Christmas 1958, four years old
This silly little picture holds so much of what has been dear in my life. It is jam packed with memories. I'm a little hesitant to show the modest home of my early years, I see so many lovely homes on peoples blogs and we were just middle class people, making our way.
This was the Christmas I received a cowgirl outfit and the Christmas my brother named me Sally Annie Oakley. Apparently I wasn't given a hat to match as I am wearing the largest white hat and it looks like possibly it's just a straw hat?
Recently I shared a vintage Santa with a bubble light and I can see it on the cabinet on the right side of the picture. And I can see my mothers salt box, seeming to float in midair, so funny!
I see three pieces of Early American furniture in the photo that would move with us in a few short years to our home in the canyons and would still be in my parents home when my father passed away last year. I kept the cabinet/I think it's called a dry sink? I'm hoping to find it a home somehow in my teeny house.
I see two captains chairs that my father would break and use for firewood the first night we were in our lovely new home, as it was a cold and rainy January and the furnace didn't work.
I see my mothers chaffing dish, sitting on the desk (for some reason?!) - bringing back sense memories of her yummy stroganoff, made for company and presented in the chaffing dish.
I see a wooden Christmas tree decoration I loved as a child, but strangely never found at my parents last year. I wonder what could have become of it?
Lastly I see the many holiday cards, sending word of news and love our way, from many family friends whose names I still remember after all these years.
I guess I'd rather be a cowgirl, wear my cowgirl clothes
Sharing cowgirl secrets, twirl on my cowgirl toes
Hold my cowgirl daddy's hand, going to the grocery store
Til I find me a mustang and I'll head out that front door.
Sharing cowgirl secrets, twirl on my cowgirl toes
Hold my cowgirl daddy's hand, going to the grocery store
Til I find me a mustang and I'll head out that front door.
I have been following your blog for only a few weeks, but this is the dearest, most touching post I have read in quite awhile. Don't be embarrassed by your simple home...many of us from that time period would have felt at home there. We lived in the attic of an old home when I was the age you are in the picture. Merry Christmas and thank you for sharing your memories.
ReplyDeleteDear Shirley, thank you so very much for your sweetest and kindest of words. I didn't realize until I hit "publish" how very much this post meant to me and found myself in tears. My immediate family are all gone now and I feel lost and adrift and missing them so this Christmas.
DeleteThank you again so much for your kindness. Wishing you the merriest of Christmases with your dear ones!
Thank for sharing your sweet story with me. I lived on a farm and I have five brothers. They were all cowboys. I always wanted to be a ballerina. My grandpa always called me Rina.
ReplyDeleteSmiles, Dottie
Dear Dottie, thank you so very much for your kind words. I bet it was fun to grow up on a farm with five brothers! A couple years after this photo was taken, I would long to be a ballerina too - I was given a book about a little girl who took ballet lessons and I was so enchanted. I would dream of toe shoes and wearing my hair in braids. How cute your grandpa called you Rina, that must have made you smile big.
DeleteWishing you and all your dear ones the merriest of Christmases!
Sally, maybe we are twins. Do ya think? Because I was growing up in Texas at this same time, and I had boots, and a skirt, and snap shirts, and a hat, and all I wanted was a horse, and some dogs, and a ranch. :) Our house looked a lot like this one, it was a small brick house in a very middle class neighborhood. Those were good times, and I remember that house the best of all the ones we lived in. Sending cowgirl hugs to you this Christmas morning. Glad I know you! xox
ReplyDeleteHi Pammie! Yup, separated at birth for sure! ;)
DeleteI wanted a horse so much after riding on the ones at Griffith Park (remember the little kiddie horse riding thing?!). There was one named Peaches and I wanted one just like her. I think I nearly drove my mom crazy telling her I wanted a horse.
Thank you for being such a sweetheart and being in my life!
Merry Christmas xoxoxoxo
Merry Christmas! Great photo! Love all those cards!
ReplyDeleteHi Diane! Merry Christmas to you! Thank you - I sure miss all the holiday cards arriving with news from faraway friends and from old friends. A lost art and I'm so sad about it. I get so excited when I get a piece of personal mail. Happiest of holidays to you and your dear ones!
DeleteI love the picture and the stories that go with it. We've been going through old family pictures and figuring out what belonged to who based on which backgrounds it shows up in -- one of us should make a scrapbook with the stories of where things wound up and the trails they traced through the family.
ReplyDeleteHi Michelle! Thanks so much for visiting my little blog and commenting. Aren't old pictures fun?! I recently found one of my old bedroom when I was little and good grief, the wallpaper was about from the previous century. So much fun to see. I had forgotten all about it. Wishing you lots of fun reconstructing the past.
DeleteHappy New Year to you!