more art by Pat from 1977-78

A painted and applied canvas piece for a wall hanging taken from cave painting photos.]

A study for the Cliburn Kayboard made for the 1977 Van Cliburn competition.  Satin and velvet with a quilt behind and hankies stuffed in between the keys.  This is made to the exact scale used for the Cliburn Keyboard.

a Christmas letter from 1960 by Patsy Reese

75 Janice St., Apt. 79
Buffalo 7, New York
December 12, 1960

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

We are all well and expect a white Christmas up here.

Anne Flavia is 2-1/2 now; she makes small decisions, long sentences, and peanut butter sandwiches for herself and Kitty, who came to live with us in September.

Bill is 6 months old Dec. 28 and at about 17 pounds is beautifully co-ordinated.  He is constantly on the move, and his curiosity is matched only by his ambition.

Hayne is well-liked at the University of Buffalo….too busy is you ask me but he enjoys the work, especially his research. We plan a long trip home this summer with stops at almost every relative's house and a couple of weeks in Mexico, baby-sitting compliments of Ann and Thurston Atwood.

I haven't taken any course yet, but have joined a group to play chamber music once a week (amateurs) and I'm librarian on the board of La Leche League, a group for breast-feeding education.  They helped me a lot before Bill was born (he's still nursing) and I enjoy helping them.

Here's hoping we get to see all of you this summer and that you have a great New Year!

Love,

Patsy

1970's soft art by Pat Reese

I made several round beds in the 1970's.  this one was a sofa/bed for Pablo Calderon for his apartment.   It was 6 feet in diameter and about 6 inches thick.  The cover was made with classic patchwork design and went on like a fitted sheet, so it was washable.  Pablo loved it and used it for a long time.

These little abstract dancers were all made in 4 parts tied together at the top with different little covered buttons for "hats"  I still have one or two of them somewhere.  The photo was made by my friend Jim Sanders who is also a fiber artist.  At that time he was head of the 5-state Ozark Foothills Craft Guild based in Mountain View, Arkansas.

A blue jean jacket embellished with lace, embroidery and applique.  One of several I made during this period.  When I find more photos I will post them.  My brother had a  denim shirt that he wore on stage in the San Francisco production of "Hair" which ran for a year.  Bill played trumpet in the band which was onstage during the entire  performance.

Atwood gathering about 1977

standing, l to r, Mike Hansen, Alme Denny, Hipp Arthur, Mamie Hansen, Bill Reese, Ed Atwood, Harold Denny, Patsy Reese. In front, Laura Atwood kneeling, Bill Atwood with Ann Atwood on his lap, Ernestine Arthur, TR Atwood, Margaret Reese.  I don't know where Anne was.  Maybe she took the picture.

Holiday dinner at the Atwoods' 1978

This is in the Atwood kitchen in Mineral Wells.  That is Patsy with the long braids.  Anne Flavia next to me, and Bill on the right.  In the background are Margaret and Mother, Ann Atwood.  I think the year was 1977 or 1978.  Look at the splendid turkey dinner!!!  It was either Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The Atwood clan at Christmas: 1962

An Atwood Christmas gathering at Uncle Ed and Aunt Laura's house in Comanche.  Back row:  Hipp Arthur, Joyce and Cecil Rambo, Cranford Lundy.  Second row:  Ed Atwood, Ann Atwood, Laura Atwood, Ruth Lundy, Alma Denny.  Seated:  Susan Lundy, TR Atwood, Ernestine Atwood, Harold Denny, Mama Atwood.  Mama passed in 1963 so this must have been 1962.

Below is a separate picture of my dad Thurston with my little brother Bob Atwood and mother with Mama Atwood in the center.  Same day of course.

Gardening: Aunt Laura and Mom

Mother and Daddy always enjoyed gardening and working in their yard in Mineral Wells.  Bird-watching was another of their hobbies.

Lots of times family members from their generation would come to visit them in Mineral Wells. This looks like a bright spring day.

The people in the  top photo are Ernestine and Hipp  Arthur, Alma Denny, Laura Atwood, and Mother.  Aunt Laura and Mother got down and looked at the tulips up close.

My first slipcover shop in 1974

This photo was made in front of my first shop at 5505 West Rosedale in west Fort Worth.  It opened on April 1, 1974. My family came to visit at the grand opening.

Left to right in back: Eva Mae Lundy, sister in law of aunt Ruth Lundy, Alma Denny, Daddy's elder sister, Cranford Lundy, Aunt Ruth's husband, Hipp Arthur, Aunt Ernestine's husband, Harold Denny, Aunt Alma's husband.  In front:  Aunt Ernestine and my mother Ann Atwood.

Edward Atwood, TR's oldest brother

Here are two photos that show my dad Thurston with his eldest brother Edward.  I am pretty sure they were made in Comanche at Lake Proctor park.

Margaret Reese is in the first picture with her plate in her hand.  Often in the early 1970's TR and Ann Atwood would take all 3 kids camping.  Lake Proctor was one of their favorite places to fish and camp.

