Somebody took these two pictures, one shortly after the other, of one night during christmas season, 40some year ago.I'm doing a point and name here, from picture left, don't know who, then granny naylor one, looking sad as usual, me, randy, debbi, two donelly's, grandpa naylor on the couch behind, rob, enjoying his new christmas gift, and the blue dressed figure, comes up in the next picture.
see, it's mother naylor, operating the 16mm tape recorder we had then. second half of the same view. you'd think it was a big room. it was bigger than my current living room.
the two donelly's , me and randy, moved over for the second shot, as you can see. ted donelly, my dad's brother in law, is in the far right corner.
3 unknowns here...the fellow in the black suit, middle right, then far right, the lady in black dress, arms folded, on an old chair brought up from the rumpus room. and in first picture, lady on the far left, in the other extra christmas time chair. Note the references to past posts regarding grandpa naylor, with the very brown eyes, and the green polyester covered chair, indeed a rocker, with granny naylor 1 looking despondent within. fascinating where people look when being photographed, eh?
(the chair looks blue here, but it was indeed flourescent type electric lime green. it was either discarded, or spirited away by some family member.)
The three unidentifiables are Shirley Donnelly, and George and Ethel Poole, old friends of the Naylors. Apparently Ethel lived with them when the Naylor kids, Shirley and Doug, were small, and was their "nurse". Eleanor was finding it hard to cope with their challenges at that time, with a toddler and Doug with polio, long period in hospital and then on crutches when he was Grade 1 eligible. I remember him saying the other kids would plunk him down on the curb, and play with his crutches to their hearts'content. Anyway, Ethel Poole died just a few years back, and is buried out at Forestburg where there are remnants of her family. We included them at Christmas time often. The Donnelly kids were not as cousinly as I would have liked; probably because their parents didn't make much of an attempt at providing opportunities. And they lived at the other end of the city. I don't recall ever taking our kids to Donnelly's, actually, maybe our kids were too rambunctious to warrant an invitation! might've been devastating to her priceless Royal Doultons. Their three, Rick, Sharon and Sandra, were all head bangers (would sit on the sofa and bang their heads back and forth on the back of the couch...I don't know what kind of syndrome this is, Dr. Phil, but it must signify something. P.S. They were never allowed to play in the dirt, either.) Anyway, precious memories again. The Donnelly kids all grew up, married and have grandkids of their own at this stage. I'm always in touch with Ted on email, although Shirl doesn't mess with the computer.... I like her now, much better than when she was young...or younger. Illness has tempered her personality I think.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...i've heard very little about Dad's experience with polio...and even less about MY granny Naylor, and why she seemed so unhappy. I only remember me and my bros would run and hide when they showed up for a visit, cause she would always want to kiss us, and we didn't like that. A fragile personality i thought it was. But i was just a kid. These pictures interest me, because of where everyone is placed, and the expressions on faces. Grandpa Naylor well back from the wife, Ted Donelly well back from his own, and the kids all mostly playing to the camera. I would guess Dad is taking the picture, and we Naylor kids almost always put on a good camera face. The Donelly girl in the second pic seems to be looking off, maybe towards her mother. Funny you mention never being invited over to their house, i have absolutely no memory of even the outside appearance of their house, in the westend, only just roughly whereabouts it was. Not too far from Westlawn cemetery, where my Dad, and his 2 parents, pictured herein, are buried.
ReplyDeleteI have one of those precious pieces of Royal Doulton porcelain that Aunt Shirley, and her Mother, Eleanor Naylor, so treasured. A beautiful art deco bowl, that just sits in my cupboard. The ultimate symbol of lovely possessions that come to mean little, just a reminder of people i didn't really know, or try to know. I often wonder how my Dad came to be sometimes unhappy with life, and how his Mother treated him. She seemed...well..fragile i guess works here, again. My Mom could say more on it, but i'll mention, Eleanor was so dependent for her sense of self on her husband, that when he died, she basically willed herself to die, from being mostly healthy, and passed away 6 weeks after he did. So so different they were, from my gramma Morrison, who we all so enjoyed to have in the house for extended visits. I liked Grandpa Naylor, he was just a very distant type person, like playing WAY backstage to his, excuse me for this, granny n., a wee bit histrionic wife. Well, at least i've made my peace with them, with my various visits to the Westlawn cemetery to see them and my Dad's burial place. I must say though, i much prefer the headstone my Mom picked out for Dad, and herself, over the elder Naylors', which is a bit too showy to be classy. There's pics of those headstones out there, with Mom and Linda i would suppose, and of course i don't keep pictures on hand unless i'm using them. I'm the anti-clutter person, often to the extreme.
Oh, Mom, i thought that was most likely George Poole. I have very little memory of either of them, other than them being around the house during Christmas time.
