Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt features a couple
crossing a river. On January 25, 1925,
“couples” seemed to be an important theme of the day for my grandaunt Velma
Davis (later Woodring when she and Woody became an official couple).
In 1925, Velma was a student at Harrisonburg Teachers
College (now James Madison University – Go Dukes!). Even though it was an all girls school, there
were plenty of men sniffing around. Some
lived locally; others came by bus from nearby schools like the University of Virginia
and Virginia Military Institute.
 |
| Top Left to Right: Unknown, Thelma Haga, Thelma Hockman, and Unknown Bottom: Velma Davis and Unknown |
On that Sunday afternoon in January, several couples
posed for pictures at “Lucas’s house.” I
have no idea who Lucas was. Aware that Lucas
is a common surname in the Shenandoah Valley, I searched the 1920 census for
Harrisonburg, and sure enough there was a Lucas family who ran a boarding
house. Maybe one or more of the young
men who were paired up with Velma and her friends were living there in
1925.
 |
| Mac and Skeeter |
Of course, Lucas could be a first name as well, so Lucas
COULD be this young man with Thelma Haga, another one of Velma’s college
friends. Velma captioned this photo “Quite
contented.” If this is Lucas, then they
were not content for long. Thelma
married a man named Charles Ragland in 1930.
 |
| Thelma Haga and Friend captioned: Quite contented |
As for Velma and one-half of “Mac and Skeeter,” they didn’t
work out either. Two years later –
almost to the day – she married Arthur “Woody” Woodring.
 |
| Velma and Woody Woodring, Violetta Davis in the Shenandoah River April 1929 |
Hold on tight as you cross the river to Sepia Saturday.
© 2014, Wendy Mathias.
All rights reserved.
