Christmas 1948

 

Xmas 1948. Adults: Charles and Evalee, Jack and Ruby, Irene. Children: Buck, Beverly, Oma Dell, Irene's four girls. (The person who took the picture was probably Doc.)

Here is a tagged version of the photograph:

'Tis the season

 How 'bout we look at some family pictures of the Christmas season for a while? I have a VHS tape that my dad put together from 8mm home movies through the years. If you've ever seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, the part where Clark is locked in the attic while the family goes shopping, you'll know exactly what our home movies looked like. I wish I could post Dad's video here!

Photo: Annie Hicks, Christmas 1965, at Lester and Cleffie's house, Watervliet, Michigan

I have a bunch of pictures that were taken on this occasion. Someone has written 1967 on the backs of most of them, but I have wracked my brain trying to figure out if that's the correct year or not. I think it was 1965. Maybe Les or Bob Burford can give me a definitive answer...

If it's 1965, it would have been the first Christmas after Papa (Ulys) Hicks passed away. Grandma (Annie) came to live with Lester and Cleffie in a little apartment they had built on to their house for that specific purpose. 

This picture was taken in 1992. The house looks pretty much the same, except the porch is a little different than it was in the 1960s. The little apartment is still attached. (In the 1960s there was not a huge green house next door -- there was an empty lot.)

November 27

 

I have no idea who Tab Brannan was, nor whose handwriting this is on the back of this photo/postcard. 

November 26

 

Thirty-nine years ago today...

Casey Thomas Carrigan

Mary and Lillie Dunn

"Hello Annie This is my picture ...(?)... isn't mamma only just in the face but when you look at my picture you are looking at Lillie. I will send you a piece of my dress I had on it looks like white in the picture but it isn't."

addressed to Mrs Annie Hicks, Banner, Ark.

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Can't remember if I've posted this one before or not. This is Mary Elizabeth Carter Dunn and her youngest daughter Lillie Dunn. I think the handwriting on the back of the card must be Lillie's. Mary Elizabeth Carter Dunn was a half-sister to my great-great-grandmother Adaline ("Maw") Arnold. Annie Hicks, my great-grandmother, was Adaline's daughter. So Annie and Lillie would have been first cousins.

 

The Gus Baes Family

 

The Gus Baes Family

Coloma, Mich.

Robert, Evelyn, August, Paul, Sallyann, Betty, Edward, Helen

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These people are not related to us. I think they must have been friends, probably of Lester and Cleffie, but possibly friends of someone else in the family. I don't recognize handwriting on the front and back of the photograph. It's not Cleffie's.

The house at 1656 Territorial Road

 

This house was rented by my grandparents, Lester and Cleffie Burford. It had two apartments --one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs apartment was rented by Cleffie's sister Evalee and her family. I'm not sure how long they lived there -- a couple years, I think.

Cousins

 

Wheetley children

Record George Wheetley was the husband of Bessie Arabella Hicks. Bess was the daughter of Pinkney Hicks, brother to my great-grandfather Ulysses Hicks.

Photo: Bess Wheetley on the left, with her brother Jack Hicks and his wife Bill. (Her real name was Floy, but she was called 'Bill' for some reason unknown to me.)

November 17

 

This is my grandmother's (Cleffie Hicks Burford) handwriting. "Papa" would be her father, Ulysses Hicks. The location is Arkansas.

Here's a picture of the Crossroads School while Ulys was teaching there. 

That's Ulys, under the arrow.

November 16

I don't remember hearing much about Oneida Hicks growing up. I sort of love this picture, though. 

You know how I am about names, right? On the Hicks side of the family there's an Odelcie and an Odice -- brother and sister. I think they would be cousins -- or maybe an aunt and uncle -- to Oneida. Can't think of any other "O" names in the Hicks family right off the top of my head, but there probably are some more. 

It's interesting to see how the different branches of the family tree are characterized by different kinds of names. For instance, on the Thomas side they are all standard names like George and William and John. There are also a couple of uncommon Thomas names back in the early days -- my favorite is Peleg. 

On the Treat side they like the name Pearl (for boys) and also the name Dallas; they liked 'frilly' names like Fairy and Belle and Faun for girls. 

