Career Goal 1960

This was just too fun. Taking three somewhat random photographs and grouping them like this.....fun.

Technically, my career goal of Cowgirl began before 1960. I got the red and black outfit in the middle picture for Christmas 1959. The other pictures were from 1960. I would have been 5. Frighteningly, that was 50 years ago. 50!!??! How crazy is that?

If you would like to read additional information about the gallery mount itself, go to elizadhill.com, Products page.

Grandma's Birthday

Today is Grandma's birthday. The first picture came from Aunt Vena (when I went to her house and copied photographs). I think this house belonged to her father: John Cooper. I have a few other pictures of Big John with Daddy when Daddy was a toddler in front of the same house.




How much do you remember about Grandma? Do you remember her giving Mama Dan River fabrics from the store? Biscuits (of course). Sticks of Juicy Fruit gum she'd put in the envelope along with letters she'd write to us? Wrapping Christmas gifts in white tissue paper and tied with that marvelous colored cellophane ribbon (that is NOWHERE to be found - EVER!).

Blueberry Delight??! I think I'll make a Blueberry Delight this week to celebrate Grandma's birthday! Rose, you can do a drive-by to tell her Happy Birthday. For the rest of us, we'll just have to think Happy Birthday wishes to Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Melissa

MARCH 11

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birth-day, dear Meee-lllllliiiiiiisssss-aaaaaa!!!
Happy Birthday to you!!!

What's the story of this picture? Cindy confirmed it was for the Herald Ledger.

Add your own comments or let me know what the story is and I'll add it to the post.

Winter Olympics

Did you know that the 1952 Winter Olympics were held in Oslo, Norway? Did you know Daddy got to go? There were some postcards and photographs of the Winter Olympics in Daddy's stack of "Army Pictures". As the 2010 opening ceremony begins, I can't help but think about winter, 1952.

Before Your Time

Although only Mama and Aunt Vena would remember this cottage, it seemed important to include it as background of our family. I had only seen this cottage in the slides Daddy had. When I went to Aunt Vena's in 2000 to copy pictures, this was an unexpected treasure.

Mama said the only source of heat was the fireplace. It was actually a summer vacation cottage, but the slide we had was of this cottage in the snow. It was beautiful!

The picture of Mama and Daddy isn't from Newport, but I'm guessing it was taken about the same time period. Liked seeing them along with the photos of the cottage.

And She's Off!!!

Cindy and her tricycle. I remember her riding it when we still lived at the white house in Kuttawa. And here she is, riding it at the funeral home in Eddyville.

Beth, Rosemary, Linda, Aunt Vena, and Cindy

And Rosemary.....seems that in many of the pictures you were squirming to get away. Melissa, sorry, but I just haven't made it to 1962 pictures yet.

Rosemary, Linda, Daddy, Cindy, Mama, and Beth

Denney's Restaurant

No, I'm NOT referring the the Denny's that currently is offering the Grand Slam breakfast! This is about the restaurant that Grandma and Grandpa had before the store. You did know they were in the restaurant business, didn't you?

I called Mama today to check on a few details. She said they spent quite a bit of time in the restaurant. That in the early days, she and Daddy went to vist every three months. And since Grandma and Grandpa were always working, they hung out at the restaurant.



Pretty fun pictures, aren't they? Just wait!! I've got more stuff you're going to like!! Love you all!

February 9, 1960

.

Happy Birthday, Cindy!

Some of these pictures came from my old red photo album, some from Aunt Vena. After Daddy died in 1999, I wanted to gather as many photographs as I could of the Denneys. I was looking specifically for pictures of the exterior of the store. So I called Aunt Vena and arranged for an overnight visit.

She was always good about having a camera and snapping shots - turned out to be a bonus to find cute pictures like these.

Cindy, I hope you enjoy these pictures as we all celebrate your 50th Birthday.

.

Dunn Funeral Home Album Pages

It's taken a while, but this is the kind of thing I've had in mind to do with the digital images. These layouts are 8 x10's, which I uploaded to Costco, and printed with a "lustre" finish. Then I simply inserted them into my album. (I'm using an 8 x 10 Itoya Profolio, but any 8 x 10 album would work beautifully)

I plan to use the same background, with variations, for each layout. Hope you like it!!!

(PS I realize these first pages have much more of me in them and not as much of you. However, these places are also part of your history - even if you were little and don't remember them. Be patient. I'll work my way into more "contemporary" pictures and layouts.....)

Uncle Jakie

Today, I began sorting the pictures I scanned at Mama's week before last. This was one of the first I encountered - it's Uncle Jakie as a baby!!

You may remember that Granddaddy was married to Ruby Linwood Dodds and together, they had two children - James D. Dunn and Dorothy L. Dunn.

