My Life Journal...Diana Lewis

I'm staying with the six page idea vs. the four page only because there's so much information. You can not only find it in the words but also the photos and these are some of the sweetest photos of Diana at Nob Hill. I'm sure all of us can find a photo where we ourselves or one of our family members are sitting in a "swimming pool", it might not have been a wash tub outside maybe it was the sink. I just love sweet innocent photos like these. Her mother was so well organized in noting all of her developmental dates and  foods, Virginia loved her daughter you can tell just by looking at the first few pages of the book. Enjoy the next six pages, 10-15 and be sure to share and let me know what you think. 

Photograph of pages 10 & 11

   Diana at 6 mo. On the floor of

The living room at Nob Hill.

Diana at 7 yr. in

Her “swimming pool”

Diana on the porch at Nob Hill. She was

Eleven months old & this was the picture I sent her Daddy

who was in Greenland. 

July, 1945

In the

front yard

of Nob Hill

at 13 ½ mo.

Here I was

14 mo. Old.

The picture

was taken by

Mother

and Daddy

in the

back yard at

Nob Hill.

Photographs of page 12 & 13

SLEPT

First Week  Diana slept days, cried nights

Second week the same as first week.

Next month She has her nights & days straightened out

REACTIONS

Notices sound of voices  Sept. 1, 1944

First tears  Sept. 20, 1944

Recognized Father and Mother  October 25, 1944

ACTIVITY

Lifts head  November 1, 194

Grasps objects has always been able to hold rattle

Plays with hands Sept. 12, 1944

Sits up (supported) Nov. 25, 1944

Sits up alone Feb. 27, 1945

Creeps June, 1945

Stands with help July, 1945

Walks October 1, 1945

First Words Daddy – Pretty

Walks alone October 1, 1945

Attempts to climb March, 1946

Words together April, 1946

Uses spoon and cup cup- Feb, 1946 – spoon –

You've a little way about you

That is very, very dear,

A pleasant way that always makes

Folks glad to have you near,

That brings a smile to welcome you,

A sigh when you depart,

And that little way about you

Has endeared you to my heart.

Janet

To Diana

From Deborah

(This is hand written in pencil on the back, penmanship looks to be that of a child.)

Easter’s the day for bunnies,

For brand-new BONNETS too…

But better still, it’s just the time

To say HELLO to you!

    To Diana from Grandmother Lewis

April 1 – 1945 

This is just

for your own little,

cute self alone,

On the very first

Valentine’s Day

you have known!

With Love From Great Grandmother Beers

(This was handwritten in black ink on the back.)

Photographs of pages 14 & 15

FOODS

First feeding was at the hospital. Her first orange juice and

cod-liver oil was at one month. Prune juice added 5^th week.

Note changes At the hospital she had a formula of

evaporated milk & water. Dr. changed this to whole

milk and water when she came home.

First solid food Vegetables from the garden at __________

on July 26, 1945.

Drank from glass at eight months

FAVORITE FOODS

At one saltines, orange juice       At two bacon, banana’s, milk

PARENTS’ COMMENTS

During 2^nd year Diana has a great interest in books. At 2 ½

she knew her nursery rhymes quite well and all the alphabet.

During 6^th to 10^th year reads books like mad

During 10^th to 15^th year reads books by the dozens

Tomorrow’s blog post will include a Western Union birthday wish from her daddy along with a sweet birthday card while he was in Ireland. The card is sweet and I have to admit being in a military family myself, my heart breaks when reading about parent and child separation. I know that I’ve been asked about composing a list of all surnames mentioned in the book and their location; I will be posting that on the last posting of Diana Lewis. I’m waiting because this book also has her wedding announcement clippings; those hold additional names, that I will be sharing those later also. 

Treasure Chest Thursday

    
Best little orange box in town that is actually a big box of memories. The old, “Town & Country Shoes,” shoe box was recently given to me by my mom on a holiday trip back home. While we were visiting my parents, we sought through some old family photographs and I was able to bring some of them home. That’s right I brought them home in this “orange shoe box”, but don’t worry I’ve placed them in acid free sleeves and boxes. So my Thursday Treasure Chest is the “orange box” pictured below and I’ve decided to scan a few of the photos in and share, no laughing.




      

The sweet bonnet girl is non other then my mom, Deborah Sue ELFRANK Langston. The rough and tough cowboy and boot wearing cowgirl happen to be my uncle Fred Leroy ELFRANK and my mom.


       

The beautiful lady and handsome man pictured on the left are my grandparents, Martha Colleen CLINTON Elfrank and Fred Henry ELFRANK. Now for the other couple on the right, remember no laughing, yes that’s one of the “Seven Dwarfs” and myself.



