MIZMARILYN'S MISSIVES

MIZMARILYN'S MISSIVES... THE MANIACAL MUSINGS ON THE MEANDERINGS, MISADVENTURES, AND MISHAPS OF A MISGUIDED MISCREANT...

Friday, April 28, 2006

Poco Polo...





A picture taken in 1937 at the Riviera (near my parents house) for polo played for benefit of a Hermosa Beach children's hospital convalescent home (the small beach city next to mine). Simple coincidences. I find them everywhere. I went to Alaska once in my life on a Western Airlines pass and spent, like, three days there. I went down to the 'bad' part of town and found a tiny bar... run by a man from Manhattan Beach... go figure. I struck up a conversation in a pool in a KOA camping ground in Tennessee and found friends of friends. It happens all the time. There are no BIG worlds, only small ones continually connected.

My mother is on the left and my aunt is on the right. I love the all white ponies. I love the happy faces. It's hard now to think of my mother ever playing something as intricate as polo, so I get such a kick out of finding things like this to remind me...

just a little polo...

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Fishing, anyone?....




To the best of my knowledge, this picture was taken in Florida in 1913. My grandfather (father's) is on the upper left in the flat straw hat, with his hands on his hips. I am struck not only by the size and amount of the fish (and the one poor turtle), but by the outfits! Imagine going fishing in your suit... and tie!

I never heard of my grandfather fishing. As I've mentioned, he was a great listener, and I have memories of sitting at his feet listening to him talk, but can never remember what we talked about. Certainly not fishing. This was right after my father was born (1912), and right before my grandfather contracted TB. It changed all of their lives in Oh so many ways. My grandfather was a banker then, a vocation that both my brother and I had at one time in our lives, without realizing that it 'ran in the family'. Apparently he was a good banker, there are many articles that I have from the Florida papers about one speech or meeting or another where he was a featured speaker. Then he got sick, and went from place to place to try to get better and ended up in California. The newspaper articles mentioned his 'illness' and the fact that he had to 'go away' to get better, but, of course, never mentioned TB. I do know that the family was back in New York in 1920, as I found them on the 1920 census, so they didn't get here until at least after that. His health was never good. He was never robust, and I always remember him as being old. He was, however, the kindest, gentlest, quietest man I ever knew...

except for my father, of course....

but we never talked about fishing...

Monday, April 24, 2006

A Bow by any Other Name...



My niece is getting 'officially' married tomorrow... the big wedding is going to take place later, in Puerto Vallarta, but the "By gosh we're married now" ceremony is going to be tomorrow, so my mother can attend...

So I got creative...

I used to love to wrap presents. I had a job in 1971 working for Campbell's Bookstore in Westwood Viillage. I loved that job. Not only did I get to wrap the books (a fairly easy job, as they are usually rectangular), I got to be creative... and I got to touch all the new books that came into the store...

sigh..

Oh.. and I got a really cool DISCOUNT!...

Lately, I haven't much cared for wrapping... at Christmas, I sometimes get a wild hair and do something very different, but if you get a present from me in the middle of the year, it will usually have Christmas paper... inside out!

For this, however, I wanted something unique.

I practiced on a package to bonho, and then went bonkers last night..

I know it's over the top, but I love it...

Sunday, April 23, 2006

True Love...



I adore this picture...

My mother and father got married in 1938. She was 18 years old, and he was 26. They both look so young in this picture. They had a really good marriage, and three lovely children... well.. two lovely children and me, but who's counting (grin). My mother gave up several scholarship chances to go to UCLA to be near my father. She didn't stay long at UCLA, because, as she put it in a letter to her father, "It has become too much of an emotional strain for us to be near each other and wanting each other ..."

She didn't ask her parent's permission. She told them what she was going to do. She was a headstrong child in those days... hell, she was a headstrong child until her first stroke... hmm.... in many ways she still is a headstrong child...

They spent a lot of time at his parent's house until she went back to Mobile to live with her mother and stepfather until the wedding. She writes to her father about their compatibility, "Ed's folks like me a lot and I've been in close contact with him while staying at their house... He's more irresistible when he has just awakened than any other time. He has wavy hair and it gets all towsled up and I just love it. He doesn't snore (now don't get any ideas... they were in separate rooms you little trouble makers!). He's seen me in the morning before my hair is braided when it looks like a pig pen and he just messes it up some more and seems to get a kick out of that."... She goes on and on.

They were hoping to build a house under the Federal Housing Act, which they estimated would cost them $32 a month (!!). They ended up buying an 'already built one', probably because of the war and the lack of building materials.. I'm guessing here.

She writes that her mother had" accepted him right into the family and written him some very lovely letters".. in truth, her mother tried to talk her out of the marriage, and told my father that she thought it was a big mistake... seems she thought he was a 'cripple' because of his back. I don't know that Mom ever knew that...

It didn't matter...

It had nothing to do with her, and everything to do with them...

"I give to you and you give to me..

true love,

true love"...

oh yeah... and I love her hat and shoes and dress..

and his white shoes! omg!

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Kitty?



shh.... C.J.'s hiding in her favorite place, under the comforter/bedspread... don't let her know you know she's there...

