Thurston's home made Christmas cards 1943

My dad Thurston made our family's Christmas cards one year.  I believe it was 1943.  He used red construction paper, white ink, and pretty Christmas "seals" or stickers.  It looks like he used a calligrapher's pen, or just a quill pen, which was still easy to find in those days.

Nice and not expensive I am sure.  He really was quite an artist, wasn't he?

Letter from Mama to Mamie from the train to California 1927

Oroville, CA August 28, 1927

Dear Mamie,
Just getting ready to enter Feather Canyon and I am feeling fine.

It is absolutely impossible to get into the observation car it is so crowded and they won't move over

letter from my grandmother Ruth Barry Ricketts

This was written August 6, 1958, five days after the birth of my daughter, Anne Flavia Reese by my grandmother Ruth Barry Ricketts to my mother Anna Louise Ricketts Atwood.

Dear Anna,

I am sending you a list of the names of "Ann's" in my branch of the family as follows:

Mary Anna Fisher Barthel   …my mother's mother 1st generation (nineteenth century)

Anna Mary Barthel Barry…..my mother    2nd generation

No Ann's in my generation (my mother goofed.) I was eldest child, and a daughter however.

Anna Louise Ricketts Atwood   4th generation

Patsy Ann Atwood Reese    5th generation

Anne Flavia Reese     6th generation

Ruth Barry at age 12

Thurston's Christmas letter to Mamie 1928

December 18, 1928

Dear Sis,

I am sending you a small Christmas gift.  I hope you will like it.  I know that you do not expect much from me but someday I am going to give you a much larger gift.

I am getting along fine in school work and in other things.

You never mention Cecil's (Mamie's husband) name in your letters.  I would certainly like to see him.  I'll bet he is a good sport.  I would like to take him possum hunting with me sometime, and also I would like to go duck hunting with him.

Sunday I got Uncle Jesse's (Manning's brother) car and went to Cedar Mountain and got us a pretty Christmas tree.

I am 14 years old now and this summer I want to get me a job in the print shop at "The Comanche Chief" (Comanche County newspaper)  I would like to learn the business.  I think you will not find many misspelled words in this letter.  I can spell but can't write so good.

Love

Thurston R. Atwood

Thurston in May 1928 in the Boy Scout uniform Mamie bought for him.