Saturday, September 5, 2020

Sepia Saturday: Speak Softly and Carry A ...


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


Big stick.

A man with a cane in the company of a woman in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt reminded me immediately of a photo of my 2X great-grandfather and his second wife. Old age had clearly set in for James Franklin Jollett and Eliza Jane. That was a serious walking stick.
James Franklin Jollett and Eliza Jane 1929 https://jollettetc.blogspot.com
James Franklin Jollett and Eliza Jane
Jollett Reunion 1929
A few years before, he sported the typical cane with curved handle.
Jollett Reunion 1927 https://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Jollett Reunion 1927
James Franklin Jollett with his children from youngest to oldest
Ulysses Jollett, Victoria Breeden, Sallie Clift, Mary Frances Davis,
Leanna Knight, Laura Sullivan, Emma Coleman, Burton Lewis Jollett




Look closely and you can see the same stylish version just inside the frame of James Franklin’s older brother John Wesley Jollett and his wife Sarah Elizabeth.
John Wesley Jollett and Sarah Elizabeth Smith  https://jollettetc.blogspot.com
John Wesley Jollett and Sarah Elizabeth
courtesy Jan Hensley

But canes weren't just for men. In her declining years, James Franklin's oldest daughter Emma Jollett Coleman also relied on a cane. 
Jollett Reunion 1934 https://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Jollett Reunion no later than 1934
The sisters from youngest to oldest
Victoria Breeden, Sallie Clift, Mary Frances Davis,
Leanna Knight, Laura Sullivan, Emma Coleman

See who else is raising CANE at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy
© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

12 comments:

  1. Neat photos! The thing that I couldn't stop staring at is how tiny Sarah Elizabeth's waist was.

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  2. Fantastic...seeing all those adult children pictured with parents...and of course those using canes! What stories they could tell!

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  3. Great pictures! Good that they didn't shy away from pictures with their canes and didn't try to hide them.

    Betty

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  4. So much variety this week with everyone's posts! Two of us went with the father-daughter connection; one went with hats; one went with Guggenheim museums, and you found the Mr. Guggenheim's cane to focus on! Hopefully we'll have a few more entries before the weekend is over and I can't wait to see what they've come up with? How fun! I have several canes and they're all different - different colors, different patterns. I also have a genuine walking stick a late neighbor made especially for me with colored shells and rawhide 'ribbons' when we first moved into the neighborhood and I started walking. Very special - especially now that he's gone. He was a really neat person.

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  5. My grandmother always used a cane following a serious car accident when she was in her 60's - I'd forgotten all about that until I read your post.

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  6. You have some great family photos. And I like your take with canes. I am intrigued by that tree in the 2nd photo with its big branch stripped of bark. And what is that pointy-looking thing overhead?

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  7. I just love your eye for detail. Wish I had one.

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  8. Congratulations on your eagle eye for coming up with a post based on the canes - here we call them walking sticks and I have to admit a wonky knee is causing me to use mine more frequently now. You have such a wonderful range of 1920s and 1930s photographs to share with us.

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  9. Congratulations on your eagle eye for coming up with a post based on the canes - here we call them walking sticks and I have to admit a wonky knee is causing me to use mine more frequently now. You have such a wonderful range of 1920s and 1930s photographs to share with us.

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  10. The big stick angle! I didn't think of that. Great idea.

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  11. For countless previous generations a cane was a sign of great age, but not necessarily of a handicap, but more of honored seniority. I believe many canes were handed down. Some "wizard sticks", as I call them, came with a story of the wood, where they were made, and who had used them last.

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  12. My sister uses a cane after a disastrous broken ankle from hill climbing on vacation. Somehow, it never ends up in photos though.
    You have some great photos.

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