottom jeans. My grandmother was so disappointed that I didn’t get a nice dress. But that isn’t this story. I remember the living quarters in the parsonage seemed so small on this trip. Nobody was living in them at the time. I’m sure the next minister got the congregation to move him back into separate quarters. We stayed with the family of these two girls. I was 20 so they were probably 20 and 18. The oldest one was going to a party. Well, actually she wasn’t going to the party, she was going to meet her boyfriend there and they were going elsewhere. Her father had forbidden her to see this boy. I was never a big party person and I sure didn’t want to be left at a strange party with a bunch of strangers. Needless to say, I didn’t go. The adults tried to persuade me that it would be “fun”. Ha. I didn’t give away her plan but I didn’t go. Wish I could remember her name, I’d look her up on facebook and see what she remembers about any of this.
Cleage Family Out for a Ride
I’m bringing this one back for Sepia Saturday this week because the theme has a car from about the same time period, give or take a year or two. I think my grandmother is wearing the same type hat as the woman who is looking at the car. A later photograph of the same car has “Lexington” written across the back. You can see that one here The Lexington.
My Aunt Gladys sends word by her daughter that “It was a Lincoln, could fit all nine plus a dog or two, the second row faced the back and the back row faced the front. she’s not sure where the photo was taken. It is big ain’t it! must be the precursor to the limo! She doesn’t think it’s Bell Isle, and it’s not Athens(TN). She thinks it might be the Meadows, that’s the only place with the trees and all the grass. Barbara looks like a miniature flapper!