Yes that’s me in a pink lace dress, my poor daughter was in shock with this one, it was my junior prom.
 

Just remember some of your treasures might be in a simple shoe box. So pull them out, clear the table, spread them out and share.

Matrilineal Monday

     I want to give some well-deserved focus to some of the strongest women in my life. If it wasn't for these 

women I wouldn't be here today, wouldn't be who I am, wouldn't have this wonderful family and be so 

strong willed.

Great grandma: Mary Caroline Estes (Elfrank)

Great grandma: Essie Mae Stewart (Clinton)

Great grandma: Emma Josephine Harenberg (Hopper)

Great grandma: Aline Marie Smith (Langston)

Grandma: Martha Colleen Clinton (Elfrank)

Grandma: Lena Kathleen Hopper (Langston)

Grandma: Doris Ann CAMPBELL (Benton, Langston)

My mom: Debra Sue Elfrank (Langston)

      Every one of these women played a special role in my life some way or another. I just wish they were all around now so I could thank each one of them. Over the next few weeks on every Monday I plan on introducing you to each of them a little more. With the help of some collected photos, letters, stories and memories from my mom and me.   We have all come to a point at one time or another wishing we would have said or done something more. I guess this is my way and time to express that, with some laughter and a few tears. 

2013 Resolutions with some Reflections

     It’s time to welcome in the new year of 2013; I’m sure most of you already know that. I’m just trying to figure out if I’m supposed to reflect back on my two months of blogging. Maybe I should blog about my resolutions of what I hope to accomplish with my blog and genealogy research. Since I don’t have a lot of blogs to reflect back on why not combine both, the reflection and my resolutions.

     I wasn’t really sure about blogging when I was first approached; it was defiantly new and kind of scary for me, as some of you know. But a wise lady told me that you just have to jump in and give it a try, step out of your box. That I did and I’m so glad because I have truly enjoyed every aspect of it, as I hope you’ve gotten a joy out of reading my blog. I still have a few things to look into that I made reference to on previous post. Finding out more about the small cemetery our neighborhood, I still need to find a Halloween photo of my dad; I need to look into a “Military Genealogical Society”.  I think those are the stones left unturned that I still need to flip over, so I’ll carry those over to my resolutions for 2013. Reliving my Christmas past with the blog prompts from http://geneabloggers.com was very entertaining. There were so many things that I had forgotten about, the store front at Hutson’s, plastic bread bags on our feet and the Jell-O recipe. What’s nice is there were so many more memories that came to light and I enjoyed sharing those with my family, we all had a laugh or two.

     I, like all of you want to complete my genealogy research on my family and my husbands. As I said earlier I need to carry over the Halloween photo hunt for my dad, uncover the mystery of the neighborhood cemetery and look into that “Military Genealogical Society”. I hope to attend one of the large, informative, fun and wonderful genealogy conferences again this year either the NGS or FGS. Finish my genealogy class and take some additional genealogy classes. I plan on completing the scanning of all letters, diaries, photos and other documents that I’ve collected over the years. Then transcribing them for others to view, who knows maybe I have information on a surname you or someone you know might be searching for. I want to promote my blog, business and myself more in this coming year thru education with the youth, giving speeches, client work and through my blog. First and foremost have a blast doing all of it because without the fun and enjoyment of genealogy research it just becomes work and none of us like work.

Halloween Treat found in December

     Who knew I would be bringing home a treasured shoe box of memories from this last visit back home. My mom and I sat down at the dining room table last week, during our family Christmas, and went through an box of old and some not so old, photos.

     It was quite funning hearing the comments from my kids about their grandparents, great-grandparents, even my husband and I. We had a wonderful time laughing and trying to remember who some of the people were and where some of those photos were taken. If you remember last month I posted about seeking a photo of my grandparents or parents during Halloween. Well jack pot we found one in that old shoe box of photos. It took her only a few minutes to remember that it was a Halloween photo, I’m so happy. It was taken in 1960 and I believe it was at her house in the living room, she was dressed as a little girl with her dolly, sucker and even a big silk bow in her hair.

     So for those of you who were on a search like I was, don’t give up I’ve at least found one.

                                

Advent Calendar - Christmas Shopping

     I remember Christmas shopping when I was younger, no wait that was making out my wish list for Santa. Every year right before Thanksgiving the Sears catalog would arrive, along with JcPenny catalog. My brothers and I would take turns going through the catalogs, circling what we wanted then folding the corners of each page that had all the good stuff.  Why did they stop sending out those catalogs, those were the best things ever, oh yeah the internet. I guess you could say that tradition continues on here in the Rodesky house. Except the catalogs look more like flyers and each child uses a different colored highlighter. I guess with a neon highlighter we have no excuse to miss anything circled.  

