They do grow up fast..

...some old (and new) photos of my sons

Early smiles from my first born...Marty. 

 

My father holding Marty when he was around 6 months old.

Marty, at three or four years.

Second son, Russell was just a little bit of a thing when born, but has made up for it throughout his life.

He's always been inquisitive, and paid attention to details. This has been a good quality in his work with computers and other people.

He's not yet two years old, so I'm helping him down the big hill at my parent's home in Massachusetts.

March 1969. Always looking for interesting things. It became apparent when we'd go camping or hiking in the woods...every little thing was interesting for him!

Here's Russ in high school, and Marty smiling about something devious. He could often play tricks on Russ, but he also looked out for him many times.

My third son was unexpected, but a real gift. Here's Tai at around 2 years old.

Here Tai is close to the camera, and Marty is eating. Marty was in the Navy at that time. And I was in grad school. Tai was in kindergarten or maybe preschool. Russ was in college.

Here are some of my classmates in Counselor Education at U Florida...the teacher has almost no hair and is blond. I'm second from right in back row!

My sons and I would drive to Houston from FL to visit my parents and my sister and her children. Here cousin Zach is in foreground, and Tai is kind of lying back on his cousin Lisa. Tai would have been around 4 in this photo.

Here's Russ and his bride, Michelle after their wedding.

And now he has three beautiful daughters: Kate on left, then mom Michelle, Caroline a graduating high school senior, Russ and college girl Audrey.

Marty and his two children, William and Cayenne - taken a few years ago!

Marty and his second wife, Barbara!

Several years ago Marty's children graduated high school.

Tai is also married now, and has a dog and a cat!

Tai and his wife, Kendra.

I know I said I'd show old photos...but some of the newer ones were also in the same album. So I think I'm caught up!

But wait, that was just one photo album. There are at least 2 more on the shelf. I enjoyed throwing this one away when empty. Yay lightening up my life one little thing at a time. But the other 2 are totally about Tai, from beginning to walk till...who knows. I may not take each photo out of the pages, but just scan the ones I want to keep, and give the entire boos to him. Of course I probably don't want to mail them, so sometime he can get them from me!

The families in the past

 I didn't get to know them, because I was pretty much focused on raising my own children. But my husband had a sister and brother.

Here his sister is in the middle of the front row, with her husband to our left and her (and my husband's) brother to the right. My husband is leaning forward to be in the picture!

My mother and father. I'm surprised to see him touching her arm. They usually were pretty unaffectionate in public.

The administration building at Principia school, where both my parents worked, and my sister and I went to school. It was for children of Christian Scientist parents.

These are a mixture of our parents. I'm walking on the left, with my husband's father next, then my mother, then my husband's mother. This was about a year before we separated. We enjoyed eating at a fancy restaurant called the Kapok Tree in Clearwater FL. 

There was always a wait to get seated, and the walkway included this air conditioned portion with more statues and palm trees. I guess the food was alright, but the atmosphere was the main attraction.

We were separated, so my husband and the children flew to be with his parents for the holiday. It was to be his mother's last Christmas.

I think my husband is looking around his mother's shoulder, who's sitting in a wheelchair. 

My husband's older brother being silly at Christmas in 1971. 

And our lives kind of split in two after that. The children would spend every other weekend with him, and usually most of their vacations. Like many divorced families, it wasn't ideal, but we went forward and coped with the changes as they happened. I was the one always on the move, while my ex lived in one house after a few condos.

But let's look at some old photos of those children on my next post!

Third in a series of old family photos...not that old, but out of my past

 

This was our back yard in Connecticut one year. We had some nice times living in New England, going to all the historic sites nearby, but I admit I didn't enjoy the snow as much as I thought I would.

So we moved to Florida. We had off and on romantic feelings, as all married couples do. But we didn't stay together that long after we'd moved...maybe a bit over a year.

Hillsborough Bay, near the Courtney Campbell Causeway, is like a big bathtub most of the time. We had a little sailboat, and here hubby is rigging the sail. I have no idea who the little girl is in front of me, and I'm facing away. Youngest son is in the lifejacket by the boat. I guess my parents were watching my oldest son, and taking these pictures.

Speaking of bathtubs. This is us trying to sail without much wind. And I think by then my son had decided against trying this. 

 We were to learn that the nicer beaches were over in Clearwater and St. Petersburg, where the Gulf of Mexico gave cleaner sand at least, but still not often very big waves.

Out of the past - second chapter of photos out of the album

 

I just edited this old photo of me at around 4 years.

I married my Coast Guard husband  and won't even say the date. He was handsome to me. I was only a military wife for a couple of years. Our first son was born in a Naval Air Station hospital.

