Glasses on Shopping Saturday

When I look at these faces...

... is it any wonder that I'm attracted to these ads in old newspapers? 

Do you think maybe I spend too much time with my ancestors?

--Nancy.
.

Fourth Graders, Mineral Ridge School, 1924-25

This is my mother's 4th grade class at Mineral Ridge School in Mineral Ridge, Ohio. You can see her photo -- but not her face. She's the child in the front row, 5th from the left who scraped off the paper where her face had been. She turned 10 in 1925. Enlarge the photo for a better, clearer view by clicking on it.

Some of my observations about this photo:

• Most of the girls have their hair bobbed.
• Only two children have glasses: both girls, both with round frames.
• More than half the girls' dresses are sewn from gingham or plaid fabrics.
• Nine of the boys are wearing coats with belts that button around the waist.
• The boys whose legs we can see sport short pants.
• There's no teacher standing with the children.
  
• I want a sweater like the one the boy in the upper left corner is wearing.
  

It's hard to read the expressions of some of these children. Most look serious or angry. A few have smiles. It's interesting to think that I probably knew some of these children when they were adults and I was a child.

This is a Sepia Saturday post. Click on the link to find others posts with old photographs.

Beautiful Emma and Her Lovely Waist

I think this "dewy" photo of my grandmother, Emma Bickerstaff, is as perfectly lovely as any I've ever seen. She's beautiful and so is her high-necked "waist" with its abundance of lace down the front and the slightly pouffed half or three-quarter sleeves. I like how she looks straight through the lens of the camera into my eyes. I like the innocence, honesty, and trust I see there.

If you enlarge the photograph you can see an enchanting, delicate pin in the shape of a leaf at her neckline. Her off-center locket adds just a touch of movement - or possibly lack of attention on the part of the photographer or Emma herself.

Emma was born in July, 1893. I've been trying to decide her age when this photo was taken. My first guess was between 14 and 18. I wondered if perhaps it was a birthday photograph.

"Waist" in this circumstance is a "shirtwaist," a particular style of lady's blouse. Waists similar to Emma's were popular from at least 1903 until about 1909 with style variations over the years. Since Emma would have been only 10 in 1903, I'm sure this photo was taken later.

Emma grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, along the Ohio River. I thought perhaps some of the old newspapers might have clothing advertisements depicting clothing of the time. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to the Ohio Historical Society to look at the Steubenville newspapers; fortunately, Google Newspapers has lots of other newspapers from that time period online. Since Pittsburgh is only about 39 miles from Steubenville (by today's routes) I looked at the Pittsburgh Press thinking the styles might be similar because the cities were so close.

Below are advertisements from June issues of The Pittsburgh Press from, left to right, 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1909. None is exactly like Emma's but I think 1907 is the closest. Perhaps the portrait was taken in 1907 when Emma was 15 or, if the waist wasn't new, perhaps it was taken when she was a year or two older.



If you'd like to see the ads yourself, go to The Pittsburgh Press at Google Newspapers, type in the dates (one at a time), click the arrow to the proper page, enlarge, and view the original advertisements. Here are the dates and page numbers: The Pittsburgh Press, June 29, 1906, p. 8; The Pittsburgh Press, June 30, 1907, p. 3; The Pittsburgh Press, June 28, 1908, p. 3; and The Pittsburgh Press, June 30, 1909, p. 12.


This is a Sepia Saturday post. Click the link to see others' contributions this week and join in yourself if you'd like.

Why He Never Wore Shorts

In the 1960s, when he was in his 50s, it became popular --
and accepted -- for men to wear shorts.

One summer when the heat was unbearable we suggested
he buy a pair and wear them because he'd be cooler.

With emphatic finality he said,
"It took me long enough to get out of short pants,
I'm not getting back into them."

He never said how old he was when he finally got into long pants.
He never wore shorts again
except for the boxers underneath his trousers.

This is my father, Lee Doyle, at about age 6.
He was born on February 27, 1913.


This is a post for Sepia Saturday. Click on the link to visit the Sepia Saturday blog and see other contributors. Post an old photo to share, tell something about it, and join in if you like. All are welcome.

When an Illustrated Advertisement Helps Date a Photograph

This undated photo is of my maternal grandmother, Emma Bickerstaff Meinzen. She married my grandfather, William Carl Robert Meinzen, on September 8, 1914. There are no known photos of her in a white bridal gown nor photos of her and my grandfather as a bridal couple. As I was scanning photos last fall I wondered if this was taken at or near the time of her wedding and if, possibly, this could have been her traveling suit, worn after the wedding. The stained glass window in the background of the photo looks like a church window, and she looks about 21, her age at the time she was married. I'll never know that for sure unless my aunt knows the answer. Still, it seems a definite possibility.

When I was at the Ohio Historical Society searching for any newspaper article announcing my grandparents' marriage, this newspaper advertisement for The H. H. Hoffman Company in Niles, Ohio, caught my eye. You can see why if you notice the suit illustrated in the upper left side of the ad. While not identical to my grandmother's, both suits have very similar lines and lengths. Amazingly, this ad was published on September 11, 1914, just days after my grandmother was married.

Mineral Ridge, where my grandmother lived before her marriage, is about three miles from Niles. She certainly would have shopped in Niles and very likely at Hoffman's. She may not have bought her suit at Hoffman's but she certainly bought it around the time of her marriage.

When I was a young child we sometimes went to Hoffman's. The store was interesting because the offices were in a balcony that overlooked the sales floor. Traveling from the check-out counter to the balcony was a little overhead trolley which carried a small box from one point to the other. When checking out the clerk wrote the purchases on an order check, tallied the bill, and told the customer the amount. When the customer gave money for the purchase, the clerk sent the money and the order check to the balcony in the little trolley box. I suppose that was my favorite reason to shop at Hoffman's: to watch the little trolley box make its way from clerk to office and back again with the change in tow.