     Growing up I remember when the PTA would open “Santa’s Workshop” in the library. You would walk into room with all of these wonderful small gifts sitting on tables. Some for your parents, grandparents and even siblings, there were so many choices. After we carefully picked out all of gifts we would then go back to the classroom and wrap away.   

     Christmas shopping, what a fun activity that we all try and do with smiles on our faces and holiday warmth in our hearts.  I know that with good intentions I try and start early, but it never fails that the minds of the young ones change. But I think over the last few years we have it down pretty good. We wait until the week after “Black Friday”, things are usually calmer then. Both my husband and I take turns with each of the kids. We take them out to various stores and let them pick out what they want to get for each other. It’s surprising to see how well they know each other and seem to pick just the right thing.

Advent Calendar - Christmas Stockings

     A few years back my mom made Christmas stockings for my brothers and me. If you’ve ever been to any craft store or craft department in a large retail store I’m sure you’ve seen these kits. The ones that were felt appliqué with tons and I mean tons of sequins and beads, that all had to be hand sewn. Mom could have picked any kit and I’m sure at one point, okay maybe at a couple points, she wished she would have.

     Each of us had a different Christmas holiday character on the front of our stockings, mine has Santa. As you noticed I used present tense, I still have it. I’m pretty sure that both of my brothers’ do, I think on one was “Frosty the Snowman” and the other one was “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”. My mom is a very crafty lady and loves to make things with her hands that hold meanings and memories, these stocking do that and the tradition carried on. I remember when my mom would sit in her brown plaid chair and open each little plastic packet of sequins and beads, then work to separate them by color in a metal muffin pan. We were instructed not touch that muffin tin, no matter how pretty and shiny everything was inside of it. We listened and didn’t touch it; we were playing around and bumped it, so that’s not technically touching it. Boy did those sequins fly and make a pretty rainbow of color on the living room floor. Problem is mom didn’t think it was that pretty, once we finished helping her clean them up and separating them by color we didn’t care to see another rainbow of sequins again.    

     Remember I said that I still have mine and the tradition carried on. Well it has, once my oldest son saw my stocking he wanted one so I did as my mom had many years ago. I believe I have finally completed that tradition and now have the same felt appliqué, sequin and bead covered stocking for everyone in the Rodesky household.

Advent Calendar - Christmas at School

 

I don’t ever recall being in a school Christmas pageant, oh no wait I think I do. I was a present, that’s right my mom wrapped a big box in Christmas paper then put a bow on it. I slipped into the box and stood on stage with all of the other kids in school singing Christmas carols. I can also remember, from second grade up there was some kind of classroom event celebrating Christmas. The homeroom mom would put together small crafts, games for the kids to play and we would make Christmas ornaments. Most of the moms would bring in baked goods and drinks for all of us to enjoy, we would also exchange small gifts.

     While in junior high and high school I played the flute in band and we would put on Christmas concerts. I remember my first Christmas concert outfit; my daughter would love it, just joking. It was a Red and green wool plaid skirt, white blouse, red sweater, black tights and my early Christmas present, clogs.  Mom and dad let me wear my Christmas present early that year, but after the concert they were wrapped and put back under the tree.   

Advent Calendar - The Holiday Happenings!

     Before we commence in the traditional gift giving celebration we have a few more champagne bottles to uncork.  Both a birthday and anniversary are celebrated during the month of December around here.

     A very special, smart, caring and wonderful lady celebrates her birthday during the month of December, my mom. No matter how hectic the holiday season may get, we always wish mom a Happy Birthday. Reminding her how much she means to us, not only as a mom but also as a grandmother.  Since we are a military family it’s not always easy to be home for mom’s birthday. We have a birthday tradition that we do here in the Rodesky household for grandma and grandpa. All of the grandkids report to a central location, usually on the stairs and prepare to entertain. No they don’t do a little dance, or pose for a picture, but instead entertain her with a few bars of “Happy Birthday” with a few “cha-cha-chas” added in. One year she spent her birthday helping my husband and me with a very special event, our wedding. Well actually, that birthday she spent with us and the whole wedding party in a Golden Coral. If I’m not mistaking we had them bring out a slice of cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday. So mom, grandma, have the phone close by again, because we will be calling soon to sing another tone.

     My husband, Terry and I were married just two days after that Golden Coral dinner. It was a perfect December afternoon with all of our families and friends around in a beautiful church. That was one of those days in our lives that I will never forget. That was the day that I married my best friend, the man that I love and continue to love. No matter how many miles are between us we are always together in our hearts on this special December day.   It’s one of those days in your life that you will never forget no matter how many wonderful years you have spent with each other, that day will always stick out.  Happy Anniversary Terry!