The Burford side of the family liked Alexander and George for boys, and Lora and Jewel for girls, with a few more unusual names -- like Killough, and Calder, and Wathada. And they liked calling people by their middle name, or using someone's last name for a new baby's first name.

Now, as for the Arnold/Carter/Hicks branches of the family tree -- forget about it! They just went hog wild when it came to thinking up names for their babies. I've heard tell that Grandma Hicks even asked friends and neighbors for suggestions in coming up with names for hers. Her youngest daughter actually ended up with four names -- Odell Avanell Bertha Bernice! Well, there's not enough room here for me to even get started on that list. We'll save that for another day. 

November 15

Drilling a well at the Beecher Woodham farm near Banner, Ar. 

Annie Hicks is the woman with a cap on her head. Ruby and Irene are sitting at her right and Cleffie is the baby sitting on the ground in front of her knees. 

Picture taken by U.F. Hicks - "1918"

November 13

 

This is the only picture I have on which someone used the back of the photo to blot her lipstick.

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Verlie had six children, the last two being twins who died at birth. Her children who lived were sons West, Leon, and Youl Glen (I don't know if he was called Youl or Glen), and daughter Verletta.  All of Verlie's sons have died. West was killed by a bull at age 15. Leon died in 2007, and Youl Glen died in 2018. Here's a picture of Verletta, taken in May of this year, at Verlie's 100th birthday party.

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If you're wondering why some of the pictures have pink tape on the edges, it's because my scanner is made for documents and it doesn't like to scan black and white pictures. They come out looking like this:

But after a long while I figured out that if I can fool the scanner into thinking it's a color photo, then it will scan it all right.

So I started putting a piece of colored washi tape on the leading edge of the black-and-white pictures when I run them through the scanner, and... voila!

November 12

 

"Aunt Tot and Uncle Albert's house near Big Four. They ran a little store in the front part of it."

This is Big Four school, where my great-grandfather Ulys Hicks was a teacher. This is somewhere out in the country near Judsonia, Arkansas.

What does age 67 look like?

 What does age 67 look like? Here are pictures of my mother and grandmothers and great-grandmothers at or around age 67...

Photo: Me with grandpa and grandma Thomas. Grandma was 67.

Great-grandparents Ulys and Annie Hicks, 1960. Annie was 67.

My parents, Red and Wathada Thomas. Wathada was 67.

Photo: Mabel and John Treat, Marcus and Massie Treat (my great grandparents), Jack Treat. Massie was probably right around 67 years old in this picture. (Jack would have been about 12 years old.)

My grandmother, Cleffie Burford, around age 67. (Actually, she would have been 68 in this picture from 1985.)

My great-grandmother Lora Burford. I don't really know when this picture was taken. She would have been 67 years old in 1944. This looks about right to me. The only dated pictures I have of her were taken much later -- in the 1960s.

Can't see her very well in this picture, but this would be my great-grandmother Nancy Thomas around age 67. She's holding grandson Roger. He was born in 1922, and Nancy would have been 67 in 1925.

November 10

Welp, I'm 67 years old today. Absolutely cannot wrap my head around that idea. My brain stopped computing my age somewhere around 50. Some days I feel like an adolescent, and other days I feel like I'm ancient... What is 67 years old supposed to look like? 

Here's a picture of my grandma Thomas when she was 67 years old. I look more like her than my other grandmother. I try to look at pictures of her and get it into my head that I'm the same age now as she was then. But somehow my brain just refuses to let that information sink in...

That's me, on the left, with Grandpa and Grandma Thomas. 1970.

Talking pictures

I have no idea who these people are, (but I just love the two boys in the middle in the back)!

"This one isn't any good at all, but I'll send it anyway. 2 or 3 of the girls wasn't there. The girl standing in front of Jerry is Ina Jean, Deloris' cousin. [Deloris] is next to her in front of James."

More things to see and do in Michigan

The "Soo" Locks at Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced soo-saint-marie). My grandparents took me there one time and I found the whole concept of the locks fascinating -- still do. (Although I still can't figure out how two lakes can be different heights. As my grandmother used to say, "I don't understand all I know" about that.)

You can see Canada from here.