Sepia Saturday: Friends Side by Side

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo of a group of unsmiling students is similar to quite a few old photos in my collection. Amidst the pictures of family portraits and school photos are two newspaper clippings that alone are nothing out of the ordinary, but paired tell a story of friendship.

My father was a proud graduate of the University of Virginia as were some of his best friends. They were members of the Portsmouth Cavalier Club of UVA, which was most likely just a social group, maybe even an alumni group. Apparently they hosted dances at the popular Suburban Country Club in Portsmouth.

Suburban Country Club in Portsmouth, Virginia

In the photo accompanying a brief announcement of one such upcoming dance, Daddy was standing between two friends, Jimmy Stewart (not the actor) and Jimmy Boggs. Jimmy Stewart held a higher position on the friend chain, I suppose, as he was selected to be my godfather. The three couples were good friends for a long time.  As a child, I often played with the Boggs’ son Mark and the Stewarts’ daughter Melissa.

My dad Fred Slade is on the top row, next to last.
Flanking him are Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Boggs

In fact, Melissa was somewhat of a “best friend” probably because I saw her so often, not just when our parents got together for an evening of cards. She and I attended the same kindergarten: Newton’s Nursery and Kindergarten. Here we are standing side by side posing for our graduation photo. (I find it amusing that Daddy and I both were standing on the back row with our best friend standing to our right.)

Melissa and I are standing on the back row.
I'm third from the end; Melissa is to my right, 4th from the end.

Memories from kindergarten have long faded except for one: the day I broke my nose. Melissa and I were holding hands and running in a circle, fast, faster, faster still. Then without warning she let go. I went flying face first onto the linoleum floor. The next thing I knew, one of the teachers picked me up and rushed to the bathroom. She held me over the trough sink and did what she could to clean me up but was obviously losing the battle as blood just seemed to pour.

I don’t know if my mother was called away early from Cradock Elementary School where she was teaching or if she came after school, but I remember the look on her face. I must have been a frightening sight. We went to the doctor for a diagnosis and instructions. Yep, broken.

Nightly seemingly forever, my mother applied HOT, I mean really HOT, towels soaked in some kind of salt solution. My precious little face was black and blue and swollen. Not a day went by without multiples of people staring and asking, “What happened to YOU?” Today I’d probably respond, “You should see the other guy” but when I was 5, I was totally humiliated and just wanted to stay home, not even go to school to play with my best buddy Melissa.

Yeah, I was probably scarred for life.

Please visit the smiling group of bloggers at Sepia Saturday.

© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: The Babbs Stories

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt suggests music and dancing.  According to my mother, Daddy was a good dancer while she was not.  His mother taught him.  The thought of my granny dancing fills my imagination with all kinds of pictures.  Sadly, there are no real pictures of such joy when a mother and son are dancing. 

However, Daddy put those lessons to good use, supplying me with one good photo.  My dad attended at least one high school dance.  The BIG one.  Maybe it was a prom or maybe the Senior dance for the Class of 1945.  I don’t know for sure, but it was important enough for the school to take a group picture.

Daddy is in the second row, third boy from the left as well as third boy from the right.
Babbs is partially hidden but is on Daddy's right.

Daddy’s date was a girl called Babbs.  But theirs was not a love story. 

Me with my two grandfathers.
Momma and Daddy are at the door to our trailer. 

Babbs married a boy who graduated with Daddy named Jimmy Boggs.  Like our family, Jimmy and Babbs lived in one of the little trailers on Copely Hill in Charlottesville, popular among the married students at the University of Virginia. 

A long week of study often led to relaxed weekends at football games or shared meals in the cramped quarters of those white trailers.  Momma and Daddy used to laugh when they recalled “the Babbs stories” from those days.

Babbs Story #1

Sometimes when they got together, they played Twenty Questions.   It was Babbs’ turn.  One of the questions was “Was he a politician?”  Babbs’ response was, “I guess you could say he dabbled in politics.” After Jimmy, Momma, and Daddy used up their twenty, Babbs proudly revealed the answer that had stumped students of law and of architecture:  Adlai Stevenson.  Imagine their reaction – a mixture of laughter and anger and frequent echoes of “dabbled in politics” said with a combined exclamation point and question mark.

Babbs Story #2

Babbs was sitting at the table with paper and pencil.  “How do you spell porken?” she asked.  The others were puzzled.  “Porken?  What’s that?”  In all sincerity and innocence, Babbs said, “I’m working on my grocery list and I need ‘porken beans.’” 

For more stories of dancers and musicians and those dabbling in blogging, visit my friends at Sepia Saturday.

© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.