Trick or Treat from years gone by

Just wish I had Dwight as baby Huey.

JWE with Grandma & Grandad E 1928

On his sixth birthday.

Is Dad an imp or what? He looks to be on the verge of taking off.

I think the dog is saying throw the stick, throw the stick. You will note that Grandad has a hand on the stick and his shoulder. Steady James, just stand still for a minute.

JWE with his Grandmother E

Here is JWE with his grandmother, my great grandmother. I don't think he's a year old yet so this is probably 1922.

JWE at 15 months 1923

This is the good life. I believe that is JWE's grandmother E on the porch.

Did you ever know this man when he didn't have a dog? Almost every photo of his childhood has a dog in it. Grandma E's photo of him that she kept on her dresser was of him as a young adult with his dog Bob. We always had a dog growing up. Probably the only time he didn't have one was the time between leaving the farm and when we got our first family dog, Rusty.

Menfolk

Paul, John, and Arch.

They look like trouble. Paul in short pants...knickers? What do you call those?

And here they are again with their ring leader

Father and sons at camp

Sam, Arch, and Paul

More boys on bikes

The back of the photo says Laura, Paul, Arch, and Doris.

Top

Baby Beth with big brother John about 1926.

Bottom

Baby Arch about age 1

Sam and Anne

I had this very nice photo of my grandparents at the top of the blog in the banner for a brief time. It's nice but it was too grim so I moved it to a regular post. I think this must go with the same serious Christmas photo I had earlier with my parents and aunts and uncles.

I did not know them when they were young. But these photos are closer to the stories I know about them. The baby is Beth.

Here's the crew. Baby Christine brings the total to six. I finally got a little sister.
L to R, Dean, Scott, David, Dwight. Seated Margaret and Christine.
And of course, Laddie

Bicycle days (sometime in the 1930's)

Uncle Arch (left) with friends.

Uncle Paul hamming it up on the handlebars.

Uncle Paul (center) with friends.

Family Classic 1924 or 1925

Family classic.
"James" was the apple of Grandma E's eye. She never called hin Jim.

1989 JWE and Margaret a few favs or our visit to Great Britain

As long as I can remember I begged to have a horse or pony. I remember sitting with Grandad E. at the livestock auctions when I was about 4 and begging him to buy me every horse they brought out. I think I was trying to figure out how to get this one home.

In southern England wild ponies wander about for the amusement of tourists. It was hard to know that periodically they harvest/thin the herd for population control and profit (ie pet food).


The farm boy showed himself a little. I'd never seen Dad engaging with any animal besides the family dog until now. He often seemed to distance himself from his farm background. I've always been touched by this connection he made with this little foal whose future was uncertain.

Quintessential JWE

The pony cart was for my benefit. Dad made me feel like a little girl by encouraging this silly but memorable tourist activity. I cherish it.

Dwight & Julie wedding 1980

Are these kids really old enough to get married? Gosh, in 1980, Dwight was only 23 and Julie was even younger than that. Dwight really did have really RED hair....
been a long time since anyone saw that.

Julie has been such a wonderful addition to our family, as have all of my sister-in-laws. They all are important pieces in this family puzzle and building blocks in our foundation.

A truly rare event when Jim and Beth danced together. The time was obviously right!
Look at Jim in that white tux.

Mom was proud and happy to have her family gravitate to town for the event. Below is Aunt Martha and Aunt Gail on the front porch of 2270. I look at the picture and I see mom's african violets in the background.

Uncle Arch and Dorothy Kail. Dorothy was a Sell and Beth's cousin. Her daughters, Janet and Mary Lou used to come and stay with Grandma M. if our family went out of town.

L to R, Arch, John, and Martha.

We had such a great front porch. Many of us have tried to replicate the family front porch as we have gotten our own homes.

1993 reunion

I always loved this photo. Uncle John and Aunt Martha still happy kids.

Patriarchs

The men of authority Paul, John, Arch and Jim.

Look what happens in 10 years

JWE was a semi-pro photographer but when the opportunity presented itself, we had studio shots of the group. Dad was a great photographer so it didn't happen often; but, here are two examples. The top photo was from about 1964 and Christine is the very cute blonde (even if she is a little pouty) toddler. The whole group is happy, cute, and wholesome. Mom and Dad are so so young. The bottom photo is from about 1973. I think it was another church directory photo with the whole crew of 10. If I have the date right, Scott was in technical school, Dave was about a freshman in college, I was a junior in HS. Clearly, several of us are in that difficult teenage nerdy phase (Ok it's ME). Dean was always cool...oh wait, he was cross-eyed as an infant. (gotcha) Hmmmm, hard to weigh that one. It's great that we are ALL cool now...just don't ask our kids (the next generation) about that.

Nice young men in ties and jackets. John and Jay as charming preschoolers. Can't you just see the next generation in these photos? I see Jake and Grace for sure.

Casey, an Angel on Earth

The red hair comes from both sides of the family but Casey was always her own unique personality. I always think of Casey this way...even though she would be a teenager today (hard for me to picture). These are just a few of my favorite images. Happy Birthday Casey.

Beth and Jim

The church photo directory gave us a number of good portraits.

Why are these people so serious?

Not our usual jovial group. Stress of the holidays?
Did JWE snap this one? Don't see the cable.

Remembering D Scott today with love

When Scott had his first birthday, both sets of grandparents came south to visit and have cake. I believe the story was after cake, he somehow ended up in the tub prematurely...and suddenly. He didn't expect it anymore than Mom did. He's not crying though so apparently it was good for a laugh.

Scott is probably about five in this picture. I only know that because there is a picture of meat about the age of sitting up that was taken at the same time. Handsome and happy lad.

Paul E. got to meet his first grandson.

Scott looked like this for most of his adult life. Hair, mustache, and sideburns changed over the years but not much else. Scott was alone for a long time. But when he and Robin found each it was like they found home in each other. He loved all four of his daughters and would be very proud of them today.

As our oldest brother, Scott taught us stuff, sent several of us to the emergency room, let us learn to ride a bike on his Huffy, let us learn to ride a motorcycle on his Suzuki. Tried to teach some us to play the guitar (I was hopeless). And yes, there are more photos of him than any of us...that's what comes with being numero uno. Nonetheless, he set a high standard for all of us to follow.

One of Scott's favorite music artists was James Taylor. It was eerie when I listened to the lyrics to Fire & Rain after Scott died. He used to play and sing that song all the time. It was like it was written for him. I can't listen to it without missing Scott.

Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone...Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you.

I've seen fire, and I've seen rain.
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.
But, I always thought I would see you again.

Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You got to help me make a stand.
Just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand.
I won't make it any other way.

Been walking my mind to lazy times, my back turned towards the sun.
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around.
Well there's hours of time on the telphone line to talk about things to come.
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

But I always I thought I'd see you one more time again.

Margaret Marshall Kidd

Margaret is a family name...there are so many Margarets in the family tree, it's hard to tell who I was named after (I think all of them actually). This is Beth's Aunt Margaret and her granddaughter Karol Kay. Compare some of the pictures and you can see Anne and Margaret were sisters.


Someone at the reunion was trying to identify Aunt Margaret's husband, Sam Kidd in an old photo album. These are the two photos I have of him.