Some Memorabilia from Grandma's Attic

One of my favorite places to play as a child was in my grandparents' upstairs closet. My grandparents lived in a small white cottage in the little town of Oswego, Kansas. My grandfather was forced into retirement in his early fifties by a heart condition that wasn't treatable at that time. Nowadays, they'd insert some stents and he'd be good to go, but back then, the remedy was retiring to a less stressful life. So my grandparents lived their later years in that small house surviving on a small social security pension, never having accumulated much after the Great Depression. But that didn't concern me at all. My grandmother made the best banana and coconut creme pies in town and let me eat it for breakfast when I stayed overnight! I spent most of my childhood sick days collapsed on the sofa in their small living room playing word games and school with my grandmother, who was trained as a teacher at a normal school in the early 1900's. And sometimes when I just wanted to escape life's trials (like a dental appointment), I'd walk over to Grandma's and hide out there!

A narrow wooden stairway with an old tacked carpet runner led to the upstairs, where the old wide wooden plank floors were painted that dusty old-fashioned pink. The second floor was one huge room with three (shabby chic) beds in separate alcoves, an old Singer treadle sewing machine with antique buttons in the drawers, and a big antique mahogany dresser with one of those secret hidden compartments. The closet was a tiny cubbyhole under the sloped roof of the attic, and it held all sorts of interesting items to keep a child entertained. I particularly loved the old Easter decorations, which included this little tin Easter basket that was filled with old marbles we used on the wooden hand-carved Chinese checker board.

The closet also contained my grandfather's old collar box. I'd take it downstairs so my grandmother could explain the various keepsakes inside. People at the turn of the 20th century were obviously much more formal. Among her memorabilia were all of her calling cards from high school. I was lucky enough to inherit my grandfather's calling card (Lucius Bowman) enclosed in the envelope which he had mailed to my grandmother (Lois Reasor). Notice my grandfather's handwriting on the card on the lower left. Men don't write like that anymore! On the right is a small invitation card to a birthday dinner in honor of a guy named C.H. Farley.

Also in that collar box were these three oval photos on metal. The back of each metal photo contains a small mirror. The oval on the upper left is my Aunt Betty, and my father is the toddler on the right. My grandmother and her sister are on the lower middle oval. My grandmother, on the left of that oval, is the person I most take after in the family.

One of my treasured photos is this postcard made during a trip to Kentucky to see family in the early 1900's. I think that's my grandmother on the front lower left. Her father's family and relatives were from Kentucky.

Here's another favorite photo postcard from that collar box. My dad said it was taken on a family trip back to Pennsylvania to visit relatives in the 1930's, but I'm not sure that's right. I can't imagine driving back East in that car? But whoever the woman is in the front seat, it looks like she has a small monkey sitting on her hat!

My brother recently mailed me the picture below. It's some type of celebration in the downtown area of Oswego, Kansas. The sign in the picture says National Good Roads, October 21, but I can't see a year. I'm assuming it was early 1900's because people are sitting in horse-drawn buggies in the picture. It appears that Fourth Street is still dirt, so they must have been celebrating good dirt roads!

Here's a picture of my grandparents at my parents' wedding in the 1940's. They both lived into their eighties despite their health problems, my grandfather dying four years before my grandmother. I think they were probably in their late fifties when this photo was taken.

In honor of my grandmother, here's a little encore of the Joy Joy Joy Kittens. It was one of her favorite Vacation Bible School songs!