This picture is of JD Dunn (baby) on his maternal grandfather's lap, with his great grandfather, Frank McElroy seated to his left. That's Granddaddy standing.




Because this was a little hard for me to piece together, I've included a piece of the family tree below. If you click on the image, you can view it full-size.

A Splash of Water

How do you make cornbread? Do you add a "splash of water" after mixing in the buttermilk? Mama and I agree that last little splash of water makes the cornbread more fluffy. She said Maudie always added a little water to her cornbread. We wondered if Maudie added the water to make her cornbread more fluffy OR did she add it because she was running short of buttermilk?

Tonight's dinner: Chili and cornbread

Either way, I always add a "splash of water" to my cornbread (and Tim does the same for his pancakes). And every time I add that splash, I think of Maudie.

Hayden Family 1905

One of the things I had hoped to find as I gathered old pictures was to see what Maudie's husband looked like. Here he is, William Edward "Ed" Hayden, Jr. He's standing behind Maudie (Mary Isabelle, "Mayme"). Seated to Maudie's right is her father-in-law, William Edward Hayden, Sr. He is holding someone near and dear to our hearts, Mary Rowena Hayden (Dunn).


She was born in 1903, so I estimated this picture may have been taken in 1905. The pictures Pete Cannon gave us are truly priceless. Check this out:



I added the close up picture inset in the family picture and I added the red arrow above. The way I see it, once I've figured out how Pete's information relates to us, I'm going to create an additional version that makes it easier for us to relate to.

Mary Rowena Hayden 1918

Grandmother!!! Mary Rowena Hayden, about 15 years old. This came from the CD that Pete Cannon gave us. (Maudie, Mary Isabelle or "Mayme", was a Cannon before marrying William Edward Hayden.)

Pete had made some notes, and this one said "Rowena Hayden portrait, circa 1918".

William Trimbletoes

This picture was scanned by Pete Cannon. His notes say, "Mary Isabelle (Cannon) Hayden seated on the lawn with Ruby holding her doll, and Fred, circa 1910."

William Trimbletoes,
He's a good fisherman.
Catches fishes,
Puts em in dishes.
Catches hens,
Puts em in pens.
Some lay eggs,
Some none.
Wire, briar,
limber lock.
Three geese,
In a flock.
One flew east.
One flew west.
One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
My Mama told me to pick this very one.
O....U....T..... you dirty dishrag YOU!

While not all my family members remember Maudie as the kind, nurturing great-grandmother who patiently colored and played games, that is who MY Maudie was. And William Trimbletoes was one of the games she played with me.

It was a finger-counting game. I'd spread my hands out and Maudie (also Mama) would gently touch each of my little fingers as they recited the rhyme. The finger that was "out" was then folded under my hand - missing from the next countdown.

I googled William Trimbletoes, just for kicks, and found lots of references.

And in case you don't recognize the little toes here, they belong to Shelley's babies: Evan, Nate, and Lizzie. Thought the toes of a new generation would be a most appropriate image to use in illustrating their great-great-great-grandmother's finger counting game.

William Trimbletoes - You were fun!

****CORRECTION****

There was only ONE fishpond at the funeral home. Grandmother Rowena ordered the supplies for the pond. How in the world she received live fish....who knows!!?!

Stack Cake = Delicious

It's simply delicious! Tim, Sarah, and David all loved it. Will definitely make it again. Wish I could write Grandma and thank her for her recipe.

Dunn Family Tree

This illustrates our Dunn family back three generations and includes Mama's siblings, Grandmother's (Mary Rowena) siblings as well as Granddaddy's (Shelley) siblings:



Enjoy!!!

Across the Road

Across the road from the Little White House was Dunn Funeral Home. Grandmother and Granddaddy lived in the left half. The right half was the funeral home. I think that the piano we all learned to play sat in the central hallway.

(If you look carefully to the left of the funeral home, you can see the garage that was in front of where Mama's current house is. The "concrete pad" was the floor of the garage.)

These pictures must have been taken when the funeral home was new because there are no fish ponds in front. There were two large, rectangular, concrete fish ponds on either side of the walkway. Grandmother had goldfish and lilies in the ponds. Seems to me that the goldfish were HUGE!! Big enough to bite a chunk out of your leg. But then again, I was pretty young.

I spent a fair amount of time here with Maudie. Mama had the flower shop, Daddy was working for Grandmother and Granddaddy, and Maudie played with me. Coloring with her was the best. She made me feel like she had nothing better to do than to be with me. She was wonderful. I wish you all could have known her. Her funeral was the first one in the "new" funeral home in Eddyville. 1962.