TR and Ann had a camper or a trailer for a long time and really enjoyed their camping trips.

Patsy Reese at Bazer & Reese in Fort Worth 1972

Starting in 1970 I learned to make custom slipcovers, and eventually became a partner with Noah Bazer in a slipcover shop at 2261 College Avenue in Fort Worth.

We inherited two club chairs somehow and I covered them with orange and yellow fabric and painted a rainbow mural on the wall with sunflowers.  It was a very cheerful entrance to the shop.

I was quite thin at that time as you can see.  I wore my hair long until 1977 when it was so long I could sit on it. Then I got a short haircut.

Uncle Watt and Aunt Frankie Atwood

This is Aunt Frankie and Uncle Frank (Watt) Atwood.  Uncle Watt was my dad's middle brother.

They lived in Tyler all of their married life where Uncle Watt was partner in an appliance store.  They had one daughter, Frances Evelyn, who was about the same age as me (Patsy.)

Uncle Watt used to give us kids silver dollars at Christmas time.  Aunt Frankie was always smiling and laughing and  in a good humor.  It was always a treat to see them.

When I was about 13 I spent a long vacation at their house in Tyler.  I think Aunt Frankie was ready for me to leave.  She asked me, "Aren't you homesick?"

a letter from Thurston to Patsy Atwood Reese April 1958

Band Hall
April 2, 1958

Well spring has come; and I don't guess I have to mention that this is my favorite time of year.  My fancy is turned in different directions than it used to be….but it still turns, which is something.

The fishing bug  is really about to get the best of me,,,,Bob, Bill and I went out last Sunday…but too much wind kept us from fishing very long.

Thanks for the socks…I guess that you are about the only one who ha ever knitted me anything.  I am going to save them and wear them next football season.  I tried them out the other day..and I like the way my feet feel..I know they will be warm.

I think of you kids a lot…and wish I could share some of the happiness being around you.  But I know that it is re a l fine for you both to be so far away from the influences of parents.

…I will enclose a check for five for just being an expectant grandpa.  My gosh..it better be a girl.  So get something colored that will suit a girl.

Thanks for the pictures you're gonna take. …

73's and 88's  (that's ham talk for hugs and kisses)

Doc.

(Doc was Thurston's amateur radio "handle."  Amateur radio operators call themselves "hams."  Daddy and Uncle Ed both spent a lot of time with their "ham rigs" in  the late 1950's.)

when I find the photo of TR with his ham rig I will add it to this post.

Bill Reese at age 10, 1970

Bill Reese at age 10.  He sure had a beautiful smile.

He has a suitcase in the photo on the right.  I think he and Anne and Margaret were headed to  their 

dad's for a summer visit.

Daddy with a big fish

Today is Father's Day and I wanted to post a good picture of my dad.

He just loved to fish.  he fished with his brother, and his brothers in law, and with my mother.  They also took us fishing.

Their favorite place to go fishing was on the Gulf of Mexico.  We would go to Corpus Christi, Aransas Pass, and Port Aransas which was a little island with a causeway going to it.

When Mother and Daddy were first married they went fishing in the Gulf, and Mother caught a fish.  She got so excited she threw the whole rod and reel into the water.

Through the years TR collected some really good fishing tackle.  I always liked to look at the fishing lures and stuff that the men in our family collected.

Christmas with the Atwoods

This was Christmas at the Atwoods after we had moved from Buffalo to Comanche in 1970,  We stayed at their house for a few weeks and then I rented a house in Fort Worth, where I worked at Sears as a decorator.

This was in TR and Ann Atwood's house in their living room.  The painting in the top photo is a painting done by Mother's sister Elna Hanks.

Tr's sister Ernestine Arthur in the 1970;s

Ernestine Atwood Arthur with Daddy at Christmas in the 1970's.  Her husband Hilburn "Hipp" Arthur at right in back.  Daddy told me when he was little she and Alma used to box his ears.

TR and Ann Atwood at Niagara Falls, 1960's

TR and Ann Atwood at Niagara Falls.  They came  to visit us in Buffalo and of course made a side trip to Niagara, which was only a few minutes over the Peace Bridge from us.  Even though they were only in their 50's TR's hair was already white.  His hair started turning gray when he was only 25 years old. It looks like they were holding hands, a rare sight in any pictures of them.

this is one of my favorite photos of my mother.  I am sure it was made by TR.  You can see a rainbow almost on her shoulder.  I think the falls made a rainbow almost all the time.

Ann Atwood's smile

This is a rare photo of Mother because she is smiling, and her eyes were open.  It was made in the early 1980's in her living room in Mineral Wells.  I think she is opening a Christmas gift.  Miss you, Mom.

letters from Margaret summer 1972

Margaret, with Anne and Bill, went to Iowa City one summer to visit Hayne and Nancy.  She wrote these letters to me while she was there, using Hayne's typewriter.

