This section begins with a quote from Twain, “...when I was a boy, everybody was poor but didn’t know it; and everybody was comfortable, and did know it.” Not everyone, Samuel.
This section is about family portraits - hence the name - which were a BIG DEAL! My family did one every year from 1965 to the late 80s at least, I even have one from the 2000s after my youngest was born, but before my dad died. We are a handsome bunch! We would dress up and go to Olan Mills or Sears and get shot. I tend to do it myself now, but good grief, it might benefit my family to have a professional do it sometime. I have MANY family portraits of various generations hanging on my walls. This is the one where I look the VERY PRETTIEST!! Look at how cute my sisters are.
We are Julia, Betsy and Margaret for SURE!
First up is the Brooks family of New Hampshire, circa 1895. There are 28 of them and not a one is smiling.
The Fields of Natchez, Mississippi are pictured in 1895. The young women and kids are mostly smiling. The old women and men do not. There is a middle aged Black woman in the back row. She is not smiling either.
The King family in Dallas in 1890 is a little blurry faced and seems to live in a shed. But they have glass windows, a cow and a bicycle, so they must have been comfortable at least.
The members of the Walters family of Lurbert County, Georgia all look very serious, down to the baby sitting on the ground in her little white dress. There are several women who could be her mom, but none of them seem to be freaking out about her dress getting ruined. So they’re far more poised than I ever was as a mother!
The Scandinavian family has no name. Perhaps their name is “Scandinavian” but they are actually Irish. I doubt it. They are all dressed up and posed nicely but I don’t know if they are aware they are being photobombed by a shaggy guy in jeans back by the porch. I wonder what the story is there?
The Lugo family from Bell, California circa 1888 has 17 members and the photo composition is quite nice. There’s one blurry baby and six half-smiles on the young adults. But Grandma is PISSED!
Hey, we’re back in Massillon, Ohio - home of the Massillon Museum. The E.B. Leightlys of 1890 seem both classy and loaded. The 3 daughters are definitely smiling a little, but Mama and the men look quite serious.
Three generations of Norwegian family. Do the nordic folk not have names in the TL universe? These are 13 unsmiling immigrants and a frenzied horse in front of a cute stone house.
The penultimate family is that of a “Nebraska farmer and his brood, East Custer County 1888.” So we know what he does. He farms and he keeps his pretty but prematurely old and exhausted wife in babies. There are 7 kids who appear to be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 - like clockwork! I think they are in front of a soddy. I like that farmer Dow sprung for this portrait even though he couldn't afford lumber for a house. Of course in Nebraska, perhaps there wasn’t much lumber… Anyway, it means he either [a] is very proud of his family or [b] doing something his wife talked him in to. Either way, it’s nice. I hope the shadow figure riding a horse to the left of the house isn’t a ghost or an enemy from the past hell-bent on revenge.
Manchester, New Hampshire’s Dow family is celebrating a golden wedding anniversary. Among them are 23 grownups, three kids and a dog.
And I am done - it’s been a fabulous 30 years!
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