Sepia Saturday challenges
bloggers to share family history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday photo of the woman factory
worker dressed in white brought to mind a beautiful graduation picture of my maternal
grandfather’s cousin, Elta G. Sullivan Farrar.
I’m assuming this was a high school graduation picture, taken before
1920.
My grandparents maintained a lifelong
friendship with their cousins, and they visited often. So as a kid, I met a lot of old people. My memories of most of them are rather dim. But my memories of Elta are clear because she
was just so darn nice. And
friendly. And cheerful.
In the Cradock neighborhood of Portsmouth, Virginia where
I grew up, if you wanted to know what was going on in the community, you didn’t
need to read the newspaper or wait for the news broadcast. You just had to check with cousin Elta. “Elta the Gazette” – that’s what my
grandparents called her.
 |
| Four of the Sullivan sisters Back: Minnie Sullivan Breeden Left to right: Pearl S. Strole, Elta S. Farrar, Floral S. Merica about 1901 |
Who died? Who is getting married? When is the baby due? The preacher said
what? Elta the Gazette was our source
for any and all details that mattered. My grandmother could be telling about how many
flowers were at so-n-so’s funeral and about some store going out of
business. If we asked where she heard
that, her answer was usually, “The Gazette.”
Oh well, then, it had to be true.
How Elta managed to gather all the latest news (and
gossip) from the local community as well as from “back home” in Shenandoah
where she and my grandparents grew up was always the mystery. Did she have a Deep Throat source we didn’t
know about?
 |
| Left: My grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis Right: Elta Sullivan Farrar |
Maybe Elta’s knack for getting the scoop was just her
sweet and engaging personality that made people want to tell her things.
Be sweet and stop by Sepia Saturday.
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
She looks like a sweetheart. I'm willing to bet your guess is correct. :)
ReplyDeleteThanx for the vote of confidence!
DeleteShe looks quite cute as a youngster and as someone who liked a good natter as a grown-up.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting quite the lesson in British slang, Mike. And you're right -- she did enjoy a good natter. She was always very animated too.
Delete"Elta the Gazette" sats it all. I meet an old lady in our village who would qualify for a similar title. She tells me things I didn't know about myself and how I became know as 'Bob, The Bramble' to distinguish me from another man named Bob.
ReplyDeleteSoooo, how DID you become known as Bob the Bramble?
DeleteWhat a lovely graduation picture. It's lovely that you included a picture of Elta in her older years.
ReplyDeleteYeah, when I ran across that picture of my grandma and Elta in their last years, I was glad to have a reason to use it.
DeleteI love seeing your grandmother and Elta together as older women. How wonderful that they remained close all those years!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you commented about "old" people. My grandparents (all four of them) lived in Fresno their entire adult lives and they had a bunch of friends there. My recollection of visiting them was that Fresno was just a city of old people because that's all we saw. I haven't been there in 30 years and I wonder if it's still filled with just old people.
It is funny how our perceptions are formed when we're kids. That moment of clarity in later years is like a paradigm shift.
DeleteI love the gazette tag, and Elta looks as sweet in old age as at her graduation.
ReplyDeleteWe always thought Grandma was funny when she referred to Elta that way. It always made us laugh. Elta really was one of the sweetest people ever.
DeleteWonderful pictures and story. What a great reporter would Miss Elta have been.
ReplyDeleteSomething to think about!
DeleteI'm betting all your guesses are right! You are so lucky to have these photos and all the stories of their lives together.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky. I wish I knew more stories or at least had a better memory about some of my older relatives and ancestors.
DeleteI'm guessing those who went to Elta for the latest gossip gave as much as they got. That pfirst portrait of Elta is so characteristic of the period between the wars. The shade os sepia and the way which it is mounted was peculiar to those decades, although it was far more common in the US than in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI love the style of portraits then. Maybe it's the clothes. They look so cool and whispy. I can see ladies of that time sipping lemonade on a porch swing, baskets of fern dotted around nearby.
DeleteElla sounds lovely. I thought the same way as Titania. Nowadays Ella would probably be like a CNN personality.
ReplyDeleteHa -- I was thinking more like "Entertainment Tonight."
DeleteLove those photos!
ReplyDeleteI have a similar grad photo of my father from 1927. Such lovely photos- proud of an accomplishment, compared to today's grad photos.
Yes, there was a lot of pride in getting that diploma.
DeleteA sweet memento that really captured the essence of Elta. The girl's expressions in the second photo are priceless. My grandmother was a similar hub in the social network of the old analog days. She kept notes of every telephone conversation on a stenographer pad that recorded all the details of every call. I still have dozens of these pads, each a history of family and neighborhood news.
ReplyDeleteThose notepads must be fun to read. It's amazing that someone didn't just roll their eyes and send them to the dumpster years ago.
DeleteElta must have been known as a good listener also in order to gather all the news..
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of that, but you're probably right.
DeleteWendy,
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post. "Elta the Gazette." That's priceless. Now I have to know. Did Elta know about her nickname?
And speaking of priceless, those are priceless photos you've shared with us. Elta sounds like a very sweet and special lady.
No, I doubt Grandma called her "the Gazette" to her face.
DeleteI love the last picture of Elta visiting Grandma at the nursing home.
That dress is so pretty! Wouldn't you love to still have it? Etta sounds like a special lady.
ReplyDeleteI bet the dress was so soft and light.
DeleteI bet Etta would have made a brilliant blogger. We are probably the inheritors of the informal news sharing operation that used to be undertaken by people like Etta
ReplyDeleteNow I'm wondering what kind of nickname people will slap on me.
DeleteNice when you have some stories to go along with the old pictures - and also photos of people both when they were young and as they grew older!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say that for more of my ancestors.
DeleteNever a dull moment with people like Elta, what a nice pictorial record of her life.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteYou have such a wonderful sense of humor and it seems to be a family trait - Etta the Gazette... Love the story and pictures. Bet she was delightful.
ReplyDeleteShe was delightful. Some old people don't want to be bothered with kids, but she always made a point of chatting a little with me.
DeleteWendy, this was such a sweet post. I love Elta's nickname. We have a family member on my Dad's side known as "My Hell", because that was her favorite phrase.
ReplyDeleteKathy M.
"My Hell" sounds like a nickname I could expect based on other stories I've read about your family. That's hilarious.
DeleteWhat wonderful ladies. I love people that always know what is going on.
ReplyDeleteKeeps everyone on their toes!
DeleteWhat a lovely memorial to a sweet lady. I bet she is remembered by a lot of people who came in contact with her. Great photos. Love the one of the 4 sisters.
ReplyDeleteI bet she is too.
DeleteI know my mom could spend hours on the phone, gossiping with a friend or cousin about the folks from her hometown. And then she'd give my father an update on the "situation[s]"...
ReplyDeleteElta looked very pretty in her graduation picture.
I've also enjoyed your two "fearless women" chronicles above.
:)~
HUGZ
Such lovely photos all of which tell a story. Congratulations, too, on managing to reply to so many comments - you are kept very busy!
ReplyDelete