Mom's estate

I've been working toward clearing the contents of mom's home for a couple of weeks.  Some of the items I've sold are family pieces.  Before you gasp in shock, you need to know that I have saved for myself several family pieces, my brother has several family pieces, and my children and Raymond's children have had an opportunity to choose family pieces for themselves.  I encourage you to read blog posts by Julie Hall, The Estate Lady, as her advice has been invaluable to me.

Family members included in this post:

• Ruth Elma Harder Cole
• Cyrus Walter "Walt" Ferguson
• Della Cole Owens Young
• Irene Orvetta Cole Schnack Speer 
• Arthur "Art" Fred Owens
• Henry "Hank" D. Young
• Hazel M. McNeilly Ferguson
• Howard Cole
• Olive Letha Rose Schnack
• Raymond Cole Schnack
• Stephanie Marie Arsenault Hann

Mom told me that her mother bought the machine from Uncle Walt.  She told me that Uncle Walt used to repair sewing machines.  Uncle Walt was married to Grammy's aunt Hazel.  This Singer sewing machine model #66 is the machine my mother learned to sew on.  On this machine, she crafted her own wedding dress.  I still have the wedding dress...not sure what to do with it!  I used mom's veil to drape in and around old family wedding pictures framed especially to display at my daughter Stephanie's wedding recently.  Drat, I wish I had taken a picture of the display!  

Mom told me that this bed belonged to Aunt Della.  Della was my mom's paternal grand aunt.  When Della and her second husband were no longer able to tend their farm in Milford, New York, she sold it to my grandfather.  Della inherited the farm when her first husband died in 1938.  As a matter of fact, my grandfather lived briefly with his aunt Della and uncle Art and is listed on the 1925 New York State Census as a 12-year old student in that household.  The farmhouse was large as were many houses of that time.  Della and her second husband Hank lived on one side of the house and grandpa's family lived on the other.  Although related, the two families had little interaction.  When Della died in 1970, her side of the house remained vacant. 

This is the sewing machine that my mom taught me to sew on when I was about 12-years old.  It's a Singer Slant-O-Matic.  I believe my mom bought the machine not long after 1957 (when the owner's manual was published).  My mom sewed many of our clothes and was fond of matching mother-daughter outfits.  She would also sew patches on my dad's uniforms and at times 'took in sewing' to earn a little extra money.  She also took in washing and ironing.  My dad would help with the laundry.  I only know this because its written in one of the letters from previous posts. My first sewing project was a brown, wide-wale corduroy jumper.  I remember every step of the process...mom wouldn't let me miss a beat!  I still have the jumper and the plastic 'chain' belt that rode the hip line.

I bought the recumbent bike for mom so she could keep up her exercise.  She and Raymond had been walking to the Stop sign and back every day.  When I say walk, I mean a very slow snail pace.  Mom wasn't walking so well and used an ambulator.  She could sit on the seat of the ambulator when she tired.  The Stop sign was one house down the street.  She would sometimes have the energy to walk back taking the long way which was one house up the street from her house.  On cold and rainy days she wasn't able to walk but still felt the need to move about.  Unfortunately, she never had a chance to use the recumbent bike.

Mom had trouble getting up so I bought her a lift chair.  It was wonderful for her.  And, as she wasn't sleeping in her bed anymore, this served as her bed in the fully reclined position.  Before she became totally bedridden, she had to be supervised anytime she was up and about.  To limit her activity, we would sometimes put her shoes on the other side of the room because she wouldn't get up without having her shoes on.  She never experienced a fall while trying to rise but we eventually had to use an alarm on the chair so we'd know when she attempted to get up.

Mom had this parlor table in the living room for many years.  It was placed in front of the window near the front door.  She kept framed photos on it and an old wash basin on the bottom shelf.  She said that Grammy kept it in her living room with flowers on it.

Ah, the Matterhorn.  This painting has hung on our walls for as long as I can remember.  Mom said she bought it from a door-to-door salesman when we lived in Germany.  It was his second time coming to her door that she purchased it.  When Raymond and I were very young, we took our tin horns to some of the oil paint and damaged the texture.  They had it repaired or repaired it themselves.  I don't remember the incident and I can't find any evidence of damage or repair.

I don't remember this rocker at all.  I think Mom brought it to Texas from Grammy's house in New York sometime in the 1990s.  She told me she had the seat re-caned but the whole piece looks refinished to me.  It's made of Birdseye Maple which I'm told is fairly rare these days.

This framed piece hung in mom's living room over the china cabinet.  She told me that it had been a wedding gift to Grammy.  Grammy and Grandpa were married in 1934.

Scrabble!  I don't know where this particular set came from but I remember many visits to Grandma Schnack's and playing Scrabble.  My cousins tell me that Grandma was especially fond of her games and nearly always won.  She didn't let sentimentality or grandchildren throw a game for her!

The Year at Home

These pictures are a review of what life was like for my family while my father was in Vietnam.

In the back is my mother and her parents, Howard and Ruth Harder Cole.  My brother and I are in the front with three girls who I don't know.  This picture may have been taken before my father went to Vietnam.

 Myself, my father, and Raymond in our backyard at Ayer, Massachusetts.

 

 Looks like I baked a birthday cake but for whom I don't know.

