Treasure Chest Thursday: Flue Cover

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers encouraging bloggers to create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an everyday item important to the family.

This flue cover is all that remains of the Davis Store, once a vibrant little enterprise built by my great-grandfather Walter Davis and operated by his sons Millard and Orvin, my maternal grandfather. For over 20 years, the store served the community of Shenandoah, Virginia.

Davis Store in the 1920s
corner of Sixth St and Pennsylvania Ave, Shenandoah, VA

My grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis behind the counter
Davis Store 1940s
The flue cap probably went with this stove.

Even after the store closed in the 1940s, the apartment continued to house renters until recent years. Eventually asbestos made the building unsafe; termite damage made it not even worth flipping. Besides, the corner lot was too valuable for other uses. On April 16, 2015, the building was bulldozed.

April 16, 2015
photo courtesy of Jan Hensley

That I have any souvenir at all is by sheer luck. I was chatting with my cousin who casually informed me that the old store building was being torn down that day. She said it with all the enthusiasm accompanying a report of the day’s trip to the grocery store. For me, it was big news that demanded she get over there right away and take a picture at least. However, my cousin had no love for the store building; she actually lived in the apartment as a child, and the memories of a cold building with poor heat and no hot water have not left her.

April 16, 2015
photo courtesy of Jan Hensley

I seldom post on Facebook, but I did that day – a mini tribute to the old store on its passing. Jan Hensley, a dedicated researcher of families in the Shenandoah Valley and one with whom I have collaborated, saw my post and scurried over to the corner of Sixth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to snap a picture. She even spoke to one of the workers and asked if there were anything worth snatching from the rubble. He thought a minute and soon brought out the flue cover.

This winter scene is a common one for flue covers. A pristine model is currently for sale on eBay for $13.75. This illustrates the paradox of many heirlooms: they are worthless and priceless at the same time.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday: High School Chums #2

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

Friends and all contestants in the Miss Cradock High pageant Cookie Spencer, Jeanette Pearson, and Mary Eleanor Davis - Jeanette won 1946.

Apparently my mother had a camera when she was in high school in the mid-1940s. Or maybe her friends did. Needless to say, she has lots of photos of her friends.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Faithful Companion

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt features jazz singer Billie Holiday with her beloved dog “Mister.” Like many animal lovers, Billie Holiday liked her dogs better than she did some people. The sheer number of photos of poodles in my collection makes me wonder if my great-grandmother’s sister was such a person too.

Anyone who reads my blog faithfully is well aware of my struggle to identify one particular family who lived in New York in the early 1900s. Picture after picture identifies the children and ONE of the poodles, but none of them name the woman who is likely my great-grandaunt.

Just this week, I found another clue in the form of this photo found in a box of "stuff" recently given to me.

Woman and poodle 1915
Likely a sister to Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh

It’s a good thing there is a poodle in the photo; otherwise I might not have recognized the woman as a possible sister to Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh. Surely the woman in the photo is the same as this woman                                                                                                                                                       

New York 1921

and this woman on the left -->.

John Jr. and Cutie 1918

The photo of woman and poodle is dated 1915 – a full two years before the oldest of the other photos I already knew about. While my other photos name the children John Jr. and Bob or Barbie and one poodle Cutie, there are very few clues other than dates and an occasional mention of a location. 




















This new-found picture, however, has some more clues on the back.

What does this say?  Salma Moss? Is that her name?

Or is it Salma, Mass? Salma, Massachusetts? However, there does not seem to be a town in Massachusetts called Salma. Is it a dyslexic spelling for Salem? Salem, Massachusetts? I still don’t know the identity of this family, but this photo gives me someplace else to look besides New York.

And what is that other word? Cuucy?  Anny? Is that the dog’s name? “Cuucy” sounds a lot like “Cutie.”

Cutie and Unknown Companion

Could the dogs be related too?

No use singing the blues when you can join my faithful companions at Sepia Saturday.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Treasure Chest Thursday: New Life for ANOTHER Rocker

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers encouraging bloggers to create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an everyday item important to the family.

Chair originally belonged to Aunt Helen Parker

I remember the day I learned I would inherit this child’s rocker. I had spent the better part of the day making phone calls to family and friends to share the good news: we were expecting our first baby. The last call of the day was to my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker, whose photos and scrapbooks have been featured numerous times on this blog. 

Aunt Helen was diagnosed with leukemia, and she knew she would not be with us long. She had started putting tags on things she wanted certain people to have. When I told her our news, Helen said, “This is perfect. I have been wondering who to give this rocking chair to, and now I know.”