Friday, April 21, 2006

oboyoboyoboy!


Calamity is so excited she can barely contain herself...

I changed the sheets today. No... not just changed the sheets, I changed from flannel to the regular sheets, and she doesn't know what to do first! I had to wash some pillow cases, so I put on the 'new' sheets... 10 minutes later, there was roadkill, sitting fearlessly in the middle of the sheets... did she go and get him and say.. "LOOK! NEW SHEETS! CHECK THIS OUT!"?.. or is he a tester to see if everything is safe ( "is it safe?")... I'll never know. Then, as I put on the bedspread, she was under and on and around, mewing excitedly at all turns.. I keep the bedspread (which is more like a comforter) on the side of the bed in case I need it late at night...

Then I returned with the pillowcases and started packing pillows all around (I need a lot of pillows for knees and necks and elbows and backs).. she was on them as soon as I put them on the bed, and fought me as I tried to use them, one by one. For the last half hour she has been running in and out of the bedroom saying, "It's time.. it MUST be time... quick, let's go to bed!"

She has landed on the folded bedspread, and is watching my every move...

She'll be on my chest in about 5 minutes...

sweet C.J....

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Class of '85...



This picture was taken in 1885. The person who meticulously wrote all the names of all these children gave the name of the school as “School #1 5th avenue and 2nd street.” What he neglected to mention was the city... of course... Since my father’s family came from Mount Vernon, NY, I’m thinking that’s a safe bet... if anyone knows, please let me know.

What do you think, 6th grade?.... I don’t know, it’s hard to tell in the clothes, as the kids look older. Imagine dressing like that every single day... although they may have been 'dressed up' for the picture...

The goofy looking fellow on the lowest row on the far left is my great uncle, my grandfather’s brother, Charley. I believe my grandfather had two brothers, two half brothers and at least one sister. I know his mother’s maiden name was Hammond, and I think his father's name was Howard Schenck. I have a news clipping for a Howard Schenck who died in 1870, who might have been my grandfather's grandfather. Phew! Sweet Charley killed himself some time in the 50’s. Hard to imagine, that little boy.... We don't know as much about my father's family, but I keep finding snippets of things as I peruse pictures and letters. Charley and my grandfather were close, as he was with Emily, his sister (she married a Dr. John Knapp, but lived with my grandfather in Los Angeles, so he might have died relatively young).

What is interesting in this picture, besides the incredible outfits and demeanor, is that the gent sitting beside Charley is Clarence COFFIN, the name that is my mother’s side of the family. I don’t know how Clarence and I are related, but we certainly are cousins of a sort... imagine that coincidence.

and I just lovelovelove the clothes... the shoes and boots... the happy faces... ;)

Thursday, April 13, 2006

T.P. or not T.P...



After breakfast this morning, on my way to "Le Target"... Some VERY creative teenagers had a lot of fun early this morning! I love this, it looks like a weeping willow tree!

another view...

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

School Daze....



Mom and her sister... @1935.-36 I don’t know who the other girl is, but Mom’s on the right and her sister is on the bottom...

When we last left the letters, Mom and her sister were in Kentucky. Her mother had just married, and they were in Oakland, California. It’s my belief that Chick (her husband) didn’t want children, so the girls were in boarding school until Mom met Dad. In 1935 the girls moved to Mabel Scott Rancho school. The school was in Southern California, far away from her mother. Then my grandparents moved to Mobile, Alabama.

My mother briefly mentions the dust storms while living in Kentucky.... just a small mention of such an enormous event in United States history just tickles me. She says the dust “wasn’t even clean dust.... it smells dirty”. lol!

Mom is discovering things about herself. She writes “In art today I drew a girl in charcoal. Even if I do say so myself I think it’s wonderful. You know, it’s funny, whenever i’m sad or mad, or something is wrong, I always draw better., It seems to draw all the pain out of me and that turns in my pictures.” I told you she was mature at 15.

Later she writes, (I told you this was going to get long!) “The orphans’ home from Louisville got flooded out and they sent the kids over to KY, to be adopted or kept until the Home was opened up again. Each sorority took a child and we got sisters. They’re very small and quiet and nice. They haven’t seen their mother, who is living, or written to her. The Home won’t let them. Gosh, Marmee, if I couldn’t see you or write to you, I’d just go off and die! We were all hoping the school would adopt them, but they are leaving tomorrow morning. They are so pitiful looking. One is 12 and the other 10 and they are only in the 3rd grade. The Home doesn’t teach them school work, and they only go outdoors 15 minutes a day. They were all down in the Town Armory and the farmers adopted them to make them work on the farm. Their little hands are hard and sore, and their finger nails broken.

On Marmee, I wish I was grown up so I could adopt them myself. Believe me, when i do grow up I’m going to adopt about 20...”

Of course, then she had me and decided that I was more than enough to handle!! (grin)

Mom and her sister in 1937...


On to Mabel Scott Rancho... One of the good things About Mabel Scott , besides the fact that Mom met my father, was that she got to ride. They played polo at the school, and my mother and her sister got very good at the sport., It scared my father, as Mom was so small.. he worried all the time.

