Saturday's Old Photo

The third woman from the left in the back is my grandmother, my father’s mother. This is a photo of her family—her parents and siblings—taken about 1934. Seated in front are her parents—Frank J. Bollinger and his wife Martha—and in back, left to right, are Viola, Roy, Mary (my grandma) and Bertha.

Frank Bollinger was a western Kansas settler. I’d say this photo was taken on his farm in Greeley County because my mother’s notes on the back tell me that he built the windmill tower in the background.

This Kansas history webpage, which has been transcribed from a book written in 1918, informs me that Great Grandpa Bollinger was sherriff of Greeley County from 1910-1914, where his primary duty was

serving the papers and carrying out a court order in foreclosure cases. There was little crime in the county beyond a little bootlegging in the labor centers, now and then a cattle theft or the stealing of a horse.

The term labor centers makes it sound as if there were a few cities in Greeley County, but in 1910 the population was just a little over 1300, almost exactly the same number of people that live there today. It has always had just two small towns. And as far as I know, even now it is a dry county. Do you think there are still bootleggers there?

We knew my grandma’s sister Viola as Aunt Vi. When Aunt Vi was in her late eighties, she still worked taking care of “old people” (her term for them) who were ten or more years younger than she was. Sister Bertha was a chiropractor, called Dr. Auntie, I think, by the children. Dr. Auntie Bertha died while I was young, so I know very little about her. I don’t know much about Roy, either.

The young girl standing in the background is my Aunt Roberta, my Grandma Mary’s stepdaughter. Do you see the mystery man in overalls back there, too? Everyone else seems dressed up and he’s there in his overalls, going about his farm duties.

I wonder what Bertha is looking at? The others, including Roberta in the background, are looking toward the camera, but she’s looking to the right, watching something.

When I look at old photos, I study the details of the clothing, too. I can’t help it; I’m a fashion history freak. See how Roy’s tie is tucked into his shirt half-way down the front? Notice, too, that the strap of Vi’s slip has fallen onto her arm. My grandma appears to be wearing my favorite dress style—a wrap dress. And yes, even in 1934, women wore see-through dresses that showed the slip underneath.

Sleeveless tops, a sheer dress, and every woman with her hair bobbed. John R. Rice would not be impressed.

Saturday's Old Photo

This photo was taken in a house we lived in on Liberty Dr. in Wheaton, IL. We lived in this house for about a year while my dad was a student at Wheaton. I attended first grade while we lived there.

The children in the photo are my sister and I—she’s in front on the right and I’m in the middle of the back—and the three Mainprize children—Debbie on my left, Danny on my right, and Susan in front beside my sister. These were the children my sister and I played with most often. Their father worked at Scripture Press as a writer and my dad worked in the shipping department, but I don’t think that’s how we met their family.

Given my sister’s outfit, I think it’s safe to assume this photo was taken sometime in the summer. My mother’s notes on the back say that this was a slumber party. I remember spending one warm summer night with the Mainprize children in the big backyard of this home catching fireflies to carry around in old jars. Do suppose we did that right after we posed for this photo?

Saturday's Old Photo

I’ve been catching up on yardwork today, so I’m afraid you’re stuck with another rerun for the Saturday’s old photo.

A few months ago I got an email from the mother of Dawn Weinert. Sho had come across the post with this photo at the old blog, but by the time she found it, there was no photo, and she was hoping to be able to see the photo of Dawn. I promised her I’d upload the photo again as soon as I could. Then I forgot about my promise until today when I was thinking about which old photo post to repost. So this one’s for Blanche Weinert.

This photo gives a little glimpse into my childhood. In it are my sister and I and two of our friends. Can you guess what we’re doing?

We’re playing wedding with our dress up clothes. My sister and I didn’t have many toys, but we did have a collection of dress up clothes that was the envy of all our friends. My mother had access to a “missionary barrel” with a never ending supply of old clothes and a keen eye for seeing the play possibility in them.

The groom in the wedding is me. I’m wearing a cape made from half of a cast-off black quilted circular skirt. The bride is my sister, wearing a made-over white woman’s dress and a curtain panel veil. The bridesmaid is my friend Colleen Emery, who is dressed in a light blue woman’s dress remade to fit a young girl. The little girl peeking out from behind me is Dawn Weinert, who was a few years younger than the rest of us. She did not want to dress up that day—I think the whole idea made her uncomfortable—but she wanted to be in the picture.

See the sidewalk we’re standing on? That’s the sidewalk of Northern Bible Church, which is 4 miles north of Bemidji, Minnesota. We’re playing on the sidewalk because we lived next door in the parsonage. The church is still there, but the parsonage isn’t.

The circular skirt morphed into a cape is something that my mother repeated again and again. One Christmas she gave my oldest daughter a cape made from a very brightly coloured quilted circular skirt and gave my oldest son a cape made from a grey wool flannel circular skirt. My mother worried that he might be disappointed that his cape wasn’t as coulorful as his sister’s, but he didn’t seem to care. Oldest daughter put on her cape, stood on the coffee table, announced “I’m a butterfly!” and took a flying leap. Oldest son, not to be outdone, stood on the coffee table wearing his cape, and before his own jump, declared “I’m a moth!”