remembering Uncle Harold Denny

Uncle Harold Denny  married my dad's sister Alma Atwood in 1926. They lived in a house that was given to them by Uncle Harold's mother when they married.  It was a block from the square in Comanche and Uncle Harold walked to his job as teller at the Comanche National Bank.  He walked home for lunch every day and back again.  He usually owned a Studebaker car which never got much mileage on it. He was a member of the Comanche Lion's club.  They attended St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Comanche every Sunday, where Aunt Alma was in the Altar Guild and Uncle Harold was on the vestry.

Uncle Harold's sister Aunt Coral Denny lived next door to his house.  Aunt Coral and Aunt Alma both had the cleanest, best smelling houses I ever entered.  I don't know how Aunt Alma did it because Uncle Harold smoked cigars. Mother said they cleaned with vinegar and "coal oil" which was another name for kerosene.


Uncle Harold always smoked cigars.  He and Aunt Alma always had copies of "Life" magazine which I would read when I went to their house.  And he had an old radio that had the most wonderful sound, especially the bass speaker.  It was rounded on the top and stood on the floor beside his chair in the living room of their house.

Uncle Harold liked to fish. He had an amazing collection of lures and fishing tackle.  He had a rowboat that he kept at Lake Eanes, which was the source of water for our town.  I remember being in the rowboat once with him when I got stung by a wasp of some kind.  He chewed up some of the tobacco   at the end of his cigar and put the tobacco on my skin to stop the stinging.  And it worked after a few minutes.

Aunt Alma and Uncle Harold believed in home remedies and almost never needed a doctor.  He had a relative named Dr. Gray who was our town physician for a while.  Once Uncle Harold got pneumonia and everybody thought he was going to die.  Dr. Gray put a long needle in his lung and drew out what Aunt Alma said was about 8 ounces or so of fluid from his lung.

She told me the story years after it happened of course. It was before I was born.  She said it scared her and Dr. Gray told her not to watch but of course she did.  Even though they almost never saw a doctor, Aunt Alma and Uncle Harold lived long lives.  And they always lived in that house on the Fort Worth Highway.  Uncle Harold's family had a lot of land. They were well off but they never let anybody know it.

Thurston's home made Christmas cards 1943

My dad Thurston made our family's Christmas cards one year.  I believe it was 1943.  He used red construction paper, white ink, and pretty Christmas "seals" or stickers.  It looks like he used a calligrapher's pen, or just a quill pen, which was still easy to find in those days.

Nice and not expensive I am sure.  He really was quite an artist, wasn't he?

Letter from Mama to Mamie from the train to California 1927

Oroville, CA August 28, 1927

Dear Mamie,
Just getting ready to enter Feather Canyon and I am feeling fine.

It is absolutely impossible to get into the observation car it is so crowded and they won't move over

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

Thurston's Christmas letter to Mamie 1928

December 18, 1928

Dear Sis,

I am sending you a small Christmas gift.  I hope you will like it.  I know that you do not expect much from me but someday I am going to give you a much larger gift.

I am getting along fine in school work and in other things.

You never mention Cecil's (Mamie's husband) name in your letters.  I would certainly like to see him.  I'll bet he is a good sport.  I would like to take him possum hunting with me sometime, and also I would like to go duck hunting with him.

Sunday I got Uncle Jesse's (Manning's brother) car and went to Cedar Mountain and got us a pretty Christmas tree.

I am 14 years old now and this summer I want to get me a job in the print shop at "The Comanche Chief" (Comanche County newspaper)  I would like to learn the business.  I think you will not find many misspelled words in this letter.  I can spell but can't write so good.

Love

Thurston R. Atwood

Thurston in May 1928 in the Boy Scout uniform Mamie bought for him.

Mama Atwood's World's Fair Cake

I found my grandmother's cook book yesterday.  This recipe was written inside the back page.

Mama Atwood made this light brown cake with a boiled white sugar frosting on special occasions.
Everybody in the Atwood family raved about it.  I don't think she ever wrote this recipe the same way twice.  She was such an experienced cook, she never put assembly instructions down.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs


Frosting

2 tablespoons chocolate or cocoa
2 tablespoons hot water (melt over double boiler)

2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
butter the size of a walnut

boil about six minutes. Needs to come to soft ball stage.

This always was garnished an sometimes filled with pecan halves.  They were usually arranged on the top of the cake.

There is a page on the web about a hundred-pound cake made for the 1939 World's Fair here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shookphotos/4251872771/  It seems to be a fruitcake made in California by the baker's association.
That is the only reference to a cake named World's Fair Cake that I could find online.

A special wall hanging from 1980 by Pat Reese

A wall hanging of mixed media

detail from the wall piece above

Anne Reese worked in the shop right up until her first baby was born.
(The baby was Margaret Ellen Harrison. Born Feb. 13, 1980.)
Anne was a great help and made it possible for me to have time for art work