Alma, Frank and Ruth at school 1924

Frank, Ruth, Alma with her child Cleve B 1928

Dear Mamie,

I got your letter today.  Also one from Alma.  She is practicing up on the typewriter, to get her a job.

Frank started to school this morning :”Wednesday” he is going to specialize on Typewriting, Shorthand and English & Math. I asked him to get them to let him do that, so he can get him an office job. He is so little that he never good make a living any other way.  And he likes to be clean & wear good clothes all the time, too.  

I don't know if I can manage to pay for the course & Ruth’s music too or not.  and keep him in the kind of clothes he wants to wear to school.

Ruth’s music costs me $7.00 per month this year.and Franks course I know will cost $2.00 per month, beside other incidental expences.

Ruth will take domestic science & of course that will be an other expence on me.  Dad will pay Part of Ruths science expenses though.  I may have to make Ruth drop her music but I am not if I can possibly help myself.

She gets a credit for music.  & she is tickled to death about it as she is trying to finish high school in 3 years.

She is a Soph. this year & Frank is still a freshman.  I nearly cry when I think about how my boys has done about high school .  Son is not anything but skin & bones.  and yet I can’t get him to quit work and go to school

The Three Atwood Brothers

Thurston and his brother Frank "Watt" Atwood made a trip in the 1980's to Everett, Washington near Seattle.  They went to visit their older brother Edward, who had moved there around 1976.  I believe they enjoyed their time together; it was the last time all 3 brothers were together in their lives.

The Atwood clan 1928 Thurston standing right

Edward

Frank "Watt"

Thurston never stopped clowning around with his brothers.  His favorite nickname for Watt was "the swamp rat."

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?"

My parents' wedding

The date was June 12, 1937 when Thurston and Ann, my parents, had a double wedding with Mother's sister Elna, and her husband, Bronson Hanks.  They had zero money and so did their families, so they married in Tyler, at the home of Thurston's brother, my Uncle Watt, and his wife, Frankie Cash (more about them later.)

On their first anniversary both couples got together again and here are their pictures.  Mother was six months pregnant with me. I was born three months later on September 9, 1938.