"She wrote, 'My Mother'"

A Wonderful Discovery
The week after Hurricane Ike the kids and I stayed with my sister in San Antonio for several days.  On the last day right before we left, she mentioned that she had a couple of "tubs" of stuff that was mom and dad's and asked me if I wanted to go through it. [Well, duh...]  To my utter surprise I found many family photographs, memorabilia, and old school projects [of my dad's].  I was so ecstatic.  She also said I needed to get over to mom's house because there were more "tubs" to go through.  [I have yet to go back, but it's on top of my summer "to-do" list.]

Lillie Mae Alley
This is one of the precious photographs that I found of my great-grandmother on my dad's side, Lillie Mae Alley.  She was the daughter of Catharine Caroline Vaughn who I introduced you to yesterday.  This is the photograph of her that my grandma [my Paw-Paw] had of her mother.  She looks so young, and after doing some research, I found that she'd married very young and died young, so this photograph truly captures her innocence and her life.  She passed away when my Paw-Paw was only 6 years old.  Lillie Mae gave birth to four children: Little Pearl, Roscoe Benton, Rettie Maye [my Paw-Paw], and Mabel Irene.  Little Pearl passed away when just an infant, and until I found her, no one knew she'd existed.  I wonder if my Paw-Paw had known...


My Paw-Paw wrote, "My Mother"
While it's never easy to lose a loved one, certainly this was a difficult age for my Paw-Paw to lose her mother, and I wonder what she thought about this photograph that she had of her mother.  On the back, my Paw-Paw wrote simply, "Lillie Mae Alley (my mother).  Following are the lyrics of a song called "Photograph" that accurately captures the feeling I get when looking at family photographs...[written and performed by Charlie Robison, a Texas music performer; see my music picks in my sidebar.]:


Photograph
[written & performed by
Charlie Robison]
Well I got a picture
It's glued in a book
Of most of my family,
 that somebody took

Well Grandpa died early
Before I could know
The man that they tell me
That I take after so

Well I don't remember
But it still makes me laugh
When I see us together
In a photograph

Well mama and daddy
Burned hot like a flame
But it all turned ashes
With no one to blame

and I can still see them
But not in my mind
It's been so long
All my memories lie

Well I can't remember
But it still makes me laugh
When I see us together
In a photograph

Well it happened last winter
We had a son
And they took a picture
Of family, round one

It's there to remind you
For when you can't recall
What your daddy looked like
When you were so small

Though you won't remember
It'll still make you laugh
When you see us together
In a photograph

No you won't remember
It'll still make you laugh
When you see us together
In a photograph

Happy Mother's Day, Lillie Mae...

Caroline

Finding Color in Black and White

Finding Color in Black and White
I love looking at old photographs.  I always wonder what the people in them were thinking when the picture was taken.  Were they happy, sad, or angry?  It makes me want to know them.  Additionally, I always feel that I've hit the jackpot when I'm given or when I find old black and white photographs of my family.  There's just something about them that gets my imagination going.  Sometimes, though, we forget that even though the photographs are in black and white, the people in them were living a colorful life.  Have you ever heard the song "In Color" by Jamey Johnson?  He's a country singer, and the song just touches my soul and captures my feelings about old photographs.  Even if country music isn't your thing, I highly suggest listening to it if family history and genealogy are your thing.  Here are the lyrics:

In Color
Said grandpa what's this picture here.
It's all black and white it ain't real clear.
Is that you there?
He said yeah, I was 11.
Times were tough back in '35, that's me and Uncle Joe just tryin' to survive a cotton farm in the Great Depression.
If it looks like we were scared to death like a couple of kids just trying to save each other you should've seen it in color.
Oh, and this one here was taken over seas, in the middle of hell in 1943 in the winter time.
You can almost see my breath.
That was my tail gunner ole Johnny Maggee he was a high school teacher from New Orleans and he had my back right through the day we left.
If it looks like we were scared to death like a couple of kids just trying to save each other you should've seen it in color.
A picture's worth a thousand words but you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered you should've seen it in color
This one is my favorite one. This is me and grandma in the summer sun all dressed up the day we said our vows.
You can't tell it here but it was hot that June and that rose was red and her eyes were blue and just look at that smile I was so proud.
That's the story of my life right there in black and white.
And if it looks like we were scared to death like a couple of kids just trying to save each other you should've seen it in color.
A pictures worth a thousand words but you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered you should have seen it in color.
You should have seen it in color.
 
Mother's Day
So, I guess my love for old photographs is really about turning them into color...finding all that I can about them...finding their family story.
In honor of Mother's Day Week [...I think it should be a week - not just a day, kind of like a birthday week...you do have those too, don't you?], I'm going to share with you pictures of mothers from my family...Just trying to keep the "color" in the old photographs.  After all, what is a photograph, but a glimpse of a family story?
 
Catharine Caroline Vaughn
The photograph today is of my great-great grandmother Catharine Caroline Vaughn who was born, lived, and died in Southern Illinois [Johnson County].  It's one of my favorites because she is so "grand-motherly-looking" seated in her rocking chair and clutching her Bible with both hands while giving the camera a big smile.  Coincidentally, I wasn't named after her, but I think she has a really cool name, and I'm proud to share it with her!
 
Caroline