Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Valentine's Continued.........From the Past.



My Grandfather Charles Thomas Burgus with his bride Grace Elizabeth Turner Burgus.  I originally was going to share this on Valentine's day but things got too distracting so I just have saved it for now. The last photo I share today is the one that inspired the whole posting. I don't have a date for this marriage. I am searching cousin's things and found out the first grandchild was born in 1928. So this photo has to be around the early 1900's,



The first four of ten children that were born are shown here with Cecil, Carl, Ruby and Mary Burgus.  This photo is a new one that I had never seen before now. It was shared by my first cousin.  She is one of the older of my first cousins who has photos of my grandparents in their younger days.  Her mother, my aunt Ruby, is the little girl standing by her dad.


Fast forward with the then 10 children.  I am guessing the date here to be 1937 or later. I don't know but my dad, front left, would have been 20 years old being born in 1917. It was said that Grandma Burgus had scarlet fever as an adult and her hair fell out from it.  Her hair came back in as pure white.


Charlie and Grace ready to go to a family picnic at the Murray Park where all ten children with spouses and many grandchildren attended.


Here is a new photo for me to see from my cousin's sharing of it. Charlie and Grace take a trip from the central United States, Murray, Iowa in 1948.  They took a train all the way to the west coast to Washington State, to visit their youngest son Donald and his wife Eileen.  They are holding their grandson Gary. He was born in 1948. 

Concerns were made from their grown up children as they were too elderly to make the trip. The very next year in 1949  Charlie did die. It looks like the trip was a lot of fun for them. Charlie had heard stories from his grandfather about crossing the ocean from Germany and he wanted to see that ocean. Being from the younger end of the family I never met my grandfather.  I did know my grandmother but she had reached an age where she didn't communicate with her grandchildren.  She lived another 20 years or more beyond her husband's death.

Join me in visiting the other blogs on Sepia Saturday who are share photos from the past and stories from the past.  Click here to find the listing on the original Sepia Saturday site.


Saturday, February 21, 2015

Big and Small.

When you are the younges kid of four, you do notice size differences in many ways.  The world around you seems so big.  I am the shortest guy here being 4 years old.  My oldest brother Ron is behind me.  Notice being oldest doesn't make you the tallest.  That was a problem for Ron and he didn't like it. Rex the tallest was a couple of years younger.  My brother next to me, Dwight, always was bigger than me and always tried to be dominate over me in every way both size and of importance. I lost Dwight a few years ago when he was 61 years old.  In this picture he is 7 years old.  It bothered him that I grew up and was successful as he liked to keep his thumb on me. Also in the conclusion of size, Dwight did end up being the tallest even though he was third youngest.


Both of my first cousins are small here.  They are about the same age, under 4 years old and you can see Gene is showing his cousin Jeanette that he can touch the top of her head



My great grandma Driver shows off her second family. The smallest is required to stand and the one boy in the middle is standing on the chair.  I never thought of it before but I bet Grandma Driver was originally sitting in the chair and the kids were not cooperating.  You can see grandma pointing to the camera telling the  girl she is holding to look that way.

It is a complicated story but this is my great grandma Driver's second family.  My grandfather Brown was in her first family of two boys.  This second family are all half cousins of mine, twice removed.  Those young kids in the photos all still live in the Osceola, Iowa area.



While looking for big and small photos I ran across this photo of me.  It would fit the theme if I showed a 65 year old man next to it but that isn't going to happen.  It is 1953 in the summer and we moved from this rented farm during the coming winter during a rain storm.  The roads were dirt back then so we moved by tractor and wagon slipping and sliding on mud roads.   The photo's intention was to show the watermelon juice running down by belly.  I can see that I wasn't allowed to eat it in the house. I wonder if they kept me in a shed outside as to not to make a mess in the house when I eat.




Thanks for stopping by today on my site.   Check out all the other blogger friends' postings today by clicking on SEPIA SATURDAY to find a listing of those who are posting about BIG AND SMALL. 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Oldies but Goodies......


I have a stach of my mom's old Valentines that she had saved for years.  The oldest date of them is around the early 1930's when she was in high school. There are also ones from country school children given to my mom around 1938. I am assuming that 80 years plus makes them their average age.


The have a fancy colorful front but the inside of the card has another great illustration and verse.










Some of them are more humorous using the dog in a basket to be cute. I think this card had a base on it originally so that it could stand up to be appreciated.
























The sailor boy has his eyes on his valentine and I do notice she is looking back at him too.



Some of them were more of a proposition which could have set up a serious relationship. The single color print of the verse and cupid made the process go faster rather than a multicolored design on the inside.



I have had a curiosity if the cards actually did lead to a courtship and marriage.  I know as a kid they were just a tradition but a little earlier in history the verses could have been more intentional and direct.