I cannot remember when Hoffman's closed its doors. It was one of the last little old-fashioned shops in Niles. I remember it fondly. I was pleased to see The H. H. Hoffman Co. advertisement depicting a suit so much like my grandmother's.

Other blog posts about my grandparents and their marriage:
Married in 1914 - posted on September 8, 1910
Marriage Licenses Announced - posted on October 18, 1910
Reviewing Marriage Records - posted on October 20, 1910

She Wore Bows in Her Hair

I can't help but chuckle when I look at these photographs of my mother, Audrey Meinzen, with bows in her hair.



In this photo Mom is with her father, W. C. Robert Meinzen, and her 2nd youngest sister, "Baby Girl" of some previous Sepia Saturday posts.

Her bow is wider than her head! I wonder if it's tied around a lock of hair or if something else is holding it in place.

I think Mom is about 6 and "Baby Girl" is perhaps 6 or 8 months in this photo. That would date the photo to late fall, 1921, and could possibly be as late as early 1922.









This photo was probably taken between 1922 and 1923. It's Mom and "Baby Girl" again. There was a daughter between these two but she doesn't seem to be in the photos taken around this time.

Is it my imagination or is the bow bigger in this photo than in the previous one? Perhaps the bows became bigger as Mom got older?













Oh, I do believe it's true: bows got bigger with age. Mom looks to be another two years older than in the previous photograph, and look at that bow! Have you ever seen such a big bow in a child's hair before?

Was it made of fabric or paper? If it was fabric, surely it was starched. How did she keep it in her hair? How did she prevent it from flopping around?

She's with "Baby Girl" again in this photo, too. I love this photo. I love how "Baby Girl" is peeking around from behind Mom. I love the hollyhocks -- whoops, they're roses -- in the background, and their dresses. I think this is just a terrific little snapshot. I wonder who the photographer was.


Do you have photographs of ancestors with bows in their hair?



This is a Sepia Saturday post. I encourage you to go to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find out who else is sharing old photographs and memories this week.

Old Ladies

I'm not thinking of ladies who are old so much as I am thinking about ladies from older times, times that were perhaps slower and gentler, more delicate, perhaps even more refined. Or maybe just more down to earth and simple.

When I was poking around at the second hand store the other day I came upon a clear plastic bag of handkerchiefs. I wanted to pull the staples out so I could have a closer look. I wanted to see if they were worth the 90-cent price tag, but if the staples are removed and the bags are open, they won't sell them until after they've gone to the back to be reprocessed. So I poked through the clearness of the bag and, with my daughter encouraging me, decided to hand over the 90 cents and call them mine. There were about 24 hankies of varying ages and used-ness. Some were faded, some nearly threadbare. Two, crisp and bright with labels attacheed, were folded as if they'd just come out of the gift box. Some were from the 1940s and '50s. Others were a little newer and one was, I think, much older - white embroidery on white linen. There was also a new linen one with its label shiny label just waiting for it's own monogram in the corner and tatting around the edge. I decided the bag was a good buy.

What is it about these little pieces of cloth that make them so dear? Certainly not their intended use in handling the sniffles and runny nose of a cold. Possibly for the charming prints that cover their surfaces, or the delicate tatting or crochet around their borders. Probably the real appeal is that they bring to mind ladies I love from a time long past. Didn't they always carry a handkerchief in their purses or pockets? I think my Gramma Meinzen did and so did my mom.

As a child I remember sometimes choosing handkerchiefs as Christmas gifts for my mom and gramma. Do you remember how ladies' handkerchiefs were always larger than their flat square boxes and were folded to fit? There were 4 folds arranged in such a way that the hankie looked like a smaller version of itself and the geometry of the decorations was preserved. Sometimes the hankies were sold in sets of three or four to a box, all with the same print but in different colors, or sometimes the set was made up of a different flower or motif embroidered in the corner of each.

Pockets in dresses and aprons (or if there were no pockets in the dress, sometimes the hankies were tucked under a sleeve or under a bra strap at the shoulder) were always at the ready. My Gramma Meinzen is the lady on the left. Notice her nice big pocket. You can be sure there was a hankie in it.

Hankies were useful for another purpose: I learned to manage an iron on hankies and my dad's boxer shorts. Hankies required the most care because there were to be no ironed-in creases or wrinkles. I started ironing before I started school. I wonder how many hankies I ironed before I perfected the job.

Now, handbags - or purses, or pocketbooks - call them what you will - are a different memory all together. Handbags definitely held a hankie, but there were other great things in pocketbooks: a coin purse; a billfold; a compact with a mirror and powder puff; probably lipstick; keys; maybe a pen and a small pad of paper.... It's not like I spent time looking through Gramma's bag, but occasionally, and probably to keep me occupied and quiet during a car ride or some other wait, she would open her purse and pull out things for me to look at. What a treat! I enjoyed the contents of her purse, but I often liked the purses themselves. Sometimes I would go so far as to ask her if I could have one or other particular ones when she was finished with them. I remember only once did she pass one on to me. It was large and black and heavy - I was small. It seemed more like a suitcase than a handbag. Gosh, the things I could pack into it! How I could play "grown-up"! I loved playing with it no matter that it was over-large for me.

Treasures. My grandmother's handkerchief and purse would be treasures if I had them, but since I don't have them, the memories are treasures enough. What treasures do you have or remember from an "old lady" you loved when you were a child?

By the way, the ladies in the photo above, from left to right, are sisters Emma Bickerstaff Meinzen, Cora Bickerstaff, and Mary Ellen "Mayme" Bickerstaff Morris. The photo was taken about 1953. That year, Gramma turned 60; Cora, 42; and Mayme, 54.