Imaginary Ancestors

Evelyn Cameron ~ the Photographer

 

Every time I wear this dress I get the same comment - Little House on the Prairie.

I stitched up this schmatte with black and white gingham fabric and Kwik Sew pattern 3065 from the discount bin at FabricLand.

It's a dress just for knockin' around the house and going to the grocery store. Breezy. Cool. It covers a multitude of sins. I added pockets of course.

All this talk of Prairies reminds me of my Ancestors.

I used my 10 day free trial on Ancestry.com and found out that my great grandfather Henry James Snow left Cornwall, England in the late 1800's. His family had lived in the same region of Cornwall for centuries (if your name is Snow and you live in Cornwall, well, Hey Cousin!)  Henry James left. Who knows why. He made his way to Liverpool then on over to Canada and continued west to the Montana Territories where he married the Canadian born Frances who gave birth to my grandpa Ernest in 1887 and a few years later his brother Louis. I cannot even imagine doing something so brave.

 My idea of hardship is getting assigned a middle seat on the airplane. 

 

There are no photos of my great grandparents as far as I know.  So I like to thumb through Photographing Montana by Donna M. Lucey and pretend that these are my ancestors.

This book tells the honest story of settlers in the Old West. The author Donna Lucey found the photographs and diaries of settler Evelyn Cameron in a rattlesnake infested basement of an old house in eastern Montana in the 1970's. 

 

 

Sheep herder family 1905

 

 

Grandpa????

Class Photo 1907

 

 

Young girls at a July picnic in 1913. Oh those hats!

 

Cowboys have Always been Cute

 

Jetta Grey with tame wolf cubs

 

Taming a suburban cockapoo in 2015

 

Because I can't tell the front from the back of this dress I embroidered a little daisy on the back. Lakshme approved.

 

If you like true tales of strong and brave settlers I can also recommend:

 

Nothing Daunted by Dorothy Wickenden.

And two beautiful films made in the 1970's:

 Heartland, the absolutely heartbreaking story of a young widow in Wyoming

and the gorgeous Days of Heaven starring a very dishy young Richard Gere.

Both movies were filmed in Montana in the United States and Alberta in Canada. This was pretty darn easy for the filmmakers since so much of the landscape around there has not changed much since the early 1900's.

 

 

I believe that this post qualifies me to become one of Bag and a Beret's

 HOT HARRIDANS READING 

That Melanie is such an Advanced Reader that she needs TWO pairs of glasses!!

You should also check out the very Hot Val.

 

I'm also headed to the reunion at Patti's Visible Monday. See you there!

And I'm joyfully taking my embroidered daisy over to Anne's 52-pick-me-up Sunflower/Joy.

 

Listening to Records



George Marks photo

Do you remember Listening to Records? Sprawled out on the floor for hours reading and re-reading the liner notes. If you wanted to skip a song or listen to it again you had to v-e-r-y carefully lift up the needle and place it on the Exact Perfect Spot. There was really an art to that. And if you were inspired to get up to Dance, you had to be careful not to make the record jump. Exciting Times, n'est-ce pas?

 

These helpful instructions were on the inside of the case.

 

Our son loves music so his Old Folk Parents decided that he needed to Listen to Music on a Real Live Record Player. We gave him one that we bought on Ebay from an Old Elementary School in Texas! You can only imagine the kind of crazy cowboy stuff that was played on that thing!

 

Then we gave him all of our Old Records that had survived the sprinkler-in-the-garage incident of 2007.

The other day as I was dusting, I started listening to the Old Records. I got very Nostalgic and decided to roll off to Lou's Records in Encinitas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was in search of a Melanie record. I used to listen to Melanie over and over. I Just Love Her. I actually thought Brand New Key was about Roller Skating. Oh, the innocence of youth.

Did you know that Melanie Safka dropped out of the music business to raise her children and now in her 60's is off on tour Performing Around the World?! I'd say She's Done Alright for a Girl!



 

 

 

Did you see Moonrise Kingdom? There are some Beautiful Record Playing references in that film.

 

 

 

Listening to Records.  I highly recommend it!

 

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