Margaret Reese as an artist from her early days

Margaret gave me a hand made coupon book for Mother's Day when she was about six or seven.  the top page was the cover, and the captions included vacuuming, dusting, and washing dishes.

The orange and blue woodcut was always a favorite of mine.  I am not sure what year that is from exactly.

Margaret was in an acting group at the University of Buffalo when she was only five.  The players ranged in age from five to 22 or so, and their work was all improvisation.

Margaret was very popular with the whole company and had a prominent part in the original play that they staged at the local avant-garde theatre in Buffalo.  There were not sets, everybody wore black leotards, and at the end of the show the whole audience was onstage with the players.

By the way, the pillows on the sofa in the dusting and vacuuming pictures have tassels on the corners.

Mama Atwood's raisin bread recipe

The Bread Frank likes best is made This way.:

Whole wheat Raisin bread:

One or two eggs

One cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon soda

salt to taste

1-1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and as much sugar as you can take up in one hand,

1 cup raisins

a little shortening.

This is a recipe of my own and Jack (Ernestine) and Frank is absolutely crazy about it. Jack will fill herself so full of it till she can't eat anything else.  I make it exactly like I do corn bread except I put raisins in it.

I make lovely whole wheat raisin Light bread but this is as good and not nearly so hard to make.  Besides This flour contains every bit of the whole wheat, and the Light bread always has to have white flour.  If I fail to make this bread one day Frank says “Mama please make some more raisin wheat bread”.  But he does not care much for the Bread with out the raisins and sugar

notes from a letter: Mama to Mamie Feb. 19, 1931

After Papa Atwood died in June, 1929, Mama tried to work for a long time.  She sold books door to door and later on Avon, which took her from town to town in south Texas.  Finally the kids all pledged $5 a month to help her with expenses. Thurston, the youngest child, was still living with Mama and trying to finish high school.

"….I had only enough money to pay for water, lights, gas and butter, and paid a dollar and twenty five cents for the little Turkey I got for Xmas dinner. And one dollar to give Thurston for his dues for agriculture at school. Frank was the only one to give me any money for this month up to the fifteenth.

So far this month butter is the only food bill I have paid for January and knowing that the boys don't get too large a salary it makes me uneasy to be getting in debt."

"(Thurston) works at a creamery every Saturday all day.  Gets only $1.00. He bought a shirt for each day's work. He got down to only one shirt to his name, except those that was rags. One of them had split and been sewed up nine times in the back. Next Saturday he wants to get him a belt."

Thurston, Papa Atwood, Edward and Frank in 1928

Anne, Bill and Margaret with their Atwood grandparents

I am pretty sure these photos were taken by my mother, Ann Atwood.  I am positive that the one below was made in the Atwoods' front yard in Mineral Wells.

And the ones on the right were made at Lake Comanche, when all 3 kids went with their grandparents on a camping and fishing trip.

Newspaper clipping from the Comanche Chief, March, 1933

From the Comanche Chief, enclosed in a letter from Mama to her eldest daughter, Mamie who lived in Los Angeles in 1933

Postmarked March 15, 1933

LOCAL BANKS TO RECEIVE GOLD

Gold and gold certificates that have been in hiding for years are being turned in at the two banks of Comanche. One person Thursday deposited a quantity of gold, some of which bore the date of 1850.

The exact amount which had been turned in could not be learned but it is understood to be relatively large. The Government is calling upon all banks to make a report at the close of business today of the amount which has been turned in.

The Government is expected to fix a penalty or make non-negotiable gold and gold certificates that are not turned into the banks, one banker stated.

art work from Margaret Ellen Reese to Mom

a letter from Grandmother Ruth Ricketts written 1980

This is a letter from my grandmother, Ruth Barry Ricketts, to her younger sister written in 1980.

She writes about where they lived growing up, and about the time after her mother, Annie Barthel Barry, passed away.  It fell to grandmother to try and take her mother's place in the household, and it was such a strain that she had a stroke 2 weeks after Annie's passing. 

She also says, "Brother (Erwin Barry) didn't talk till he was four hears old.  The first thing he said was 'Look at the mule.' "  Below is a picture of Mother and her parents, Donald and Ruth Ricketts, in front of their ouse in Hooks, Texas in the 1960's.

The Hit Parader

Here's an old copy of one of my favorite teen--age magazines, the Hit Parader.  It cost 25 cents and had the words to lots of the songs that were popular on the radio at that time, probably 1955.

I am not sure why Pier Angeli is on the cover; she was a movie starlet.  But I can tell you that every day when we went to school, we had to have a neck scarf like the one she is wearing.

I can still remember the words to some of these songs, like the  Song from Moulin Rouge, the 1950's version.  "Whenever we kiss, I worry and wonder, your lips may be near, but where is your heart???

Bill Reese 's early school days

Bill's school picture from second grade

Bill eating ice cream in the Atwoods' back yard about 1970

Bill and Debra Shaw in the yard at our first house in Fort Worth, at 4404 Wabash, 1970

Margaret, Bill and me (Mom) in the doorway.