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.
The Camel Cigarette campaign started in 1913 with a mystery ad “The Camels are coming!” without saying what the camels were. Finally they were unveiled as cigarettes. Read about the history of cigarette addiction here – The Nicotine Fix.My uncle Louis Cleage was born in 1913, the same year as Camel cigarettes. He chain smoked for most of his life, often lighting one cigarette from the one he held. I remember him talking and laughing, holding a cigarette with a long ash about to fall or falling. Here he is smoking at his cottage in Idlewild. He died at 80 of emphysema.
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.
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.
“Feb. 21, 1947 – Winter Carnival/ Center Couple – President Gellerman and his wife who’ve just crowned the king and Queen – Bet you can’t find me! F.M.H.”
“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.
Taken by the railroad tracks between my house and my daughter’s house.
Henry Cleage under the Illustrated News at Old Plank house. 1963.
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.
Atty. Henry Cleage in a court room.
Daughter Ife sculpting in Florida studio.
A valentine card from me to my mother given when I was in elementary school, 1950s.
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.
Cousin Warren on a tractor.
Lines and wires near Atlanta’s West End.
Daughter Jilo wearing football helmet, a gift from her Aunt Pearl. 1972 Atlanta, GA.
Granddaughter Tatayana rolling out pie crust in Idlewild, MI.
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.
Small photo my parents sent home to their parents when they lived in San Francisco, CA in 1943.
Bonzo, MV and Doris Graham. August 1932. Backyard of Theodore, Detroit,MI
My mother Doris and her sister Mary Virginia with their dog Bonzo. The picture was taken in August 1932, about 6 months after their brother Howard died of Scarlet Fever. Mary V. was 12 and Doris was 9. The sisters were granddaughters of Jennie Virginia Allen Turner, who was the daughter of Dock and Eliza Allen. My mother later had a sister-in-law named Gladys Cleage, who will celebrate her 93rd birthday this Saturday. I could not find a photograph of her with a sister and a dog, but here she is with sister Anna.
Gladys and Anna Cleage, about 1930 beside their home on Scotten, Detroit.
Gladys and Anna were the grandchildren of Lewis and Anna Cecilia Cleage, and great granddaughters of Frank and Juda Cleage of Athens, TN.
Mershell, Mary V. and Doris Graham on their front steps. 1926.
Mershell Graham was born June 10, 1921 in Detroit Michigan. He died on November 2, 1927, at St. Jopseph Hospital, also in Detroit, from traumatic cerebral hemorrhage resulting from a fracture at the base of the skull during an automobile accident. Mershell was described as a single, colored male, a school boy age 6 years 4 months and 23 days old. He lived at 6638 Theodore Street with his family. He was buried in Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery on November 4, 1927. Both of his parents, Fanny Turner Graham and Mershell C. Graham were born in Montgomery Alabama. His father, my grandfather, Mershell Cunningham Graham, was the informant.
My Uncle Hugh outside my Uncle Louis’ cottage in Idlewild, Michigan. Wonder where that blanket is now. My uncle Louis bought several blankets on trips out west.
Howard Alexander Turner was my mother’s youngest brother. He was named after my grandmother’s father, Howard Turner. Howard was born September 7, 1928, in the year following his older brother, Mershell’s death by trauma after being run over by a truck on the way back to school. My grandparents felt that Howard had been sent to fill the space left by Mershell. Unfortunately he died of Scarlet Fever, exacerbated by Diabetes in 1932.
Howard died at Herman Kiefer Hospital in Detroit. He had been ill for fifteen days before his death. He is described as a single, colored male age 3 years, 5 months and 27 days old. His mother’s maiden name was Fannie Turner and his father was Mershell Graham. Both were born in Alabama. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and lived at 6638 Theodore St. in Detroit. He died at 5:05 AM on March 4, 1932. His father was the informant.
I wrote more about Howard in these, much more personal posts with copies of his mother’s thoughts and memories:
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.
