There are lots of reasons Aunt Ethel, my grandmother's big sister, was cool. She took my dad to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. She lived in an elegant apartment with a really nice bathroom. She had Fiestaware, which I admired even when I was a little kid. She subscribed to Photoplay. She would give advice. She didn't wear glasses.
As I sort and scan family photos and try to make order out of chaos, I am discovering a new admiration for Aunt Ethel as photographer. She could frame an interesting pose and, most importantly, she jotted down some information on the back of the snapshot!
She didn't date this one but she didn't have to, since the developer stamped the date in the white space frame.This is the exterior of Grote Hall at Western Illinois University in Macomb nearly 60 years ago. It is no more and neither is Aunt Ethel. But she's still helping me out. My thanks to a truly great great-aunt.
Update: I came across a wallet photo of my little boy which I'd sent to her and on the back I wrote his name and Christmas 1976. She'd penned in: Rec'd Jan. 22, 1977.
As I sort and scan family photos and try to make order out of chaos, I am discovering a new admiration for Aunt Ethel as photographer. She could frame an interesting pose and, most importantly, she jotted down some information on the back of the snapshot!
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| J & H on veranda of Grote Hall on Campus W.I.U. |
Update: I came across a wallet photo of my little boy which I'd sent to her and on the back I wrote his name and Christmas 1976. She'd penned in: Rec'd Jan. 22, 1977.