Hats and shoes.............

Following the theme of the past I will share the different members of my family covering their heads or maybe their feet.  My grandmother Mabel Wheeler Brown Brooks is posing for her picture in her wedding dress and hat. It is the year 1913. I actually have both items stored in a box in my upstairs room.

Out at my great grandpa Wheeler's farm stands four women with great fashion.  My mom has the fur coat and hat with fashionable shoes. Her younger first cousin Eva Wheeler White is not so dressed up with her stockings and everyday shoes. The woman hiding in back is Leila Wheeler Witt. A friend of my mom's on the right wears a stylish hat and sensible shoes.  I don't think that is a feather in her hat but some part of a background post or tree. I am guess the time period is the late 1930's.

My mom steps out in her fashions of the past with the stripes on her dress and also on her socks. The shoes are partially hidden but her hat is clearly in sight.  My uncle Marvin with his wife stand behind her with his straw hat. The two children are half cousins to my mom. I also believe this was taken in the 1930's.

Practical shoes for a teacher of a country school are shown with the children of the school.  It is out on the prairie with parents in the background looking on at the camera. My mom taught school from 1938 to 1940's.

Hats and coats are great to wear in the winter in Iowa.  The Charles Burgus clan are visiting an in law family of one of their daughters Ruby Burgus Henderson.  My grandmother Grace Burgus is the one with the gray hair and no hat. Her daughter Amy stands to her front left and my Grandfather Burgus stands the next one over in  the lineup with his dark hat and tie. The rest of the people would be a guess for me as to who they are. The hats do vary as well as the styles of coats. The picture was taken in area on a farm south of Murray, Iowa.

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Cards of heartlfelt love......

VALENTINES OF OLD

It is a small collection from my parent's home.  I really never asked anything about their history and yet most of them have my mom's name written on them.  The history part is seeing who sent them and when.  I can glean facts and dates by seeing how many children were born at the time it was sent. 

The back side of the folded card Valentine is below.

To Zella from Marvin, Leila and Eva Marie Wheeler.  The history of family here shown by the name of Marvin.  Marvin in my mom's, Zella, brother.  He went to live with Uncle Lee to help out on the farm.  Times were tough and Marvin lived with them for a length of time to be farm help and work as the young hired hand.  Uncle Lee had four kid's but only two have them have been born.  The two girls Leila and Eva Marie were born and a boy and girl have yet to be born.  Lee Junior and Freda will complete their family. I do have a photo of a baby that they had lost, laying in its casket out at the cemetery near Macksburg, Iowa. I have chosen to never post that and find it strange that they even took the photo.

 Rural language that evolved from no education.  It certainly is not the King's English.

Old photos or old Valentine's, either way it is history.  Illustrations from the pass tell a lot of what is going on in the country of the time.  The dancing hearts at the bottom of this last card reminds me of the precartoon era.  The early black and white cartoon movies and even Disney showed the flavor of dancing characters with stick legs.

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Man and Beast

My brother is showing off his new band uniform for the Murray High School band.  Our dog Tippy is checking out the smell of his shoes.  The shoes had to be painted with a white polish to keep them white.  It was opaque enough that it was like whitewashing a picket fence to get it to be clean and white again. Tippy was the first dog that I remember in the family. They had a border collie which they lost the year before I was born.  Tippy was get outdoor dog that fathered many of puppies in the farm neighbor hood.  I remember his smells as he loved rolling around in about everything. He reminds of a part border collie but he was a mixed breed.

I had a photo of my dad with the twin calves.  Couldn't find the photo so I give you just the calves.  It was rare and profitable to have cows give birth to two calves.  Hereford is the breed in case you couldn't tell.  They survived the winter births in March down in low valley areas of our pasture out of the wind. These two were brought to the barn as they were small and dad wanted to be sure they survived.

Larry and Dwight holding their killer beasts.  The cats were a major way for us to learn how to relate to animals.  It was also a bad way to learn about life and death as cats tended to get them selves in trouble and skip the nine lives situation. 

My dad's assigned regiment in Washington DC had a mascot German Shepard.  The man is covering the dogs eyes so the flash of the camera won't scare him. 

My oldest brother Ron is showing off his heifer that he showed in the 4-H county fair.  She was a gentle cow and we had her for many years giving us a calf each spring.  I suffer emotionally when I think of the day my Dad called up a man to sell off his herd of 27 Herefords. He was selling the farm and they had to go. I was in college at the time, 1970.  I know my dad cried and I didn't have to be there to know it.  That is the part of raising animals that makes it difficult and they do become like family members and our emotions are so intertwined with them.

My youngest son Aaron and his two dogs.  The one is a puppy that he got so the other dog would have company.  Aaron was terrified of dogs when young and now carries his babies around the house in his arms.  The are great dogs who get to enjoy their home in Maine. We always have to ask how Penny and Hannah are doing as they are the closet thing we have to grandchildren.

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