Friday, May 09, 2008

Friday Show and Tell - and Twin Update




Last week I posted a few pictures of my ancestors. I enjoyed it so much, and others seemed to enjoy it as well. I am going to share a few more today. I wish I had paid more attention to my Grandma's ramblings when I was a teen-ager. I wish I had more history written down. But I am trying to make up for lost time now.



The Date



I absolutely love this picture of my mom's parents. They were married in 1928, so this is probably a year or two before that. I'm sure someone out there in blogland can identify the year of the car. This pictgure is so sweet - I never saw Helen and Stanley show this kind of outward affection in the years I was around them. Grandpa was a man of few words, and Grandma made up for it. She loved to talk, which made her last 5 years after a stroke so much sadder - we know she knew what we were saying, but she could not respond.

This was our young, working out of the home Grandma, who had store-bought goodies when we came to visit - fresh bakery goods from her place of employment, and always 7-Up. She was so proud to show us off when we walked on the streets of the little Minnesota town with her. Grandma was only 38 when I was born. Mom was 18 when I was born. She had only one sister, 11 years younger.

Young Stanley


This is Grandpa and his older brother, Bert.



Young Helen


This is Grandma and her oldest brother, Charles. Don't you just love the big bow??

Young Olga

This is a lovely picture of my dad's tiny little Swedish mother, Olga. She was a Swedish farm wife whose grandchildren all outgrew her by the time they were 10 or so. Her kitchen was built especially for her, and I had a hard time helping her with the dishes when I became so tall that it hurt my back. She was our "old fashioned" grandma, who had cookies and cakes in the freezer for any visitor who might stop by. Swedish ladies have to serve "coffee" whenever anyone comes over.

Young Albert
Dad's dad, Albert, is here on the left with one of his 4 brothers. He was a really big man with huge hands. When he was 10, he went to visit the new baby in the area. Her name was Olga. She vowed, "That's the girl I'm going to marry!" I have always been fascinated by this story. It seems had to believe. But they did grow up, marry, had 5 children (plus 2 who did not survive). Two became missionaries, Dad became a pastor. Their salvation story is wonderful, and I must share it someday.
I do not have a wedding picture for them - the only one in existence has disappeared since Grandma died. But I am privileged to have this picture of their 45th anniversary.



Below are pictures of the houses Grandma and Grandpa grew up in. The first one is Grandpa's, the second is Grandma's.
Swanson House

Wilson House



From these roots came my family. The picture below was taken 4 years ago at our family reunion - just my immediate family - my parents, my siblings, our children, and their children. Everyone was there except one - the newest bride who had to be in another wedding that week-end. There are 11 more great-grandchildren since that event (19 total), and one more on the way -




The most recent additions to the family are, of course, the twins. I took them and the big girls to see Maizie this week. I wrote about Maizie last year at this time when she celebrated her 100th birthday. She'll be 101 on May 23. I love to take them to the assisted living facility during lunch time. Everyone in the cafeteria gets to excited when we walk in the door. Seeing cute little children just makes their day. The picture is not great, but Maizie was thrilled to be able to hold them in her lap for a few minutes.



I took this last picture because the little watermelon jammies are getting too small and I wanted to have a picture of them in them. They were four months old on Wednesday. I truthfully cannot tell you which one is crying in which picture.



For more Friday Show and Tell stories, stop by Kelli's blog, There Is No Place Like Home.


30 comments:

Martha said...

I love all your old pictures!! What a wonderful reminder of the past.

Blessings,
~Martie

Muum said...

Those are wonderful pics. And the twins are ADOR-A-BLE!

Carrie said...

Wonderful family photos! The twins are so precious. May God continue to bless them.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

You are so blessed to have all these photos and family history, Dawn. I wish I had even half of what you do! I really enjoyed this post.

Have a great weekend, my friend. :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

JEWELGIRL said...

Fabulous Photos! The cutie twins
are growing out of clothes, this is
wonderful news! Then you can buy
new ones, so much fun to buy cute
infant clothes!

nancygrayce said...

So many of the pictures remind me of carebear and feisty! I love the old pictures and I am going to try and scan some in for mother's day!

Hootin Anni said...

Such wonderful photo shares you've done for us this week Dawn!!! It's so much fun to go back in time, isn't it?

My show n tell in honor of mother's this weekend, is some of my mom's antique cooking implements.

Happy Friday!!!

Maine Mom said...

I love the picture of your mom's parents, too.
It's great that you now have this record of these pictures and what you remember about your family. I enjoyed reading about them. :-)

I would love to live to 100, but I want to be well and functioning. The picture of the twins with Maizie is very precious and priceless!

Edi said...

I enjoyed looking at your photos...I love old photos - whether or not I know the people in them!

A couple of weeks ago I went through a large box of old family photos out at my mother-in-law's place. I was able to have some copies made - but I made the mistake of getting the photos done on regular paper instead of photo paper - and the quality turned out poor. Not sure if I'll have the opportunity to copy them again properly, but I hope so.

