I'm running out of steam.

These last pictures aren't going to get the post they deserve.

I'm pooped now.  Going to go to bed but want these posted

so I don't forget them.

 

 

 

 

My dad's parents.  Hardy Pinedale people.  The picture below is a much better

picture of my grandfather.  I think he was an honest hard working man.  Granny was a

small woman so I'm thinking he wasn't that tall.  My dad never told us stories about

them.  I never knew grandpa Brewer. He had died years before.   Granny died when I was 16-17.  She

had dementia and I was a rotten teenager and had a hard time with that.

I wish I had been better to her those years.

Close to a family portrait.  Probably 1958 - 1959.  Where's Randy?

Pretty picture of my mom in the 60's.  That was one heck of a wig.

Mom with three of her sisters.  I know the left is Aunt Martha and I think the two on the right are

Aunt Liv  and Aunt Alice.  I'm guessing about Aunt Alice.  This was the mid 70's.

 

4th of July 1971 We were watching the parade in Show Low.  Left to right.  Daryl Holliday, Jeff, me holding my niece, Kimber, Evelyn Ramsey, and Gibby Cook, who is my sister in law, Tammy's brother..  I would be leaving home in a month.  These people are part of life as I had always known it.    Evelyn married the next summer.  Jeff and Daryl, and Gibby finished two more years of high school.  I married David 4 1/2 years later.  Gibby died in a heavy machinery accident shortly after my wedding.  Daryl married his high school sweetheart, divorced and married again and divorced.   

 

 Jeff originally went to Gibby's house to get Gibby but after a while he went to see Gibby's sister.   Jeff married Tammy about 6 months after David and I married.  Not one of us is like the other but all are people I love. 

 



A Mother's Pictures

These pictures reminded me of my daughters and daughters in law pictures of some of their children.   They take pictures of their children because they like the scene or everyone is dressed up, etc.    And then it occurred to me that that is why Mom took these pictures.  Pictures taken with a mother's heart.

Top:  Jeff and me on our sing.

Next:  All five children

Third: New dresses and the little brother.

Last:  Halloween costume and excited brother 

Family Animals

 I found this picture of Sugarfoot today.  This was our horse.  When my sisters interests turned to other things she became my horse.  I rode her everywhere.  It wasn't uncommon to see horses in town or on residential streets at all hours of the day. I thought everybody had a horse and a dog.  I never thought twice about it.  I did like riding her.  She was an older horse when we got her so eventually the choice was made to put her down. 

 

The picture below is me with my two sisters, Coleen and Lynne.  I am sure my mom made those dresses.  It isn't my sisters or the dresses that interested me.  It's the dog.  That is Mutt. He is the family dog I knew.  I am not much of a dog person but I do remember how much I liked Mutt.

Dogs ran loose in Show Low.  So, obviously, there were dog fights.  Mutt would come home with his eye sockets ripped open.  Mom took him to the vet (when you could afford to take your animals to a vet) for stitches  more than once.  With dogs running loose you also had people who would have enough of dogs chasing their animals.  So every now and then they would set out poison.  We think Mutt was a victim of the poison.  I was happy to find this picture with him in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Johnson side of the family

These are my mother's parents.  These are my grandparents.   I called Tanya Buck whose mother is my mother's cousin.  I think that makes us second cousins.  (I don't even know...)

 

We connected because I got on Family Search last Sunday and wrote a memory of

my Aunt Vi, who is my mom's sister.  Within minutes I had an email from Tanya Buck's daughter,  Angela, who I have learned is one heck of a genealogist.  We emailed back and forth and I told about this picture of my grandparents. 

 

I have a little story about it.  From the time I was small I always felt that my grandfather's eyes were creepy.  After David and I did their temple work I felt like his eyes changed.....they had softened.  I still see them as the changed eyes.  Angela had always heard that he told family if, after he died, somebody took his name to the temple he would come back and haunt them.  We agreed that he must have changed his mind.

 

Well Angela told Tanya about my story and the picture.  So in the middle of the week she called.  Well I am bad at answering the home phone.  She left a message and mentioned this picture.  I finally had time today to find it.  I was glad I did....you never know.  So I scanned it and then called her.

 

We had such a good conversation.  She set me straight on some family history and also helped me to see that my great grandmother was married.  I was told by my mother that she wasn't married.  But she was and Angela, the genealogist, had done extensive research and found records proving this.  This meant a great deal to me.  My grandmother knew her father.  I was glad for her.  I was glad for  my great grandmother.

 

As our phone call ended I sat there thinking about this connection.  This is my mother's family.  I don't talk to anyone from the Johnson side.  I didn't even know where to begin.  But this happened and I am happy.  I am a little emotional about it even.  My mom's family came to life for me today.

Maybe that is what I am feeling.....a little more life in me. 

 

We are meant to be family.  Tanya and her daughter, Angela, blessed my life today.