“I look the same now.”

Grahams, Investigations, sepia saturday,

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.

 

Thanksgiving – 1991, Idlewild, Michigan

Carnival of Genealogy,

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.

dollhouse, I'm a Giant Dollhouse Challenge

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 it
would 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

52 weeks of personal history, sepia saturday, , ,

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

Cleages, sepia saturday

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.

"Cleages with car"
Barbara, Albert Jr, Gladys, Anna, Mother Pearl and Father Albert about 1928.

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!

Sepia Saturday 101

 

Dollhouse update – hardwood floor

dollhouse, I'm a Giant Dollhouse Challenge

I spent some time today cutting up several 12 X 12 inch self-stick “wood”vinyl tiles in to small strips and sticking them on the dollhouse living room floor.  Voila! A hardwood floor. I have a “ceramic” vinyl square for the kitchen. I should cut it up into different sized pieces and lay it our like our floor is, but I might leave it as one piece. I am going to panel one wall in the front room, so tomorrow I’ll cut longer pieces for that.


The roof is going up. The stairs are ready to go in. The plexiglass for the windows has to be cut and the molding that goes around them cut to size and painted. Shutters have to go up. A few interior walls and half walls need to go in. A few walls need to be painted, some touching up and then the furniture and curtains can go in.  I still have to make the dolls that will live there, a pleasant older couple with a bunch of children and grandchildren who live in a box and come out for birthdays and the holidays. Maybe someone will live in the attic.

 

Off The Same Plantation, but Not A Relative

Eliza, ,

Eliza was also owned by Col. Harrison.  Her mother, Annie Williams, was born in Virginia. I am trying to figure out if any information in this article can help me in my research.
The Montgomery Advertiser, Wednesday Morning, November 14, 1917

“Old Charles,” Faithful Servant For Almost a Century, Passes Away

 Charles Leftwich, born into slavery in “Old Virginny,” at Lynchburg in 1831, in early manhood sold to a new master and carried to bondage to Lowndes County, Ala. died here November 7 at four score years and six.  His death was mourned by white and black alike.  He heard the “angel voices calling”, and in death as in life, ever obedient, he answered the call.  In youth, In young manhood, in middle life, and finally while body was bent and head hung low, as those who knew him say, he was loving, faithful, and true.  “Old Charles” is no more, but through the avenue of almost a century he walked among friends he made because of his deeply affectionate nature and entire faithfulness.

Servant of Col. Harrison

As a slave and faithful and devoted servant of Colonel Edmund Harrison, of Lowndes County, when the war broke out Charles was selected by his master as a body guard for the latter’s son-in-law Winston Hunter, when the young man began his service in the Confederate States Army.

Through the blazing heat of Summer, in the sleet, slush, ice, and bitter winds of Winter, for four long and trying years, while the confederacy’s fortunes lay in the troubled balance of the great Civil War, steadfast and true the faithful negro served his warrior master.  It was but natural that a peculiarly strong affection bound the two together, a bond of attachment none the less strong because of any difference of color, it is said.

Return To Old Home

After the war and Charles was free, he returned to the plantation of Colonel Harrison as to his natural home, and there remained until the death of the older master.  Throughout the trying days of the reconstruction immediately following the war there was no change in the former slave.  Day and night he remained true to those who had been good to him, an every ready protector of the women and children in the times that tried men’s souls.

Sorrow stricken after the death of others to whom he was so attached, after the death of “ol morster”, Charles came to Montgomery.  Events changed others – but not Charles, for into life, in ease and in plenty, in privation and in misery, this man with a black skin but a spotless character plodded his humble way as nobly within the city’s gates as he had for many years out where the birds twittered and the balm of the Southern sunshine itself ever the silken corn and fields of snowy cotton.

Served in Kessler Family

About ten years before his death “old Charles” began service with Mr. And Mrs. W.D.C. Kessler.  He soon became so attached to the Kesslers’ first born, then a baby boy, that he was installed as a nurse.  Then this splendid character proved as good a nurse as the gentlest woman.  To other boys were born to the Kesslers, and as each came Charles took him in charge, and guarded them as only he could do.  all of the children were devoted to him and his pride and affection for them were beautiful evidences of his own great goodness.  He wold often say that it was his only desire that he should live long enough for “his boys” to remember him so well that never would they forget him.  That this wish is daily gratified there are several who will attest.

Dollhouse Fireplace and the Real Thing

dollhouse, I'm a Giant Dollhouse Challenge

This dollhouse is turning out to have features from several of our real houses. Yesterday I made a fireplace modeled after the fireplace in our Idlewild house.  I still need to add the mantel and the picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe and logs, of course.

I used a modeling compound made from toothpaste, white glue, corn starch and water. I got the color with food coloring added to the compound and then rubbed some paint that we used to do the dollhouse roof to make it look more stone like.  And threw in a few real ashes for realism.

Jim has been painting and cutting and nailing and there will be more photos soon.

Bigger Photos!

Wordless Wednesday,

Yesterday I received a very important hint in the comment section from Angella Lister of 37 Paddington.  She suggested that I post my photographs larger. I responded that I had tried but they would overlap the other column if I made them x-large. She pointed out that I could make the columns wider by going to design/columns. Voila, bigger columns and bigger photos! I’ve spent today going back to older posts and enlarging the photographs.  I love it!

Me at age 3, 1949.  Photograph taken by Henry Cleage.