Included in the photos I copied were of my dh's grandma's triplet brothers as babies and around age 3 - so fun to see.

Constance said...

For someone like me, your post was fabulous! I loved the photos! It's hard to believe that all of those people lived in the 2nd house! Maybe it was the angle but it seemed small (by today's standards). Of course, back then that wouldn't have been unusual, an entire family's clothes could fit in one closet! What an awesome family heritage.

The girls are getting so big. I love how you take them to visit at the home. When my paternal grandmother was older, I had her watch our youngest daughter Laura for the weekend while we were out of town. (She lived in a mobile home on my father's property) I swear she looked younger when I picked Laura up. It was wonderful for her to feel needed once again!
Connie

Simply Heart And Home said...

Dawn,

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and stories. They are absolutely wonderful. I love looking at pictures from long ago. Your grandparents look so sweet!

Blessings,
GIna

A Hint of Home said...

I love, love the old history and photos. Thanks so much for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I love the picnic picture and the front porch picture the best. What neat stories of your ancestors! I wish I had asked more questions and written more down through the years, too.

Kristen said...

Those are great old pictures! I really love the one of your grandpa and his brother on the porch talking. And I never knew Great Grandma S's name was Olga!

I can tell you who's crying in each....it's Kate....in both.

Kristen said...

I am wrong! It's Kate crying in the first, Emma in the second.

nancy said...

Dawn, I am so much enjoying the photos and stories. Great post!
Nancy

Sue Seibert said...

What a wonderful story of your grandparents' lives. My goodness. He vowed to marry her when she was born and he did. The twins are really growing like weeds, aren't they? They are precious.

LBP said...

I enjoyed your photos so much! I love looking at old photos, it's wonderful that you have so many of your family. Unfortunately, I don't have too many.

Blessings

Linda

Dawn said...

Wonderful vintage photos...

I'm a pushover for any and all twinnie pics!
:)

Mimi said...

I really do enjoy the pictures of your family...and the pictures of the twins just tops them all off great...

Midlife Mom said...

Wonderful, wonderful photos! Aren't we fortunate to have the old photos? I posted some of my mother today and they are so cute of her!

The twinnies are just about the most precious things I've ever seen! It seems like they are growing really fast! Nice picture of them and Maizie, what a treasure.

Amanda said...

The first picture is great! I love those old photos. I have a great trio of my dad when he was probably 3 or 4 that I love-

Unknown said...

I've not seen many of those photos. So fascinating. I find myself just staring at them, searching for bits and pieces that are familiar in family members today; marveling that I am part of these people.

It's funny, I have always been closest to my dad's family but I know and have seen so little of my ancestors. My mom has many, many historical family photos from her family. I hadn't realized until recently how few I've seen of my dad's. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing these. They are amazing.

Nadine said...

The pictures are amazing. It's always interesting to read about other people's family history - pictures make it even better.

I always love when you include the twins.

RainyD said...

Hi Dawn - Once again, beautiful pictures - my mom has been working on a project of scanning all the old photographs from my grandparents childhood and such and compiling them into files with short editorials for our family. It has been quite a project but it has been neat to see some of those old family photographs.

- Dawn - I don't know why but today the Lord put you on my heart. I just wanted to let you know that whatever your worries or situation I am praying that our Heavenly Father wraps his arms around you and gives you comfort and strength and joy and love. I just wanted to let you know you have been in my thoughts and prayers today.

Rue said...

Wonderful show and tell! I love your family pictures. The twins are darling! Thank you for sharing this :)

Happy Mother's Day,
rue

Ms. Kathleen said...

The twins are so cute and how do you tell them apart? So confusing!

I love all the old pictures. I need to share some of mine. I know what you mean about tiny grandmas. Larry's paternal grandma was about 4'8. His two eldest aunts (of 12 kids) were both under 5 ft but the younger aunts and uncles are all tall - or average height. I think it is diet in many cases.

I loved this very interesting post! Hugs!

Needled Mom said...

What fun it is to look at the old photographs. The old homesteads look so "Minnesota-ish." My husbands family were also Swedish. I think a lot of them settled in MN. for the logging industry.

The picture of Maize and the girls is just great. I can imagine the thrill when you walk in with them.

And the girls together is hysterical. I wonder how many more times in their lives that one will be laughing while the other is screaming!!!

on the ROCKS said...

I love looking at your family photos. The picnic one is my favorite. I also love looking a pictures of houses taken back when the families lived there. I am researching my own house's history and I would love to find a picture of the house from years ago. It is so wonderful that you have shared your family photos with us.
The twins are so adorable.

Kelli said...

Oh, I just LOVE looking at your old photos, Dawn! What lovely treasures. I'm sure your grandbabies will love hearing your stories and memories, too!
~Kelli