About a week after my son's birthday, my whole family came to Texas from St. Louis...parents and sister. She is enjoying the Gulf of Mexico here, and had just graduated from high school. 

It's pretty grainy to try to enlarge her, but this gives you a better idea of how she looked.

It's always fun to point cameras at other photographers. Here is my dad captured by my husband looking over the parental car. Yes they had driven the thousand miles to meet their first grandbaby. We lived up those stairs in the apartment behind my dad. We found a downstairs apartment a few months later!

After our second son had been born in Connecticut we moved to FL. So here I am skinny again drying off after a dip in the pool, with my parents visiting at a motel near Tampa. Dad has his back to the camera, while Mom sits in the far background in her shades. Oldest son is reaching for something on the table, while youngest is facing toward him on the other side. He's about 2.

More about our nautical life in the next post. (Not very much actually.)

From my past

 These old photos were in an album which frankly had seen better days. Many of the exposed photos stuck to each other where they were on facing pages. I also had culled many of the photos of my sons and given them new locations in cardboard albums, behind a plastic transparent screen. I don't know what has become of those, because they were gifts to my three sons. 

I found strangely enough that some photos had been added much later of my third son, who of course hadn't been around for most of the early events.

Anyway, I've spent several hours scanning and organizing them. The only ones I'll share here are ones that represent more than just my family. These represent places and events as well as people that may have died.

So to start, let's see about my own birth.

This is not an official birth certificate, and I've taken off my dates and my mother's maiden name, which might be of use to somebody wishing to steal my identity. Those footprints sure won't help them! 

I was a pretty long baby at 20-1/4 inches. I don't know if the other stats are at all unusual.

It's a cute document with a gold seal. After I scanned it I tore it up and threw it away. Who would want such a thing? It's not legal!

This shot, from the infamous Kodak box camera, shows I could sit up by the time I was 7 months old.

I think I have a heart locket on. And there's a bent-wood chair behind me on the front porch in Dallas TX. Date on the back says March 21, 1943

And I liked to give my smile to the photographer. I like this shot showing the bassinette. And the lovingly knitted cap and sweater by my grandmother. Dated March 17, 1945

Last shot from March 1945. It was wartime, and I think the car parked in the next driveway was our neighbor's. All cars were black then. And they had this awful brown/grey upholstery. (Well that was my memory anyway!)

And I just realized that because I had all boys, I had kept my old knit bonnet tucked away somewhere because of course it was pink! I didn't have a chance to give it to any granddaughters either, because they didn't live where it was cold.   But I did find it still where I tucked it. No moths have gotten to it either, amazing over all my moves and 79 years.

It did bring tears to my eyes, thinking of my dear grandmother whose fingers made these stitches. Love can be carried through the years in strange and beautiful ways.

Fast forward...next post I'll bring some other family members here!

B & W Photos of yesteryear, and some histories

  

Mary McCloud Bethune was born on July 10, 1875

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

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She started a school for African-American girls with $1.50. The school bordered the town dump. Make-shift desks and chairs were made from discarded crates and boxes. There were five students at the time, and the students made ink for pens from elderberry juice and pencils from burned wood.

When the the local Ku Klux Klan heard about the school, they threatened to burn it down. There were reports that they waited outside the school, but she stood in the doorway, unwilling to back down or leave her school. Other stories say that she and her students started singing spirituals. The Ku Klux Klan eventually left.

Mary McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875 in a log cabin on a cotton farm in South Carolina, the 15th of 17 children of former slaves. Most of her brothers and sisters were born into slavery; she was the first child born free. She started working in the fields by the age of 5.

This is a post from the Peace Page, with information compiled from historical sources online. The Peace Page encourages readers to learn more of the life of Mary McLeod Bethune online.

One day, she accompanied her mother, delivering “white people’s” wash. When she was given permission to enter the white children's nursery, she saw a book, which fascinated her. A white girl would quickly snatch the book from her hands, telling her she didn't know how to read. That's when Mary realized the only difference between white and black folk was the ability to read and write.

When she got the opportunity, McLeod attended a one-room black schoolhouse, walking five miles to and from the school. When she got home, she would teach her parents and siblings what she learned. She then got an opportunity to attend the Moody Bible Institute in 1895, becoming the first African American student to graduate from the school.

She decided then she would become a missionary, sharing what she learned. But, she would be informed that no one wanted or needed a black missionary.

Rather than give up her dreams, she decided more than ever that she would eventually teach.

Flash forward to 1904, when after moving to Florida, she started the Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, which initially had five girls aged six to twelve. With limited resources, she was determined to make the school a success, even when the Ku Klux Klan threatened her. But, eventually she received donations and support from the community, and the school grew to 30 girls by the end of the year.

