Two days too late, but never too late to say "Happy Birthday"!
Aunt Ruth would have been 90 years old on Wednesday, January 9th.
I remember Aunt Ruth and her boys in their large house by the lake in Geneva. To me, it seemed to take up an entire hillside.
And, inside, I just remember room after room with books everywhere. And down cellar, lots of cats. I do not know why I picture cats down in the cellar and not in the rest of the house.
Aunt Ruth when asked to write memories of CB, wrote: "I remember when CB was five years old or so and got scarlet fever two years in a row; I have heard that one can't get scarlet fever more than once, but I missed being in our high school's yearly operetta my last three years of high school. Harold got scarlet fever the third year. I had my Regent's exam in our back yard with the school nurse in attendance. I was in the operetta "Mikado" by Gilbert and Sullivan in my first year of high school and enjoyed every minute of it. I can't remember the names of the operettas I missed. I only practiced a couple of weeks before we were quarantined again."
She also wrote: " I missed a lot of the fun the younger kids had together. I started baby-sitting when we moved to Geneva a year after Harold was born. They had clubs, played in the field back of our house, built a club-house in our attic, etc.
The field they played in is now the playground for West Street School where I work as Foster Grandmother. The school's address is '30 West Street' which was our house address.
Our attic had no flooring except at the head of the stairs. Of course, Mom had a lot of stuff stored in the attic. We had to walk from beam to beam when we were up there.
I'm sure that your mother has told you about the day we came home from school to find that Mom had slipped from one beam in the attic and fallen through the ceiling into CB and Doris' bedroom."
"One by one, we girls got married. We all lived in different places (except me here in Geneva) and no one had much time for letter writing. Mom kept us up on everyone's doings since we could all find time to write to Mom. She was a wonderful letter writer anyway and we all loved to get a letter from her.
We dragged all of our kids for a few visits to each other's homes at times until things quieted down as our houses emptied. Daddy died, then Mom died, then Esther and Tom died the same year. I tried to keep the nursery going and failed finally.
CB and I were both interested in much the same things--genealogy especially, and reading--so we saw more of each other. CB took over the Baker-Taylor genealogy which was, and is, a very big chore while I wallowed through the murk of the Maney genealogy."
Picture One was taken in 1954.
Picture Two was taken in 1958, with Jon Maney.
Picture Three was taken in 1960, with Pat Kinsella and Jon Maney.
Picture Four was taken in August of 1961.
4 comments:
Oh, what wonderful pictures! It's so great to see Aunt Ruth again! When I got married, several lifetimes ago, she gave me a set of sheets to which she had added a gingham checked border that she had cross-stitched. When I wish that I could get hugs from my family, but I can't because they're too far away, I put her pillowcases on my pillows, as well as one my mother embroidered, and then "bask in family."
I love these pictures. Do you know who the baby is in the first picture? The one of Aunt Ruth with the four boys could be labeled "The Life of Boys." With Alex now 15, I'm thinking a lot about this. There's the sweet little boy stage that Jonny is at in this picture, and then the lots of fun and laughing stage of boys around 7 or 8, as I'm guessing Danny is in this picture. Then they get to be a bit more self-conscious around 12, like Richard looks.
And Michael - boy, do I recognize that, "Do I really gotta stand here with all of you?!?" as he towers over his mother! These days, it would be accompanied by, "Come on, I gotta get back to my Facebook page and my friends are texting me on my cellphone!" (Oh, dear, I hope I didn't just embarrass all my Maney cousins!)
Thanks for the pictures. Happy Birthday, Aunt Ruth!
The Baby Ruth is holding is Marylou Taylor Spear. And isn't Ruth pretty? In my heart she is still living and we did like a lot of the same things. Sewing, knitting, puzzles, geneology, bacon!!
She was so happy in her role as grandparent at 30 West St school. If she had been able to go to college she would have been a grand teacher!
She was a hard worker, loved her boys and grandchildren aaand I am sure God is sepending on her now as she gossips with Doris, Esther , Arnon and Mom and Daddy!! CB
Sue,
Loved your take on 'The Life of Boys'! Wonderful.
And, I have to say, I was waiting to see if someone else would say this--once Ma said that the baby was Mary Lou, I thought, "Wow. Of course it is Mary Lou. Those are her eyes exactly."
And, then, I remembered our family experiment; we took pictures of everyone's eyes only and checked to see if we could figure out who was who.
How did we do? Not sure, but I'll bet we still have those pictures somewhere!
Pat, thank you for these pictures. Strange, when I dream of my mother I see her as she appears here. Once shortly after she died I dreamed that I saw her and she told me to stop grieving. "I'm fine," she said. "I'm in college, taking classes now." Although only a dream it gave some comfort because she had always wanted to go to college, and no matter what, it's good to see someone you love being happy.
If only in a dream. But it's here too in these photos.
The last ten years of her life were perhaps the best. She loved working as a grandmother in the schools, where she was appreciated for her skills with children. She enjoyed dressing up and going to work in a place where she could teach as her mother had once done. In the end it was her calling, and it was not too late for her to do what she had always wanted.
Good for her. And good for the people she worked with and cared so much about.
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