Seated from left to right is Grandma Schnack, Irene Schnack, Elsie Schnack, Katie Jones, and Viv Cope.  Standing left to right is Grandpa Schnack, Eddie Schnack, Bob Jones, and Harry Cope.  The occasion is the celebration of my Grandparents 40th wedding anniversary.

 I didn't get to be a little Vietnamese girl for Halloween but dressed up in items not normally worn.  We celebrated Halloween in Milford that year.

 My mom dressed up as a farmer :-)

 Myself and Mrs. Quintella outside our apartment in Ayer, Massachusetts.

 Myself horsing around with Miss Allen and Mrs. Allen.

 Myself, my mom, and my brother.

 My mom watching the news at our apartment in Ayer, Massachusetts.

 Myself and Raymond in the lower right hand corner.

 Myself and Raymond going to school.

 My mom and a friend.

 My mom above and two below.

 Above, my grandparents Schnack, obviously at Christmas time, and below with Raymond and myself.

 This is the year I must have started playing clarinet.

Above and below are pictures taken at the Milford Cemetery at Christmas time.  My Uncle Don died in October of 1966 and was buried there.

I believe the pictures above and below were taken at my Aunt Margaret's home.  Above is, seated or kneeling on the floor, my Aunt Tina (Don's widow) and Uncle Gerry.  Seated in the red chair is my grandfather Cole, Raymond is leaning over Gerry, and standing from left is Grandma Cole holding my cousin Larry, myself, and Aunt Margaret.

 Above, clockwise from noon, is Uncle Gerry, Aunt Tina, Raymond, Grandpa Cole, Grandma Cole, Aunt Margaret, and myself.

 My Uncle Eddie and Aunt Elsie with cousins left to right, John, Barbara, Julie and David.

 My Uncle Bob and Aunt Katie with cousins Peggy, Cheryl, and Bobby.

 All the 1st cousins on the steps of Grandma and Grandpa Schnack's house.

 My brother, mom, and myself.

 Myself, above and below.

 Me and my brother playing King of the Hill in our backyard.

 Me and my mom at a diner with the Allens.

 Above and below are the results of a March snow storm.

 Above and below are myself again.

 My brother and I.

 Above and below, myself with a cutie patootie baby :-)

Myself and my brother.

1966 October life on the homefront

A few little miscellaneous kind of things to lighten the mood.  Or not.  A glimpse of what daily life was like on the home-front while the men were across the world fighting a war that no one really understood.

I was such a hateful little girl, wasn't I?  Oh my, I don't remember writing this note, or what the result of it was, but I am mortified to read it now!

Cindy Lou Schnack, a poor old daughter of a tired mother.  This poor unfortunate girl will not be able to go out for Halloween night.  Her mother puts off the making of her costume.  She was to be a little Viet Namese girl.  Her mother is too lazy, stupid, tired, and mean bad to make a sweet costume.

This photo was taken at our apartment in Ayer, Massachusetts just outside of Fort Devens.  'Back in the day,' families of soldiers could not stay in government housing and had to find other accommodations.  If memory serves, there was another family on the other side and one above us.  We are standing in front of the upstairs neighbor's door.  Our door is in front of our car.  It was a small two-bedroom apartment.  My mother and I shared one bedroom and Raymond had the other.  The kitchen/dining room was small, as was the living room, and we had a single bathroom.  I remember it being very compact but nice.

 My mother worked as a nurse's aide when my father first went to Vietnam.  She wanted to be one of the first to see him should he arrive home injured.  Yes, she wore the little white cap pinned in her hair and white stockings, too.  I don't remember her working at the hospital for very long.  She next took a job as a seamstress at a dry cleaners.  She would sew patches on uniforms and make minor repairs to clothing and uniforms.  At times, my brother and I would go to work with her.  Our job was to go through pockets and make sure they were empty before they went through the wash.  So much for finding lost treasure!  I don't remember ever finding anything of interest.

Lee and Raymond are Rats.  Big ones.  But they don't scare me.  John is an Angel.  Lee is a devil.  Raymond is a medium fatso.  Humph!

Cindy Lou

How funny to read this now!  No, I don't remember writing this either but the boys must've sure gotten one over on me!

The photo above and below shows our pseudo families while our fathers were fighting the war in Vietnam.  Above is Mrs. Allen, Lee Allen, my brother Raymond, and Lee's sister whose name I don't remember.  The photo below is the Allens and the Quintellas (maybe?) and all the kids at, what I'm sure must be, a local restaurant.  I think my mom must have snapped this picture.  Her chair must be the empty one next to Raymond.  I'm leaning over what looks like might be soup.

A common practice among military families is to make friends quickly and they are friends that can sometimes last a lifetime.  My mother kept in touch with friends that she made in the many places we lived.  At times, the men would be gone for long periods of time, and friends were our support system; our pseudo families.  We were all far enough away from our own extended families that we became our own.  We were sisters and brothers and cousins to each other in lieu of our own. 

 

Near the end of my dad's assignment in Vietnam, he sent native costumes to my mother and I.  He also sent an embroidered silk jacket that I still have and several lacquered trinket boxes.  Mine contained a brush, comb, and mirror and it has long since been lost to me.  He sent us various other keepsakes as well.