Mershell, Mary V. and Doris Graham, my mother sitting on their front steps waving balloons on sticks. It was 1926. The house was on Theodore, the east side of Detroit. Sometimes I dream about this house and the porch usually figures in the dreams as I leave or enter or start down the street going somewhere.
Other posts about the house on Theodore are – Everyday Things Then and Now and T is for Theodore Street
Several weeks ago I was contacted for permission to use my photograph on a poster for a presentation at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice University College Dublin. Here is a copy of the poster. The photograph first appeared in the post – Then and Now – Atkinson About 1953.
You can read more about the presentation here: Intergenerational transfers and housing tenure: Australian evidence
Perhaps an answer to the mystery photograph from Sepia Saturday #303, also pictured below. Cliff was my grandfather M.C. Graham’s play brother and their families first roomed together and after the first children were born, they both occupied a two family flat, 1 family per flat. Their children were born close together. Looking at the little pal in the first photograph with my grandfather Mershell, I think he could be the child in the other photograph. He is several years older in the line in the second photo. His ears in all three pictures bend a bit at the top. Perhaps the woman was his mother, Gwen pictured in the last photo. Or maybe I need to keep looking for her.
I’m not sure who either of these are but I wish I did. They are friends of my grandparents, Mershell and Fannie Graham, that I know.
In 2011 a genealogy friend of mine, Megan Heyl of Hunting Down History, was helping me find the death date and place for my great grandfather, Louis Cleage. She wrote to the Indianapolis Public Library and asked librarian Mike Perkins if he could tell us anything. At the time, he could not. However, on October 6, 2015, he sent a copy of Louis Cleage’s death notice from the Indianapolis Star. That is 4 years later!
I wondered what was happening on the day he died. Using Newspapers.com, I was able to locate the full issue of The Indianapolis Star for February 7, 1918 and find out. The first thing I noticed when looking at the full list of deaths for that day, was that 6 of the 11 people that died, died of pneumonia. Below is a collage made from articles and advertisements in that day’s issue of The Indianapolis Star.
Other posts about Louis Cleage.
Louis Cleage & Family 1880
Louis Cleage – Work Day
Louis Cleage (pronounced Kleg)
Louis Cleage (pronounced Kleg)
Louis Cleage burial Spot
Louis Cleage’s Death Certificate
Louis Cleage playing a mandolin. Early 1940s.
You can read a bit about Louis in this earlier Sepia Saturday post #79 – Uncle Louis Plays the Organ.
This is the second batch of photographs fulfilling missed prompts for Sepia Saturday 47 – 200. With this I have answered every prompt since I began with #47.
Jilo roasting a marshmellow during one of the rare Cleage Reunions in the Deer Park next to Louis’ cottage in Idlewild, Michigan.
My father and his siblings with other children at The Meadows. About 1930. In the first row, L > R Henry, Barbara, Gladys and Anna Cleage. In the second row also L >R, Albert Jr, Louis and Hugh Cleage. Unfortunately, I do not know the other children’s names.
There were several model trains in the family, but unfortunately I have no photos of them. Here son James catching a train from Oceanside, CA back to New Orleans after a visit with his sister and her family.
My grandmother Fannie Mae Turner Graham all dressed up for church by her back steps. I wonder what that box in the kitchen window was. I found that there were “window refrigerators” in use during the depression. You can see one here “LawCo vintage Window Refrigerator“. Or even better, here “Window Icebox, A Money Saver.” Herb Mandel describes using one as a boy.
Unknown woman in Henry Cleage’s box of photographs.
Uncle Hugh Cleage standing in a doorway.
My sister Pearl held an arm full of leaves. My mother held our hands. I held my doll. We were standing in the vacant lot near the parsonage of St. John’s Congregational Church in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Click for another post about life on Union Street in Springfield.
Saturday, October 10, 2015 marks the 300th Sepia Saturday. In reviewing my contributions for the past 100 Saturdays, I found that I did not participate in 19 of them. I decided to post photographs for those 19 missing prompts. Most of the photographs are more recent than my usual offering. Click any image to enlarge.
“Kris May 1947” I was viewing the world from on high, not quite as high as the men in the prompt but it seemed very much so to me. I also seem to be giving a lecture.
The family table at the testimonial dinner for my father, Rev. A.B. Cleage Jr. 1963. No Christmas tree, but lots of lights up there in the ceiling and food on the table. Henry with the cigarett, my mother in front of him. I am across the table from her. My aunt Barbara is looking towards the camera. Uncle Eddie Evans eating at the end of the table.
Not a parade, but my family walking down Cass Ave in Detroit, after eating at a Lebanese restaurant near Wayne State University. Women and girls in the front, guys way back. And me at the very end, taking the photo. Osaze does not have a swan head on, but he is wearing a cap.
This is a newspaper clipping I found of a demonstration in support of school busing. I recognize only General Baker, right front, holding his daughter.
Cousin Ernest with unidentified girl and a few horses with their heads down.
Granddaughter Sydney looking into tunnel like opening in the fort on Sullivan’s Island, SC. This is where many enslaved African’s entered the United States. Our “Ellis Island”.
On my grandchildren’s birthday, we give them a dollar for each year, plus one to grow on. When I turned 66, they gave me a dollar for each year, plus one to grow on. Here I am counting it up. About as close as I have been to piles of cash.