ReplyDeleteAahh, i just noticed by blowing up the second picture, George Poole is holding an Etch a Sketch toy...i imagined that was the toy that Rob was so intently engaged with in the first picture..funny how finely detailed photos can hold so much history. We seem to do well with capturing these type of memorable moments, in our extended family. Kristy's blog, for example, includes a wonderful collection of family pictures, with her and Lee's two adorable kids, Zoë and Dreyton.
ReplyDeleteI have not one memory of ever being at aunt shirleys house, not one! I do remember a few times at the Pooles for christmas dinner. What a brave couple having our troop and them having no experience with children. I clearly remember they had 2 small white dogs that were thier babies. They were white scottie dogs. Highland terriers. We terrified them but I loved them
ReplyDeleteThat Christmas tree is picture-perfect VINTAGE. Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteChristmas tree by Marion. Always a fake tree to my memory, Dad would assemble it, Mom would help us decorate it, we would buy or make new ornaments every year, store them for 11 months, and use them on the same fake tree we used year before.
ReplyDeleteDad would put up all the outside Christmas lights, i think Rob sometimes hung the ones higher up on the roof, that was a pretty tall ladder required there, and Rob was good with ladders.Mom was too. I wouldn't touch a ladder for all the rice in China.
I say fake tree in a good way. Our way. I have not, and will ever not, kill a tree for the sake of celebration. I wouldn't kill a tree for any reason. If i was in my dreamland, in a cabin in the woods, i'd only use the already dead trees for firewood. I have this bizarre reverence for plantlife.
ReplyDeleteHey, do you see what happens when stories are exchanged? I had no memory whatsoever of the Poole's little West Highland terriers until Debbie mentioned it, then of course, they appeared in their full Scottish dignity in my mind as soon as I read her comment on them. Great little dogs, originally rat catchers.When I was a kid, we had a Scottish terrier named Tightwad Tibby (the name on her papers), we just called her Tibby, she was with our family for 17 years. There were many stories in our family concerning Tibby and her exploits....the time she was carried off by two large coyotes, by the scruff of her neck, yelping like crazy. My dad fired his rifle above their heads, so as not to hit Tibby, and the coyotes dropped her and took off at lightning speed. Tibby came racing back to the house as fast as her little legs would pump her along, she never teased coyotes again. She was unbelievably brave, if somewhat fool-hardy. One time she chased a skunk under a granary, and for her pains, got a full faceful of skunk ammunition. There was a great deal of racket under there, with agonizing screams from both dog and skunk; Tibby emerged and rolled in the nearest snow drift, then we (and she) suffered through numerous cleansings. Frankly, she STUNK for weeks. The skunk never came out from under the granary, she dispatched him for sure. For fun times on the farm, us kids used to drown out gophers in the farm yard, haul buckets of water from the well, and pour them down the gopher hole. Tibby would be waiting at the top, ready to pounce....up comes the gopher, soaking wet and very unhappy, Tibby grabs him as he appears, by the back of his neck, tosses him expertly in the air, and crunch, crunch crunch when he comes down. Exit gopher. Off with his tail to add to our extremely smelly collection (to be turned in bye and bye for like two cents apiece to the municipality).
ReplyDeleteNow that i look at the tree in the picture, it's looking real to me. I know we did that too, but i think it was earlier. We did have one of them doohickey's for sticking a stolen tree in. With the water vessel, and the bolts for sticking the tree straight up.
ReplyDeleteLike, the smell, all the falling needles, and the fire hazard? Not for me.
When me and my bros would stay out at Uncle Jack's farm, we got 50 cents for every gopher tail we brought back from the fields. But that involved a 22 calibre rifle. Probably the last time i shot a gun. Was fun nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love these discussions and memories?
ReplyDeleteI remember finding a stray Christmas tree at the lot down by the garage by the Low Level Bridge. I was in grade 2, and walking home from Bennett school past the Christmas tree lot, and I dragged a full sized tree all the way home. I know I didn't pay for it...I had no money. Hopefully someone gave it to me...
Linda, you little purloiner! How come I didn't make you take it back? By the way, our trees at first were REAL...that was before fake trees were invented and swept the market, much safer, and much less trouble. Consisted of a base to hold a long pole, with holes drilled in it, color coded, then you assembled it by putting the (also color coded) branches into the right holes. And much cheaper in the long run...cheaper we liked. When I was a kid, I wanted a Christmas tree SO BAD, I finally had to settle for a branchy poplar tree, there were simply no evergreens in our country. I cut the poplar down myself and brought it home and set it up in a bucket of sand. Think it was more poplar than popular....but my folks let me get away with it. Don't know what I decorated it with, maybe popcorn and crepe paper streamers, I know we didn't have any Christmas decorations.
ReplyDeleteFunny, funny stories. i have a few slides of Christmas a few years after this, when we had gotten our first artificial tree, that i'll post next. We've gone from animals, to christmas trees, and rediscovered memories...i wonder where the new pics will take us.
ReplyDelete