Laura Atwood Fischer, wife of dad's brother Edward Atwood about 1974

 I think these were made around 1974.  Aunt Laura at their Comanche house, visiting with a friend who dropped by, getting something out of the freezer (or putting something in)  and adjusting the water for their sprinklers.  She took care of their 2 acres of lawn, fountain and vegetable garden, as well as her greenhouse.  I sure miss her now and wish I could talk over my gardening plans with her.

The cow got her chain around it (water for the garden)

Mama Atwood had only a third grade education.  Her mother took her out of school to help with the chores at her boarding house.  Hence the colorful spelling and grammar in her letters.

August 6, 1932

About the trees that Son set out. One of the pecan trees is just fine and the other one I can’t tell if it has grown any at all since spring. One peach tree looks like it will die in spite of me. Though I forgot to water it at one time when I watered the other ones. Also one in the garden where the cow got her chain around it & peeled all the bark off is still living. ...Twice a week I have to carry 15 buckets of water out of the house around on the east side to the three that are around there. All the others I can reach with the hose, thank goodness.

I have already let a part of my garden die and about the water bill ....last month was a dollar and sixty-five cents over the minimum. And the month before it was fifty cents over, and it will go over again this month because I don't mean to let any more of my garden die. But I don't mean to pay any over a dollar and 75 cents either…... As long as I know others who has no meter. ....

Mother's Day at the Atwoods 1928

May 14, 1928

I tried to get my seeds in the dirt all day Saturday, but I never did. I have so much to do I did not have time to fill the box with good new dirt....my dear little daughters both was cooking as hard as they could cook ...a big Mother;s Day dinner to bring down to my house…..

I hever in all my life saw so many good things to eat....we just had the table loaded down. We had fresh black eyed peas, snap beans, English peas, squash , beets, tomatoes, new potatoes, potato salad, lettuce, boiled ham, fruit salad, pies and cake. I though I never would quit eating.

It rained yesterday and last night and the ground is wet and I will have to wait for it to dry before I finish filling up the (flower) box and plant my seeds. Those black=eyed susans is not what I had reference to. But they look like they will be awfully pretty....perhaps the other package, of Lobelia, is really what I wanted. I had them in Bowie County, and I remember now ....they will bloom pretty quick after they start growing. I think the ones I had bloomed in three or four weeks but they did not last long.

Mama Atwood's gardening

Mama Atwood was a serious gardener; it helped to cope with poverty.  And she used organic pesticides like boiled tobacco juice.

April 15, 1928

Doesn’t it beat all...yesterday I told you how hot....and this morning it has sleeted and snowed all morning. The house tops and part of the ground is covered. it looks a little like it will stop though. And just think about it too. I have green cabbage out of my garden for dinner.

April 28, 1928

Yesterday I had peas and green cabbage and radishes out of my garden ....and Mrs. Spence the lady just behind me hollered at me and said, “You don't mean to tell me you have peas large enough to eat!” and I told her I most assuredly did and her and Mrs. Nabors came to the fence and Mrs. Nabors said, “My you are not lazy; you got up and worked and have a garden before any one else had.”

...my beans I replanted are coming up now and I also have squashes and canatalopes and cucumbers now ....I declare it is rather discouraging with the cold and the cut worms and grub worms and english sparrows and now the little green sucking lice has attacked my greens and if I can’t find something to kill or run them...in ten days time they will be sucked to death…..

I boiied some tobacco and took the juice and sprayed them just now. I don’t know if it will do any good or not. I am so mad because ...I intended to put out some tomato plants this afternoon but I am so sore I am afraid to do it. .....And my flowers are not all planted either....

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.