One more short story before I go for the night. She writes, of the riding part, “Sheila (her sister) fell off the horse the first day we went riding. Nothing serious, she just broke off a part of her front tooth. We took her to the doctor and he said he was pretty sure that at her age it would GROW IN AGAIN!!”

egad...

Mom and a horse!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Mama wrote letters....


My grandmother and step grandfather, in 1941. Bonho... I’m sorry I don’t have a full length picture of this outfit, as the sleeves and cummerbund make it look quite interesting!

In 1972, when my mother was moving her mother down to Los Angeles from Oakland, her mother told her to be sure and “get the letters under the house”. There Mom found boxes of letters from her sister and her, written to her mother from 1934 until 1972. Lots and lots of letters. As she began sorting them, she read them to my father, who loved listening and reminiscing about all the things they had experiences. It occurred to my mother that their life was in those letters, so it became a serious endeavor. Unfortunately, my mother occasionally ‘censored’ them, and some of them were missing, so a bunch of the ‘good stuff’ is gone forever, but they are such a history of our family that it doesn’t matter...

She started typing them with the thought of putting them in a book, and such a book it is.... I don’t know how many letters there are. Phone calls were so expensive in the early days of our family that writing was the only way she could keep her mother up to date. There are thousands of letters. The ‘book’ is a spiral book of pages typed on both sides, and it’s about 2 inches thick. I’ve read it several times. I was the official ‘proof reader’, so I read them once with a red pencil. The biggest problem in trying to blog about this is, once I start reading, I can’t stop. I’ve been meaning to write this for several days now, but just can’t tear myself away!

She started writing when she and her sister were in a Mountain camp for the summer. She was 14, her sister was 13. My grandmother was getting a divorce, something she never told them until she remarried. They went from the camp to Bethel Women’s College in Hopkinsville Kentucky. They thought she was sick, and that she had gone to Nevada to get better. She had, but in a totally different way.... They sent the letters to their father’s address as usual, and the letters were forwarded to her mother. Mom wrote, as she was typing the letters, “Of course, the reason they sent us to Bethel, which was a junior college was because Dad told Mom he wanted a divorce . He told her she was too old for him... at 40... and he had met someone else. Chick (my step grandfather, and a good friend to the family even before the divorce) found out, through the closed circuit Coast Guard that she was in Reno, he went to visit her, and the rest was History.” They married in December, a month or so after the divorce.

My mother was an interesting writer. Even at 14 she was very mature as she took care of her younger sister and fretted over her ‘Marmee” (taken from “Little Women”). She does ask for money often, not realizing that her mother’s fortunes were precarious at the time. After all, she needed 10 cents for a notebook, and 5 cents for a coca-cola!

At Bethel College she writes about the “Pamillo” bug that eats holes in all the girls clothes, preferring the more ‘expensive’ materials. She writes, “Boy, they stress religion around this here dump... From 9:30 to 12:30 I was in church today. ... I got all worn out just listening to people pray. Well, I guess I’m just an old heathen”.

I could go on and on... I started marking the pages I wanted to tell you all about, but slowed down as I started reading again...

So I’ll tell you some things about the world as our family experienced it..

albeit through my mother’s eyes...

which sometimes wasn’t as the rest of us saw it...(grin)

My Mom and her stepfather...

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Dress for Success...




For bonho, primarily... Rummaging again in the photos, I found some other outfits... almost costumes, by today's standards... so bonho, sweetie, if you are awake, this is for you. I really like the tiered dress. The black one is very classy, tho'.




My Father, his mother and his sister...

My father's sister was also a clothes horse after a fashion (get it??!), but never with the panache of my grandmother. She always had a sense of style no matter what.



and finally, in a dress I can't really describe, my dear grandmother and the deer..



Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The Missouri Waltz


Missouri Welcome Center, just over the border...

At one time I wanted to write a book about my travels. I may still, although this little blog has satisfied a great deal of my need to write. I want to name it "'Rest Area Next Right"/

Some of the most interesting things I encounter in my travels are rest areas... yeah, I know, not much of a life, is it! I do feel, however, that a state's rest areas tell you a great deal about how you will be welcomed in that state, and of how you will be viewed as a traveler. California has like, two rest areas and they suck... should tell you something...

Once you get out of the mean states, the climate changes, and you will find welcome in a great many places. Many states utilize local stone or themes that are meant to introduce you to something about the state. Many states have rest areas that are 'manned' by people who take great pleasure in showing or telling you about their state. Many will make reservations for you. Some offer free coffee and cookies to help you stay awake on their roads. Some states allow overnight camping, and provide little cooksites and auto shelters so that you will stop and stay and not mess up their highways in the middle of the night. The above picture is of the Missouri Welcome Center, the first rest area you see in the state. I was shocked and impressed. It looks rather antebellum from the outside, but the real joy was inside...



It was in November, I believe (encouraged by the Christmas tree), and it was not a camping trip, but a visiting one. Inside this delightful building were local crafts, couches for resting, and a fireplace that actually worked... I have seen other rest areas that were as ornate and as welcoming as this one, but this was my first experience with being asked into a state in hopes that I might enjoy myself...

Way to go Missouri!...