Aunt Alma Atwood Denny

My father's sister Alma was the second eldest of Mama and Manning Atwood's children that lived.  She lived in Comanche, Texas all of her life.  She was very smart and attended Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth for two years.  

She taught school in Comanche before she married Harold Denny in 1926. She and Uncle Harold had one child, Cleve B. Denny; he is shown as an infant in the photo with his mother. In the large family photo from Christmas she is on the far right, standing.

Aunt Alma was particularly active in the Comanche Garden Club and became a judge for flower shows. She researched and wrote a genealogical survey of the George Atwood descendants including Manning Atwood's family.  This project took many years and she traveled extensively gathering data and meeting other relatives through the years. Every one of her generation of the Atwoods and their children all have copies of her book.

Aunt Alma was an amazing housekeeper.  Not only was her house always clean and tidy but it always smelled fresh.  She and Uncle Harold always had a big vegetable garden behind their house and grew their own vegetables and fruit.  They had pecan, peach and apricot trees as well.  She grew roses that were absolutely beautiful. Late in their lives, when her sister Aunt  Ernestine was in the hospital I remember she cut her most beautiful rose from beside her back door to take to Ernestine that day.  

The guest bedroom in their house was the one that had been Cleve's room when he was a boy and lived at home.  She had a particular picture of a little girl in a rocking chair on the wall in that room.  I loved that picture and when I asked her about it she said it was "just a magazine picture" that she had always liked and she had cut it out and put it in a frame.

After she passed away it must have been sold at her estate sale.  But in 2010 it turned up in an antique store in Fort Worth still in the same frame.  Of course I bought it and now it hangs in my house.

Ann Atwood's Vegetable Beef Soup

Ann Atwood's  Vegetable Beef Soup

a pound of lean beef, cubed

at least one large can of tomatoes, maybe some tomato juice as well

half a large or one small onion

lots of chopped celery Ann: "You can't have too much celery")

can of corn, drained

diced potatoes (one or two, peeled)

2 or 3 bay leaves

black pepper to taste

green peas or green beans about 1 cup

anything else that looks like it belongs in that day's soup

Put all of this in a big pot on the back burner.  Cook on low heat for a couple of hours or more.

Serve this to everybody who comes for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner while they wait for the big meal. Or just have it on a cold rainy day. It's good with cornbread especially.

Our house on Harlem Road

When Hayne and I divorced we lived on Washington Highway which was a short walk from the University campus.  I started working first at Denton, Cottier and Daniels, a music department store in downtown Buffalo, and then for Sears where I learned my decorating career.

When our landlady sold the house on Washington Highway we moved to a very nice duplex on Harlem Road in the same neighborhood.  It was in the same block as Harlem Road Elementary School, where all 3 kids eventually went to school.  We had nice nieghbors, the Millers in the other side of our duplex, and the Boddys, who lived across the street.  Ray Boddy was a professor at the University and there were also boys named Paul Wasik and his cousin Mike Kwasniak, who were Polish and really nice kids.

Mother and Daddy came to visit and we made pictures on the steps of our Harlem Road house.  The white dog in the picture is Lily, who was the Boddy's dog.  I don't know whose cat is in the corner, maybe from next door.

Austin reunion of Mother's family 1959

Left to right: Patsy Atwood Reese, Ann Atwood, Ruth Ricketts with Anne Flavia on her lap, and Donald Ricketts.  these were Mother's parents at the home of mother's sister Elna Hanks in Austin.

There are 4 generations of first daughters in the top photo.  Later on when Anne Flavia had a daughter Margaret Ellen Harrison, the five generations picture was made. By then Donald Ricketts has passed away.

The big snowman when I was 5 years old

This is in the pasture at the Atwood Hatchery that belonged to Aunt Laura and Uncle Ed in Comanche.  The woman on the right of the snowman is my mom Anna Louise.  Bill and I are sitting on the home-made sled that Daddy made for the occasion.  I am sure he took this picture.

On the left you can see one of the chicken houses at the Atwood Hatchery where the hens laid eggs.

There is more about this special winter day on this blog at

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3801104567582240677#editor/target=post;postID=4242736856078910379

Ann Atwood's peach ice cream

Every summer at the Atwood's mother would mash up ripe peaches and mix them with her home made custard ice cream.  I can still hear the sound of the ice cream freezer turning and you can see how much Margaret and Bill enjoyed themselves.  there are more pictures of the ice cream parties at the Atwood's which I will post here when I find them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Letter from my mother when I was a baby

Dec. 19, 1938   ( I was three months old)

Dearest Mamie:  (Mamie was Daddy's older sister who lived in Los Angeles)

…..Bill and I are so very proud of our baby, and I am glad all of his family seem to be so
 fond of her. (Bill was Thurston (my dad's) nickname in the family.  Everybody called them Bill and Ann.)

…..We have been in Comanche for just a little more than a month and are with Alma an Harold.  Alma and I take turns cooking and it works out fine.  Of course taking care of the baby is a big job itself, but Bill is very sweet to help me a great deal, and does the entire washing, even for Alma and Mrs. Atwood.

 …..You can never know how much my life with him means to me…and I suppose no one can except me.  We believe we are the happiest people in the world, even if we haven't become rich or famous.

Sincerely

Ann

Early pictures of Anne Flavia, our first baby

Here are some pictures from Anne Flavia's first year.  The one at top was made on Mother and Daddy's front porch at their house in Hillsboro. It includes my brothers Bill and Bob.

Below left is from the reunion of Mother's family in Austin in May of 1959.

Below is me, Mother, holding Anne, Hayne in back and Daddy on the right.

The four of us

About 1944 we had a family portrait made of the 4 of us:  Thurston (my dad) me, Anna Louise (Mother) and little Bill.  Daddy's family called him "Bill" most of his life; I am not sure why.  But when my brother William Thurston came along everybody called him "little Bill."

I am sure Mother made the dress I am wearing here. It was made of some kind of sheer floral print and I think it was my Easter dress that year.  She made most of my clothes; after her workday and her housekeeping, she would stay up nights sewing clothes for us.  

The Horsey Swing 1943

This picture with Bill on the horse swing is from 1943. It was Easter and he was about 7 months old. I am on the left and Mother on the right.  I was four and a half years old.

That swing was really something.  It was really my swing, given to me by Uncle "Watt" Frank Atwood, Daddy's middle brother who lived in Tyler.  He had made one for my cousin Frances Evelyn (his little girl) and decided to give me one just like it.

 The horse swing was made of wood lumber which had been sanded and painted.  It had four ropes with foot pedals as well as hand bars as you can see, so it could be pumped with hands and feet together to go quite high.

I don't remember this dog.  But I do remember at one time we had two dogs named "Butchface" and "Cookie"  and they would eat out of each others' bowls.