At the time, I didn’t stop to wonder what Helen was doing with a child’s rocker, after all she had no children of her own. Maybe the chair came from her husband’s family. Maybe it was something she had bought so that pint-size company would have a place to sit. I don’t know. But the chair settled nicely into our household. Our daughter rocked on it and so did her dolls.

When we learned this daughter was expecting her first baby, it became obvious it was time to pass her rocker along, just as I was passing along my own childhood rocker to the first grandbaby. Since I painted that one, I had to paint this one too.

This rocker would be for a boy. The vision for the nursery included vintage and military airplanes, a nod to his daddy who had served in the Air Force, with colors in shades of blue and olive green. So that became the inspiration for the chair as well.

Plastic grocery bags and tape
worked well to protect the seat.

First I sanded the chair and applied Zinsser stain blocker.

One question I grappled with for quite some time was what to do about the rush seat. Leave it brown? Paint it? But could it even be painted successfully? That’s when I found a tutorial by Diane at In My Own Style. She had stained some dining room chairs with rush seats. I followed her lead and stained the seat with Rustoleum wood stain called Driftwood. While Diane went with a single coat to let the natural rush show through, I applied several coats for more coverage. In fact, it looks light grey, a perfect complement to one of the paint colors.

Rush seat stained "Driftwood"

Little girly designs can translate well from one age to another. Cute flowers work well for a pre-teen as well as they do for a baby. But BOY designs? I was lost. 

Since I have so few original thoughts, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. This is what I found:

As I did for the other rocker, I jumped in painting one color at a time with FROG tape in full force.

My favorite feature is the mismatched legs. 

That made me want to do more with the plain back legs of the chair. I tried polka dots – meh. I tried just outlined circles. No. Then I went for more stripes. UGH. Finally I decided enough is enough and repainted the back legs dark blue. That’s not like me – I’m usually in the “there is no such thing as too much” camp.

Mr. E can’t really sit up by himself, but he managed to do just that long enough for his momma to snap a photo on his 1-month birthday.

Rock on, Mr. E!

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday: High School Chums #1

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

Betsy Ward 1946
Senior Baby Day
in front of Cradock High School, Portsmouth, VA

Senior Baby Day was a tradition at Cradock High School that lasted well into the 1960s if not later.

Apparently my mother had a camera when she was in high school in the mid-1940s. Or maybe her friends did. Needless to say, she has lots of photos of her friends.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Happy Valentine's Day

On this Valentine’s Day, I wish you the kind of love and devotion my great grandmother must have enjoyed. Paging through her scrapbook must have brought her great joy as she re-read the cards year after year.

Here are some of her Valentines. You can see others HERE and HERE.

from her daughter Catherine

Just a loving greeting, Mother
Meant to say that every year
Makes me realize more clearly
Just how fine you are and dear,
Makes me understand more fully
All you've meant the long years through,
Finds me more sincerely thankful
For a Mother sweet as YOU!

from her daughter and son-in-law
Teresa "Tate" and Jimmy Crews

If you could take this card apart
I think you'd find my very heart
Just beating happily and true
With lots and lots of love for you

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Golf Pro

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt features a foursome of golfers. For a time, my parents were golfers. I remember their clubs in the garage, in particular the red plaid bag of ladies’ golf clubs belonging to my mother.

SIMILAR to my
mother's golf bag

I never saw her play. She gave up the game around 1958 when she developed bursitis in her shoulder, a condition she blamed on golf. It’s too bad really because she was fortunate to have had a renowned instructor:  Chandler Harper.

Harper lived his entire life in Portsmouth (1914-2004). He played golf and baseball for Wilson High School, winning his first Virginia State Amateur at age 16. He turned pro at the age of 20. His accomplishments include 3 wins as a state amateur and 10 wins in the Virginia State Open. Harper’s competitive career lasted from 1938-1955, the most prestigious highlights being his PGA win in 1950 and membership on the Ryder Cup team of 1955. In 1965 he became the US seniors champion, and three years later the World seniors champion. He was inducted into the PGA Hall of Fame in 1969 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1973.

Chandler Harper
(no known copyright restrictions)

Honestly, if Chandler Harper had been from someplace other than Portsmouth, Virginia, where I grew up, I would not know of his fame even though he competed against the likes of Sam Snead and Ben Hogan and was a mentor to Curtis Strange. Now those are some names I know. Lucky for me, there is a street named for Chandler Harper in Elizabeth Manor, a neighborhood adjacent to Elizabeth Manor Golf Course, one of two local courses he helped build.

The other golf course he built in Portsmouth was Bide-a-Wee, a Scottish expression meaning “stay a little longer.” He managed the course from 1956-1993. In 1999 the course got a makeover with the assistance of Curtis Strange. Today it is a beautiful municipal golf course that still draws tournaments, charity events, and even weddings in the Pavilion.

