Wathada

Today is Mom's birthday. She would have been 90 years old. It's her second birthday in heaven. I've already published one book about her, using things that she wrote down for posterity. I also have saved all the emails she sent me over a period of 15 years. I'd like to edit and publish them -- but it's well over 1000 pages! 

Of course, I have about a zillion pictures of her, and I wish I could post them all here. But I guess I'll try to narrow it down to some reasonable number. 

These are the first 2 pictures of Mom and me together. Summer 1954 (I was born in November)

I sure do miss her. The world is a much less interesting place without her in it.

Ronald Gene Burford

Happy Birthday, Uncle Ron

We sure do miss you.

Ron was the youngest of my mother's three brothers. Here is what my she wrote about him:

Ron was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan (we only stayed in Wichita a year), and he was mine because he was my birthday present that year. He was born just a couple of hours before midnight on the night that it was going to be my eighth birthday when I woke up. Mama said he was my birthday present and if she didn’t mean it she shouldn’t have said it because I held her to it, and Ron was my baby from then on. If she ever tried to scold him, I would get right in the middle of it and tell her to leave him alone – he was mine. And I would get him on my lap and love on him. She explained to me that he couldn’t really be my baby and she hadn’t meant that I could raise him when she told me he was my birthday present – she had just meant that I got a new brother for my birthday, not a baby to raise myself. I didn’t care and I would tell her I didn’t care, she gave him to me, he was my birthday present, and he was mine! 

She finally told me that she had to teach him right from wrong and how to behave, and I’d better not love on him right after she scolded him any more. So from then on, when Ron got in trouble I would just look at him and catch his attention and then I would go outside. He would follow me just in a minute and then I would love on him outside in the yard somewhere out of Mama’s sight. Ron belonged to both of us forever. He just had two mothers all his life – Mama and me.

PHOTOS: Uncle Ron with his first wife, Maxine (center photo), and his second wife Beth. Ron adopted Beth's two sons Jamie and Sean. The baby -- Ronald Gene Burford, Jr. ("little Ronnie") -- was Ron's only child. 

Ron died in 1981 as a result of a hit-and-run automobile accident in Texas. He was 37 years old. 

Aunt Juanita and Aunt Judy

 Juanita Burford Hombs and Judy Burford White were two sisters of my grandfather Lester Burford. Aunt Juanita lived in California while my parents were living out there. Aunt Judy lived in Arkansas. 

Top left: Mel and Juanita and their DIL Barbara. The other 3 pictures were taken at my parents' house in Downey CA. Juanita, Judy, Mom, Cleffie.

Aunt Juanita and Uncle Mel had two sons, Jim and Jerry. These pictures were taken at Jim's house, I think. Not sure where they lived -- somewhere in California, or maybe Utah (they were Mormon). In the top left picture are Jim (left) and his wife Sherry (right) with their daughter Kristin. Kristin is holding her sister Kyle's baby - Kara. Top center is Mom and Dad. Top right is James Patrick Hombs, son of Jerry Hombs. Bottom left is Juanita and Mel. Bottom center is Jerry and his wife Barbara. For some reason I put the same photo in the bottom right corner as the one in the top left.... (doh!)

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These last pictures are not negatives, but scans of regular paper photographs. That's why they are a little blurry -- which I didn't realize until I posted them here. In the top left picture are A.D. White and Judy (A.D. is her husband), Lester, Juanita, Cleffie, and Mel Hombs (Juanita's husband). The other three pictures are Judy, Lester, and Juanita.

These pictures were taken at my parents' house in Downey, California

Whose Bone Is It, Anyway?

 Once upon a time, there was a big ol' bone...

I'm assuming Mom cooked it with some soup or beans or something delicious. 

And I'm pretty sure Freddy would have been watching and waiting and patting his foot, maybe quietly singing "with a knick knack paddywhack..."

And then this happened:

Heather, Part Six

 There will be more pictures of Heather later. This is just one batch.

Dad, John, Heather - Mom, John, Heather

Heather, Part Five

Heather, Part Four

I'm calling this one "My little pony" 

Feeding him a carrot

Dad always did love horses.

Heather, Part Three

Not the usual "bear skin rug" baby picture. This is Heather with the bear my dad killed on a hunting trip.

Heather and Granny (Wathada)

Heather helping Dad load shotgun shells

Heather, Part Two

 Heather was Wathada's favorite grandchild. That was no secret. (Well, she was the only one who lived nearby, for one thing. We just won't talk about the other reasons.)

Heather's first Halloween (she was not quite 2 weeks old)

Heather's first Christmas

All these pictures were taken at Red & Wathada's house in Downey, California

Heather, Part One

 Heather Rae Thomas was born 18 October 1987, daughter of John (my brother) and Billie Jo.

These pictures were taken at John and Billie Jo's house.

Heather with her grandmother (Wathada) and great-grandmother (Cleffie)

My Buddy

Saw a FB post this morning that reminded me of the time I bought Casey a "My Buddy" doll for his 4th birthday (1986).

I forgive myself for not knowing that the first "Chucky" movie would come out 2 years later. 

(Damn Hollywood, anyway.)

BTW - take note of all the old family photos I have displayed on the dresser (which was an heirloom from great-aunt Effie). This was a long time before my parents or I started researching the family histories. Guess I was getting an early start. 

Thing One and Thing Two

 After Christopher, along came Casey Thomas Carrigan

These pictures were taken in October 1982. Casey was born in November.

We were still living in Searcy, Arkansas.

These pictures were taken at Lester and Cleffie's house in Bald Knob, while Mom and Uncle Morris and Aunt Becky (and Leslie and Karen) were there visiting.

These pictures were taken at Red and Wathada's house in Downey, California. We were there visiting because I was having gallbladder surgery.

While in California we went several places. This was at Santa Barbara, California. That's my dad and Christopher feeding the seagulls. Some years later, my mother painted a picture from these photos.

These pictures were taken in our house in Searcy, Arkansas.

Christopher Keith Carrigan

I'm still going through all the negatives. Remember, there are more than 6000 of them. I've got them in 6 folders, and I'm in the second folder now, trying to group them without getting too bogged down. The reason I'm putting them into collages is twofold -- First, to be able to put more photos in each blogpost, and, second, to get the photos more organized for my own records. If there is a particular photo you want to see (or have) in its full-sized version, just let me know. I'm not doing this blog on my phone, but on a laptop computer. If you're looking at it on your phone, then I can see how the collages could be frustrating. 

As for subject matter -- I'm trying to sort of re-create the experience I had of discovering the pictures in random order, the way I did when I took them out of the box and started scanning them. 

So... here are some of the pictures from the second folder (scans #1000 - 1999) so far --

These are pictures of my son, Christopher, when we lived in Searcy, Arkansas. This would have been around 1980-81.

At Lester & Cleffie Burford's house (his great-grandparents) in Bald Knob (10 miles from Searcy).

(Oops, I forgot to caption these.) This is my dad at our house. Christopher was about 9 months old. 

 Uncle Bernarde (Dad's brother) and Aunt Eileen, also at our house in Searcy. 1981