Booker T. Washington would tell her of the importance of white benefactors to fund her school, so she started traveling and fundraising, receiving donations from John D. Rockefeller and establishing contacts with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Her little school would become even more successful after it merged with a private institute for African-American boys and became known as the Bethune-Cookman School. She was president of the college from 1923 to 1942, and 1946 to 1947, becoming one of the few women in the world to serve as a college president at that time.

After she found that one of her students needing medical care was denied the care she needed and was placed on an outside porch of the local white hospital instead of a room with a bed, she used her funding sources and connections to open the first black hospital in Daytona, Florida.

According to the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association, McLeod became "one of the 20th century’s most powerful and celebrated advocates for civil rights and suffrage", holding "prominent roles, including president, in the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). She also served as president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, where she fought against school segregation and sought healthcare for black children. Under her leadership, the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was founded as a unifying voice for African American women’s organizations."

As chapter president of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Colored Women, she would become so well known for her work registering black voters that once again she received threats from the Ku Klux Klan. And, like before, she did not back down.

With her friendship with the Roosevelts, she would become appointed as a national adviser to president Roosevelt, becoming part of what was known as his Black Cabinet and advising him on concerns of black people and would be called the “First Lady of the Struggle”.

When she passed away on May 18, 1955, she was recognized across the country. One newspaper suggested "the story of her life should be taught to every school child for generations to come" and The New York Times noted she was, "one of the most potent factors in the growth of interracial goodwill in America."

In her own words before she died, she wrote:

"I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you a responsibility to our young people."

“If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love.”

[Note: This was originally published on the Jon S. Randal Peace Page in 2019. You are welcome to share, but please do so via the Facebook share button which acknowledges the original author. Thank you.]

And as I've looked into my own ancestors' pasts...I found that I've a drop or two of Scottish blood...namely from Dugald and John MacDougall

This carving is the base of the memorial depicted below, out of focus.

In my Ancestry tree, WIlliam McElhany (1766-1815) of Pennsylvania, fought in the War of 1812, on the American side.

His memorial is in the Cheektowaga Historical Cemetery site. I posted about the cemetery before HERE..

Soldiers who died in the military hospital were buried in the cemetery on Aero Dr. which was located in Amherst until the New York State Thruway was built nearly 150 years later, when the cemetery became part of the Town of Cheektowaga.

Graves are not individuality marked, there are small white wooden cross's scattered throughout the cemetery.

Established: 1814 - 1815, aka Old Military Cemetery, aka Garrison Road Cemetery, aka Creek Road Cemetery .

Denomination: Military

Address & Location: Located on the south side of Aero Rd., between Transit Rd. and Wehrle Dr., west of Youngs Rd. (North of Buffalo International Airport). 

William McElhany's wife was Elizabeth Clark McNeal McElhany (1768-1849) and her ancestors included members of the families McNeal, McKorda, McKinney, and many a Scotch-Irish family.

One grandmother was Mary Sarah MacDougall, 1664-1725...who's lineage included MacLaughlin, Livingstone, Gillespie and her father, Alexander MacDougall.  He was the 21st Chief of Dunollie and of Lorn, (1635-1695) of Dunollich, Argyllshire, Scotland. He would be my 9th great grandfather.

I'm not quite sure how the monument connects to him...and will try to figure that out in the next few ventures into Ancestry. I know only that she was my 8 time great grandmother, among the immigrants from Scotland to Ireland.

In the meantime I wanted to share two serious looking ladies, all squeezed up in their fine attire, ready to walk somewhere with beautiful parasols.  I don't think I'm related, and don't even know their names.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week!

Today's quote:

“It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is the rust upon the blade. It is not the movement that destroys the machinery but the friction.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Changes

 I love thinking how often things change...often without my knowledge or encouragement. Like my $80 increase in car insurance. And I never saw that coming. My car gets much older, and for some strange reason the insurance company thinks it's going to cost more to repair or replace. Well, the newer ones do cost much more, so I may never be able to replace it anyway. Let's see which one of us wears out first!

The change that I wanted to mention is one of my intentions to learn Gaelic...preferably the Scotts variety. I've got the book. But then someone suggested free Duolingo. So I've been working on that on line, very slowly...and I'm pretty sure it's Irish Gaelic.

I am ok with that. It's hard enough with vocabulary, but at least Duolingo does have sounded out words and sentences.

Whoopee! So every day or so I work on my vocab and the existence of male/female articles of the words that are at least clearly male or female. Like the girl, the boy, the man, and the woman. Then they get to eat, and I have to figure out how those sentences get put together. Over and over! And it's still like starting over again with each lesson.

Other than that, I've got lots of volunteer stuff on my plate so I'd best get to doing that!

Have a great day!