Meri's Musings

For more Haiku My Heart, click HERE .  having launched balloons skyward, she shifts her gaze seaward to the storm

One day when I was browsing a local antique store, I stumbled across this photograph. Forgotten children. Siblings, most certainly. No names on the back, so I couldn't even begin to track down the family of origin. The photography studio was  in Sprague, Washington Territory. Sprague is a tiny town  in Lincoln County, near Spokane. The town, named after a Civil War general,  was platted in 1880 and incorporated in 1883.  Washington became a state in 1889, So this photo captures children who were born in a relatively narrow period of time.  I'd guess the one on the right, the older one, is two or three. I think it's a little boy  in a fancy costume,  but it could be a little girl with not much hair.  I think the one on the chair  is a little girl.  Someone's beloved children. Children adored enough to take to a photography studio  so their image could live on. Who do they belong to? Why were th...

There is an old saying about family giving you both roots and wings. Here are photos of some of the roots and branches in my family tree, some distant, some near. I've written stories about most of these people  in my Sepia Saturday posts. We all have to earn our own wings. For more Mosaic Monday posts, click HERE .

My Valentine's Day Sepia Saturday post featured a love story about a young woman and her high school sweetie who eloped during college, much to the ire of her parents. Let me introduce her parents: Clara Davidson Biggs and William A. "Willie" Biggs. If you remember, Willie and Clara wanted Leota's marriage annulled. Even tried to get the sheriff to arrest their new son-in-law. Welcome to the family! Willie and Clara were both born in McDonald County, Missouri in the 1880s. Clara was the daughter of Thomas Davidson  and Mary Anne Harrell. Willie was the youngest son of John Biggs and Dicy Reed. John and Dicy were my great-great grandparents on my dad's side and Willie was the brother of my great-grandmother, Mary (Biggs) Arnett. Willie and Clara got married about 1905 when Willie was 22 and Clara was 17. Leota was born in December 1906. Employment prospects in McDonald County were not auspicious and by 1910, this little family was living in Enid, Oklahoma. ...

They met and married in Wenatchee, Washington. Loren Lloyd Arnett painted houses for a business owned by his brother-in-law and learned the automobile upholstery trade. Mafie Marie Rosencrans worked as a nanny for the children of the minister of the local Christian church. They met, I've been told, at a high school basketball game. Lloyd was quite a ladies man, handsome devil that he was. He was only 22 when he married Marie, but he'd been engaged three times before. Was it her sweet beauty that captivated him? Her kindness and compassion? I wish I had asked this kind of question when I had the chance. They married in June 1922. Their first child, my father, was born about three years later. When Lloyd's father died in 1928, he and Marie and my dad and his baby sister moved in to his parents' home to help take care of his mother. After Mary Biggs Arnett died in 1937,  Lloyd and Marie became the owners of the house. Dad took the $18.75 mortgage payments to...

It's Sepia Saturday again. Since my dear mother is recovering  from shoulder replacement surgery, I thought I'd feature her image this week. This is little Betty with her dog Spot. She was born in a small town in Oregon, the third of four sisters. The Depression defined her childhood, though I don't know how much she knew or understood. Her high school years were spent in the shadow of World War Two. She went to college at a time when women sought an "MRS." degree. She had a lovely singing voice and often performed  as the vocalist for weddings and funerals. I remember once when I was really little that she was on television in Indianapolis. She worked in the library at Butler University, putting Hubby through school, so to speak. She worked on and off through my childhood, when working mothers were somewhat odd and not at all normative. It wasn't a matter of personal choice as much as necessity, because her husband's ministerial salary couldn'...

It's Sepia Saturday again. So let me introduce you to my parents. Before they were my parents. Since my father isn't wearing a wedding band, I'm going to guess this was taken while they were just dating or during their engagement. Dad was too young to join the military  when World War Two broke out, but as it was winding down he joined the Navy and went to flight school. The whole shebang was over soon after and he was sent back to civilian life and went back to finish college. They met in Eugene, Oregon  where he attended University of Oregon and a small church college called Northwest Christian College.   My mom was a music major at N.C.C. and my father was studying to become a minister. They married before my mother graduated. My dad went on to graduate school at Butler University in Indiana and my mom worked "putting hubby through." They were married for around twenty years  before parting company.  I'm not sure they were made for each other. But s...