Me, Cindy, Mama, Grandmother, Rosemary, and Maudie

This picture was taken in the living room. You'll recognize the birch tree picture on the wall as one of the many Paint-by-Number pictures that Grandmother painted. I believe that's the dining room through the doorway and the kitchen beyond that. The kitchen opened onto a porch and there's a picture somewhere of Uncle Kenneth turning the crank on an ice cream maker and Aunt Katherine in pin curls. She was trying to avoid the camera, but no such luck. Hopefully, that picture will turn up, too.

Mama, me, and Granddaddy

On Easter, we would all go to church and then come here for Easter dinner. While we were at church, the Easter bunny would come and hide our eggs. All of us, all the cousins, would then head out looking for eggs. One Easter, we were playing shadow tag. I jumped on Karen's (cousin) shadow. She jumped backward and.........FELL INTO THE FISHPOND!

Yes, she fell right into the 200 foot deep fishpond with the killer, whale-sized goldfish! All the grownups came running, got Karen out. Truly if she had worn the heavier coat that Aunt Katherine told her to (yes, Karen disobeyed), she may have drowned, or been eaten by the goldfish, or something even worse! I felt that it was my fault that she fell, but she was never mad at me about it. She knew I didn't mean to make her fall into the fishpond.

Dunn Funeral Home always seemed like a mansion to me - actually, it still does. :-)

This picture came from a CD that Mama and Bill had of photographs from Old Kuttawa. It looks as if it was a picture for the newspaper.

The Little White House

Cindy had a great picture of her as a baby with Granddaddy. I checked with Mama and confirmed that this picture was taken in the sideyard of the little (and I do mean little) white house we lived in when both Cindy and Rose were babies. Because you were both so little when we moved to "New Eddyville", putting your picture in context of that little house may give you a new perspective. I remember this furniture. I have it associated with "Diana's Flowers". Mama speculates that is because the furniture and the sign for her business were in the same yard.


Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Katherine lived in the little white house before we did. They moved out and onto Granddaddy's farm. We moved in and lived there until the TVA made Barkley Lake, about 1963 (I was in third grade). It was when we moved to New Eddyville that we transferred our church membership from the Baptist Church in Old Kuttawa to Eddyville First Baptist.


Can you see the reflection in the glass on the coolers Mama had on the front porch for her flower business?


This picture is of the yard on the right side of the house. Don't know if you can see, but there is an electric fan on the picnic table. The door you see in the block foundation led into the basement. The house only had one bedroom, so when company came for an overnight visit, they slept in the basement. My recollection of that basement is that it was more of a cellar than anything else. (Rose, maybe that's where your "cave" impression comes from! LOL)

Since this post began with Cindy, it's only fitting that it end with a picture of her. Cindy and Uncle Hershel. This picture has our car in the background, and at the corner of our property, beside the car, was a sink hole. The sink hole had, what were in my 6-yr-old opinion, beautiful orange day lilies growing in it. I was afraid that if I ever fell into the sink hole that I would wind up somewhere close to China or die or something else that would be equally horrible.

Aunt Gertie and Mertie Denney

I remember Grandma making Stack Cake. Don't remember having it very often, who knows, she may have only made one in my lifetime. But I remember. A long time ago, I asked Grandma for the recipe and she sent it to me. I've never made one, but am planning to make it over the weekend. Here's the recipe in her handwriting:





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_cake

There are no pictures that better illustrate our Appalachian heritage than from when we visited Aunt Gertie and Mertie. The picture of us on the porch is a familiar one. The other, I copied from Aunt Vena.

Do your remember Grandma's kitchen at the store? Do you remember the stove? The warming well where she's put the biscuits, waiting for us to wake up? hmmmmm... making myself hungry!

Face the Sun

The expressions on our faces make me laugh every time I look at this picture. Seems it was a photographic rule to line people up and have them face the sun. Good for squinting! You all crack me up! And why am I not squinting, too? I'm guessing it's because my eyes are totally closed!



We are at Grandma and Grandpa's. You can tell by the fence in the background and the white Adirondack chair. What you may not know is that Daddy and Grandpa made those chairs. You also may not know that Daddy and Grandpa built the house, too. I'm not sure how much of the house and store they built, but I have some recollection of Daddy telling me about building it.

This picture was probably taken with Daddy's first Polaroid camera. The scratches on the pictures look like what would have happened when the undeveloped picture was removed from the camera. I chose not to fix those scratches - I like them - adds character.


Somehow I've wound up with all of Daddy's cameras. Tuesday I took pictures of them. I thought it would add interest (at least for me) to have a visual image of the cameras that captured us at different stages of life. I also have the camera Grandma used. And my first camera, too.