the three Atwood sisters: Ernestine, Ruth and Alma

His three sisters all outlived my father….and lived into their 90's.  Sitting in a swing on a summer

day  around 1990.  Ernestine (married to Hipp Arthur)  was eldest.  Alma (right, with the bright smile) was next, and Ruth was the youngest. She was a couple of years older than Thurston, my father.  He was the youngest Atwood child, born in 1914.

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

Thurston and sister Ruth

Thurston and sister Ruth had a friend whose parents owned the Comanche jail building.  This photo was made on top of that building with the courthouse in the background.

Ruth had a dog she named Don.  This photo was made on the same day as the one above.  She is holding Don and standing beside the jail entrance.

Below is another photo of Ruth and Don made in the yard at the Atwood home.

A gathering of the Atwoods and their extended family iin 1928

On Mothers Day in 1928 the whole Atwood clan gathered at Mama and Papa's house in Comanche, Texas.  Atwood men at top are l. to r. Thurston in his Boy Scout uniform, Manning "Papa" Atwood, Edward Atwood and Watt Atwood, whom my father Thurston referred to as "the swamp rat."

Below is the photo of the whole group.  First Papa and Mama in the back row, then Frank "Watt" next to Ruth "Zamp" in the center.  The woman holding the baby boy is Alma Atwood Denny with her son Cleve B. Denny.  Thurston is the last one in this line.

In front left to right is Harold Denny, Alma's husband, Hipp Arthur with his first son John Manning and beside them is Ernestine Atwood Arthur.  Edward the eldest son is on the right seated.

The Atwood's house in Comanche, Texas

Thurston always told me he could see the original split logs under the dining room floor.  The house had 3 front doors for some reason. 

On the front steps about 1920.  In back, Hilburn Arthur, soon to marry Ernestine next to him.  Mamie on the right.  In front are Ruth and Thurston about age 9 and age 6

Bill Atwood about 1949 with Rico, Mama's dog who was named for her favorite singer, Enrico Caruso.

Thurston Atwood, my father, at about age 6

. About 1920. The tall lady in the center is Mamie, In order: Ruth, Maggie, Mamie, with Thurston in front of her, Ernestine and Manning. Thurston told me that the older girls boxed his ears when he was little. He never could hear very well out of his right ear.