I have a lot of these and I guess I will just share the ones that I have.  I might show one that may interest some more than others.


Another sailor boy makes me think that I may not have the valentines dated old enough.  I just don't have anyone around to question to find out the date of the people who wrote in them.


A little pigeon toed here as a student probably shared a card with his teacher.

As I write this I do have a memory of one of the valentines being older than 1930's.  My mom's oldest brother was sent to  live with an uncle during his teen years for a couple of reasons.  He was suppose to help with farming.  The second reason was that he was ill-tempered and his parents, my grandmother and grandfather, couldn't make him behave.  One valentine that was in the pile was one from Uncle Lee's kids and my mom's brother.  That would date that one card in the 1920's.

The googly-eyed girl here reminds me of the old movie stars and their big eyes. It is manufactured from a company completely different than all the other ones that are in the pile. It has a glossy ink on it.

Hallmark now controls most of the market with their very beautiful Valentine cards.  Some are very serious and some are funny to read also.  It is sometimes hard to find the just right card as the people of Hallmark write all that they think we might like to share with our loved ones.

Check out all the others who are participating with SEPIA SATURDAY today by clicking here. I have joined many others who will be sharing their thoughts on this Valentine's Day.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Working at Something......


Group work is shown that is yet to be done.  It is a bad photo but a valuable one to me.  The wagons are drawn to a stop as they are taking a break.  I never met my grandfather Leroy Martin Brown but he is the one standing in the back.  It is farm work and I am figuring the time period in the early 1920's.  My grandfather died in 1937 of TB in an institution in Clarinda, Iowa.  I have never manipulated this photo with photoshop and I guess it is waiting for me to make it happen.


This blurry photo is one of three guys working on their tan.  I suppose that it is warm and they didn't wear shirts down on the farm.  The coolest place to be was in the shade of the tree in the summer.  So young boys would go barefoot and shirtless.  I am thinking this is a photo of my three brothers but I am not certain.  I think my oldest brother Ron is on the left and my brother Rex is on the right.  My  brother Dwight is the one sitting on the upside down bucket.  Dwight was born in 1947 and he would have probably been two or older here.  So the year is 1949 or 1950.


This is an older group of high school students who are working at having a mediocre attitude.  I am assuming this was a shot  taken for a yearbook photo.  I can't imagine what it is all about but with the piano in the photo  it could be a choir group.  The photo would have been taken on stage at Woodward, Iowa Schools in 1947.  Why do you thing the teacher is sitting with a sewing machine in front of him?  Maybe it is a group for a school play.


My final photo is of two children working at making a good photo for their parent.  The one has all her dolls to show and the boy dressed in his cowboy hat.  He also has a small stringed instrument and just look at those Roy Rogers chaps.  I am suspecting that these two are cousins of mine from the Lorimor, Iowa area.  It did take work to get them all fixed up just for this one picture. If they are who I think they are, they would be in their late 70's or early 80's in age today.  I am going to say it is Lee Wheeler, Junior and his sister Leila Wheeler.   The one still lives in the same area on the farm and the other lives in Torinton, Wyoming.

 Just in case that I didn't follow the working group of people theme making pottery very well, I included a shot of some of the pottery that I have made. The tallest one was made in the 1970's which makes it an old item in a new photo.

Sepia Saturday posts come from many parts of the world . If you would like to see the other posts of my friends just click here to go there. You can check out the main theme photo that was used to send us all on our creative venture.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Whatever Floats your Boat......


The year is 1944 and my dad has been shipped over to Belgium.  Before being sent off to the front lines his group was allowed to acclimate to the area.  They did a lot of exploring and this farm boy had to check out this boat. Being from Iowa a boat is rarely seen or used.  I don't know if it had been damaged when the Germans had invaded or if it was damaged when the Americans came in to drive the occupiers out of the country.

A photo that is among my dad's war photos is one that looks more like a tropical scene than a Belgium scene. He did have photos from a friend that was stationed in the tropics.  Those photos had palm trees in them.  It is just an old photo I guess and it is totally unknown in its origin. 


The scary thing of being told you are going overseas to fight in the Battle of the Bulge to a farm boy was bad enough but the boat they shipped them in was unbearable to my dad.  They sent his unit across the ocean in very small shipping boats like this.  The seasickness was overwhelming for most of them on board as the waters were very rough for most of the trip. He was unable to eat most of the trip and hot strong old coffee was all that seemed to make it tolerable.


To finish up my blog today I will share a  more colorful image and pleasant scene.  This is the landlocked tugboat that is on display off of the harbor at Duluth, Minnesota. The boats that float through this harbor are large ones carrying cargo from as far as Russia.  The also leave having their cargo holds filled with iron ore and wood materials. This harbor is at the very bottom of Lake Superior. Check in on others who are participating in Sepia Saturday by clicking here. Many sites from around the world who are enjoying creative blogging.