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

My year at Texas State College for Women 1956-57

The year I was a college student at Texas State College for Women was 1956-57.  I invited an Aggie from Comanche to be my date.  His name was Gayle McNutt.  I think the dance was in Denton but it might have been in Dallas.

A&M and TSCW were brother and sister schools because they were "land grant colleges".  The United States granted land to every state for a college for women and a college for men.  I was able to attend TSCW for a semester for $297.00. That included a dorm room and meals, books and tuition. I had a job at the alumni office which paid for my pocket money.

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

lullaby from Daddy

I never heard this song anywhere except when Daddy sang it to me as a lullaby while he rocked me in the rocking chair.

early days with our little family in Comanche

I found a group of old snapshots made when Bill and I were quite young.  Thought I would make a short slideshow with one of the songs Mother used to sing as a lullaby to Bill.

The first picture is from Easter 1943.  You can't see it in the photo but I was sitting in the back yard of our house on the De Leon highway.  In front of me was a huge blue potted hydrangea that Daddy gave Mother that day.

 The person in some of the car photos is my cousin, Cleve B. Denny.  He was aunt Alma and Uncle Harold's only son.  He had just come back from being in the Navy in WWII.

Easter 1942 Mother, Daddy, Bill and Me

I found more photos from when Bill was a baby.  He was born when I was 4 and he looks to be about 6 or 8 months old.  So I was 4 or 5 years old.   It looks like we had a great old car with a running board.  I wish somebody would comment and tell me what model of car that was. 

my early school days

I started school in 1945 at West Ward School in Comanche.  After two days in first grade I was moved to second grade since I already knew how to read. So my teacher was Mrs. Dean.  The following year in third grade I had the principal, Mr. Brown for arithmetic.  We learned the multiplication tables that year.  My third grade teacher was Berta Goodson.

I LOVED SCHOOL!!!

My uncle Edward took this picture of me in the back yard of his home at the Atwood Hatchery in Comanche.  I hope you can click on it and see it large because I had a really happy smile that day.

My wedding in Comanche, 1957

The wedding was at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Comanche on August 24, 1957.  Bridesmaids were Frances Evelyn Atwood, Quay Williams (maid of honoe) and Kay Vanderpool.

I made my own wedding dress.  It was designed after a Givenchy dress from the Audrey Hepburn-Fred Astaire movie called "Funny Face" which was popular that year.

I also made Mother's hat and at the last minute, the wedding cake.  The Brownwood,Texas baker broke his leg a week before the wedding! So I made the cake and somebody in Comanche decorated it for me.

Patsy Atwood at 12 with short hair

Uncle Ed took this picture of me the summer I was 12.  I never liked my hair short that I can remember.  The other photo made that day is from an earlier blog.

Patsy's school pictures

The picture on the right was made for my first year of school when I was in second grade. (Because I already know how to read, I was moved from first grade to second grade on my third day of school.)

My mother had insisted on getting me a permanent wave and this is how my hair turned out.  This was the first and only perm I got with one of those old-fashioned machines with all the curlers on wires hanging down.  I was petrified.

Somehow it looks like I always wound up wearing checks.  I never noticed it till now.

High top shoes and missing teeth

These studio pictures of me and Bill were made by a photographer in Dublin, Texas when I was 6 and Bill was 2.

Please notice that I finally got to wear low-top shoes.  Bill, however, is still in high-tops.  We had to wear them till our sixth year, both of us. Looks like I might have lost a tooth or two.

Christmas 1939 and 1940 in Comanche

The first picture shows me on the left and my cousin Frances Evelyn on the right of the little tree.  I think we might have been at our house in Comanche.  The second picture was made the following year when I was a little older.  

little Patsy in the snow

 It was January 1939.  I am not sure where we were living when these pictures were made, but it was somewhere in south Texas where Daddy was a salesman for Texas Power and Light Company.


 I can see that I had to wear big person's gloves instead of mittens.  Snow was and is so rare in Texas that most people never buy snow gear.

Patsy at age 15 months

Today is my dad Thurston's birthday!!!  He was born 98 years ago.

 I started walking on my first birthday.  I am pretty sure these snapshots were all made the same day when I was about 15 months old.  We lived in a little town in south Texas while Daddy sold washing machines and kitchen ranges.  We lived in a garage apartment.

                                                                                                       Daddy used to tell this story to me:

When we walked down the stairs from the apartment I would always hold on to Daddy's index finger for support.

One day I stopped and said, "Wait, Daddy. I can do this." And I took hold of my own finger with the other hand, and went down the steps by myself.

Comanche High School Band

In 1952 our family moved back to Comanche, where my dad was born.  He became the Comanche High School Band director. Of course I continued in the band playing flute.

But in the marching band I wore a uniform with a short pleated skirt and carried a white fake rifle, in what was called the "Color Guard."

The three girls in the picture below are showing off their band letter jackets.  Left to right:  Patsy Atwood, Quay Williams, and Becky Baxter.

found: my baby picture

My first picture.  I was born September 9, 1938 in Sherman, Texas 

Patsy Ann Atwood (me)

  This is how I looked at age 2 or 3.  I was my daddy's little darling as you can see.  Butter would not melt in my mouth.

In 1942 my baby brother Bill arrived on Sept. 13.  I was delighted to see him. The picture below was taken in our back yard.

I had a baby doll with a composition head and hands.  The body was cloth and it had a __ma-ma" cry inside it until I took it out one day.
The doll's name was "Dolly Dimples" and I still have it today.

My first year

I was Thurston and Ann's first baby, born September 9, 1938.  Mother never had a formal portrait made of herself with me, but there are a handful of snapshots from that time.

For the first years of their marriage Thurston and Ann lived in south Texas, where he was sent by Texas Power & Light Company to sell appliances. Some of the  towns we lived in were Flatonia, Refugio, and Aransas Pass.  Mother was happier then than at any time in her life, she told me.  

The little dog in the lower picture was named Frito.  That's right....because she loved the little corn  chips that were already being sold, in some parts of Texas, in 1938.