A 1920's general store bill

Grocery bill for Mama Atwood from Higginbotham's, a general store in Comanche.

Higginbotham's is a store on the southwest corner of the square in Comanche.  It is still there today.

Mentioned at the bottom of the bill is a "Delineator" which was a magazine for home sewing enthusiasts.

Mama Atwood was definitely one of those.  She made clothes, quilts, and all manner of useful things for her family. She made the dress she is wearing in this picture in 1928.

Aunt Mamie taught school 1914

Mamie Frances King, my father's oldest sister, graduated Comanche High School in 1913.  Right away she got a job teaching school somewhere remote in Comanche County.

 She stayed with a nearby family during the week, and on weekends Papa Atwood would go on horseback and bring her back to Comanche.

Here are some photos from that time.

My dad as a band director

 Here are two pictures of my father, Thurston Atwood, at the beginning and at the end of his career
as a high school band director.  He started this work in 1947 and finally retired around 1965. For the first five years of his career as a band teacher, we were in Eastland, Texas.  His band won a first division at the annual IUL contest every year he was in Eastland. 

In 1952 we moved to Comanche, where he took up directing their high school band.  He was very popular in both towns, and became a member of the Texas Music Educators, and always had students in the All-State band or orchestra every year.

Aunt Mamie at Yosemite

 

There is another, earlier post on this blog about my Aunt Mamie and her trip to Yosemite.

Here are two more photos from that trip.  It was about 1928 or so, and I am pretty sure

Aunt Mamie and her husband Cecil Bellah were on their honeymoon.

Uncle Hip and Aunt Ernestine

I took these snapshots in 1945.  The man standing on the right is Hilburn Arthur.  I never knew him as anything except Uncle Hip.

Below is Aunt Ernestine.  She was one of Daddy's older sisters. She always had a smile on her face.  And she kept chewing gum in her purse and always offered me some.

Aunt Ernestine taught me to knit.  And one time she made a whole wardrobe of beautiful doll dresses with hats for one of my dolls.

She had the most comfortable lap I ever slept in.  And late in life she gave me a real down comforter which I still have to this day.

Bill Atwood and his trumpet

This is my little brother.  He started playing the trumpet even earlier than I started playing the flute. (He was five, I was eleven.)  The first time he was supposed to play in public was in a skit at school where he was Little Boy Blue.

Well the night before Daddy taught him how to take his horn apart and clean it.  And somehow when he put it back together something was in the wrong place.  So when his cue came up, and he started to blow his horn, nothing came out.

My Junior Year in High School

 The picture on the right was made in 1954.  I was in 11th grade and enjoying myself tremendously.  It was a little difficult to be a teacher's daughter, but I still had a good time.

Below is another shot of my color guard uniform.  These uniforms were hand made by the mother of one of the girls.

The blouse with the sawtooth neckline was made by me in Home Economics class.  I am pretty sure the fabric was black
but I don't remember if it was from a pattern or just one of my bright ideas.  The little points were hard to sew and turn and press but I liked the effect.