What IS this? A Historical Catalog of What?
Digging through the family clippings, letters, and 10,000 other pieces of crumbling paper, I ran across a catalog of, what? It was used as a scrap book, sort of.
To the left, Grandma, 1911. One of Grandma's beaus used this catalog as sort of a long love letter to my Grandma. Covering the pages with glued on letters, (he had nice penmanship), cards, pictures, and poems.
I think his name was Raymond. Grandma was born in 1891, so she would have been 20 years old.
He was from Lagoda, Arkansas, which isn't even a town now, or is unincorporated. (Not surprising).
Grandma said that she had wanted to marry someone back in the day, but Grandma and Grandpa Hutch, her parents, disapproved, because his family drank. Maybe they got this idea from this catalog. He has to be dead by now, because Grandma herself would be 124 years old. So, I don't feel too badly about asking.
Then again, it is sort of sad, because this must have been Grandma's first love. And boy, did he love her!. She went on to marry my Grandpa in 1916, and they were happily married for 64.5 years.
At any rate, What did they drink? Somehow, it doesn't look like liquor...
If you click on the picture, it should get larger and you can read where it dispenses different flavors of soda water. The description of the apparatus is below:
The man pressed flowers for her between the pages of the catalog, and put all kinds of pictures and small gifts in there for her:
This was stuck in the pages... I think it rotated somehow, and banged the drum/bell. It is pretty heartbreaking for the boy, who must have really loved her. Grandpa was always jealous of Grandma's beau named Ray Blanton... This must have been Ray.
Here are my Great-grandparents, who appear to have been photographed post-mortem, but were not. The photo was likely taken in the 1920s or so, and "tinted"...
They were ones to talk... When they married in the late 1870s, Grandma Hutchison climbed down the downspout and Grandpa Hutchison picked her up in the buggy, While my great great Grandmother played the piano loudly. Grandpa Hutch helped her gather her clothes from beneath the shrubs, where her sisters had helped her to hide them... They ran off to Vevay, Indiana and got married.
It was a HUGE scandal, and Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Hutch's father, didn't speak to her for 5 years. Then, in the 1880's Grandma Bruce died, and Grandpa Bruce married Grandma Hutch's governess. So then, she didn't speak to him for 5 years.
Anyway, back to the picture-- What is this? Is this for fountain sodas, or liquor?
And Ray Blanton's kin, wherever you are, he was a sweet looking boy. He must have been a good boy!
Hope you have fun with this!
This took a couple of hours to put together. The clues are there, I just wasn't reading them right at first. Then, when I realized who Raymond was, it all made sense.
Poor little Grandma! I'm glad she didn't marry Ray Blanton, but he really loved her!
If I run across a cache of letters from my first husband, Remind Me, please, to burn them.
WHAT a hoot!
My little Grandma would have your hide if she even thought you said that...
She was 4'11" and utterly darling. She was her Daddy's girl... and sitting here, I've been thinking-- Grandpa Hutch, despite an illustrious family, wasn't good enough for Grandma Hutch, according to her father. Grandma's first real beau, nor Grandpa were good enough for Grandpa and Grandma Hutch. My grandparents disapproved of my father, and my mother disapproved of my husband. I'm wondering if this isn't some sort of awful family tradition!
This is like a treasure hunt, and I have NO ONE to share it with. So, there will be more articles, of course.
Absolutely!!! My little Grandma was Scotch-Irish and English, and a total lady. But she also met the hobos at the back door with a butcher knife in one hand and a sandwich in the other, during the Depression.
She wore a size 4B shoe. I wear a size 5, and now must buy most of my shoes from the Children's Department. Grandma had wonderful shoes, because she bought salesman's samples. I miss her. She was fun and sensible, and had lived through most everything.
Grandma and Grandpa 'courted' on an Indian motorcycle in 1915. Your Grandma and my Grandma would have been quite a pair!!!
That is exactly how I felt about my grandparents, too. Being with them was HEAVEN.
Funny, isn't it, how the definition of grandparents has sort of changed...
I hope that someday, I'll get to be Grandma!
If she liked sweet things and flavored sodas, he may have been romantically talking to her about getting a small soda fountain for her.
...
I think that machine looking thing is a home or small drug store version of a soda fountain. A person can make their own soda water at home and add flavors. I wish there was a photo of the whole thing and not just the dispensers. The soda water goes in the bottle on the top.
Wonderful photos Dowser, and a mystery to boot. Grump may be right on what it is.
My mom's parents were up there at about the same time Lancer, on a farm North of Standish between Omer and Twining. They lived there from 1901 until a couple of years before my Grandma's death in 1984. During that time, they raised seven extremely well behaved children (my Grandpa had a 4" razor strop and didn't hesitate to use it if needed). I didn't live with them, but the visits were great (Grandpa didn't use the strop on grandchildren and Grandma was a fantastic cook). If I hadn't visited up there frequently, I wouldn't know how to milk a cow (or shovel manure).
My pleasure, dear friend.
It is hard to know what to do with a lot of this stuff, but endlessly fascinating, at the same time!
I was glad I could put the pieces of the puzzle together...
Grump, thanks. I was a lost ball in tall weeds.
I have a feeling that this was just an old catalog he had, and used it to press the flowers, etc. It was bound, and I don't think I have all of it, but it was special, and he put a LOT of effort into it for her.
I wonder, if they thought it had something to do with liquor, and it was really soda. I wonder just how much they disapproved of anyone that would drink soda water...
Thanks so much!
I think he is, too!!! Thanks, Kavika!!!
Dear friend, yes, he must have meant a lot to her. She must have gone to visit his family, and made friends there, because there are many postcards and letters from friends that she made in Arkansas. Afterwards, she went around, visiting family, scattered here and there. Then, she went to milliner's school in Louisville, and moved to Hawesville, to make hats for the ladies of Hawesville. That's where she met Grandpa.
I'm wondering if his folks didn't own a drug store or something. And, I bet you're right that they easily could have met in a drug store. Grandma had two siblings-- Uncle Coombs, who owned a drug store in Dayton, OH, and Aunt Lucille, who married a guy with a drug store in Nashville, TN. So that is truly logical.
She finally got over her heartbreak and married Grandpa, and there's a lesson in her somewhere. One can be happy, despite heartache.
Un-creased. Written in pencil, and glued flat! I don't know what kind of glue they had, back then, but it was good glue!!!
Great lesson!
Have you ever read "The Captain" by Jan de Hartog? That was his motto: We must bloom where God sows us.
Holy cow! It looks to be the same thing! One of the lesser models... Some of these were Terrifically Fancy! All in marble, with beautiful figurines, mirrors, etc. Truly amazing!
Good work, former.