In recent years, Bide-a-Wee has been my brother-in-law’s weekend and summertime home, of sorts. One of the perks of his part-time employment is that the high school golf team he coaches gets to practice there. He also gets to hobnob with some of the Old Guard of Portsmouth. One day he was handed a program from about 1958. In it was a picture of my dad – a member of the Social Committee for the Bide-a-Wee golf association.

I wonder if my parents were in awe to be around someone who was a big name in the golf world, someone who had his own line of golf clubs, or if he was just plain ol’ Chandler, a regular guy from sleepy ol’ Portsmouth.

Meet you at the 19^th hole, Sepia Saturday!

Sources:

"Bide-A-Wee Golf Course." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
"Chandler Harper." Inductee Details. Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, n.d. http://www.vshfm.com/ 12 Feb. 2016.

"Chandler Harper." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

Litsky, Frank. "Chandler Harper Winner of 7 Professional Golf Tournaments Dies at 90." New York Times. N.p., 12 Nov. 2004. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Vellum and Ribbon

The scrapbook of my great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh is a testimonial to the loving relationship she had with her adult children. Here are some of her Valentines.

From her daughter and son-in-law
Catherine and Steve Barany

Our gift to you
Is a gift of love
That shall last
To the longest day.
It won't wear out
And it can't be lost,
And it can't be
Given away.

From her daughter Catherine

A greeting of affection
Just for YOU alone,
The best and dearest Mother
That the world has ever known,
So considerate of others,
Kind and loving as can be,
And I'm happy just in knowing
That YOU belong to me.

Cards from the 1920s and 1930s with their crisp vellum paper, satin ribbons, and bits of glitter say “I love you” in the most charming way.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Treasure Chest Thursday: New Life for a Rocker

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers encouraging bloggers to create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom, or even an everyday item important to the family.

There was a time when I thought old furniture should be restored to its natural state. I wanted to see the grain of aged oak and the knots of old pine. What could be more beautiful than the rich color of walnut and mahogany? I was appalled that someone had slapped dull green paint over a beautiful old wash stand or sideboard.

If you follow the DIY-ers in blogland, you know that painted furniture is all the rage. While I am not ready to Annie Sloan my dining room table or kitchen cabinets, I have crossed over to the dark side (or maybe it's the bright side) when it comes to painting furniture - some of it, anyway.

Several months ago, I announced plans to pass along my childhood rocker to my first grandbaby.

Me Christmas 1952

The little maple rocker apparently had been a Christmas gift in 1952 from my parents or grandparents or maybe even from Santa. Had “Miss A” been born ten years ago, I might have sanded and stained it to give it new life.

Instead, I was inspired by the countless colorfully painted rockers on Pinterest to take an Annie Sloan chalk paint class. After learning that annual waxing might be required, I realized chalk paint might not be the wisest idea for a child’s chair. Instead I took the more traditional route with latex enamel paint.

Using color cues from the planned nursery, I purchased some samples of aqua and lavender Valspar paint from Lowes along with small cans of white and black Rustoleum.

Rocker "BEFORE" 

Even though there was very little varnish left on the rocker after years in either an attic or garage, I sanded it before applying Zinsser stain blocker. Painting the chair was obviously the fun part, but it required a plan of attack. Where to start? After much consideration, I decided to paint one color at a time. I even drew plans to remind me which color would go where.

First all the white surfaces, then lavender, and then aqua.

Makeover in progress

The checkerboard seat proved to be trickier than it looked, requiring measuring to insure at least some semblance of being centered and even. FROG tape promised to be my friend, but it was only a fair-weather friend. Touch-ups were required when paint bled through. The final color was the black on the runners and arms.

Since I am not an artist, I relied on stencils for the vines on the arms and seat back. I used simple craft paint and foam pouncers.

I soon realized that painting on purple was not easy. Even though the lavender is light, darker shades of pink, orange, and green were needed in order to show up well.

The final step was the gold dots and outlines. Surely a paint pen would do the trick, but the paint pen was a bear to work with. If I pressed too hard, the paint ran. Following along the straight lines of the grooves, rungs and edges of the seat back was no picnic either; I had to go over and over to connect the lines. I don’t know whether paint pens don’t like other paint or they don’t like wood.

If you don’t look TOO closely, the chair looks pretty cute.

I hope one day when Miss A is a mother, she will pass our chair on to the next generation. Whether she leaves it as is, repaints, or strips it back to its natural state, I will be happy knowing a family heirloom lives on.

Me 1955

Miss A 2016

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.