Big Eyes and The Chair

She was too ill for daycare yesterday thus Steve had babysittng duties

She has such pretty eyes

My paternal grandmother in 1911, the day she received her Masters degree from U of Illinois. She got her undergraduate degree from U of Iowa. The silver in the underexposed spots has plated out

My father  in 1932 or so in front of their Burns Park home. My grandfather was a med student at the time. For a recent photo of the same house, see below

My paternal grandfather on the far left in 1896. His mom and dad were 40 and 50 when they had him and then went on to have the little girl 2 years later.  This must not be an original print as no silver crystals are on it The Chair must be in this house somewhere though it is not pictured. I typed in the address written on the back. A 1600 sq foot house is there that recently sold for $72K. It said the house was built in 1920 so either that is wrong or the original house was ripped down.

A charcoal portrait of my grandfather sitting on The Chair. I have this

Florence, mother of my grandmother Cecelia pictured above taken in 1926. I assume she's in her 70s. On the back of this photo is a note that The Chair was shipped by covered wagon in 1836 from Winchester, Va to Troy Ohio.. How old is this chair? Was it made in Virginia? I don't know what happened to it. I vaguely remember it being pink. Probably my step-grandmother's relatives have it though it was supposed to go to me or my brother

photo of my dad's old house from Zillow. It sold in June for more than  our new house (or for about the same if you consider the money we had the realtor kick in to make this happen). This neighborhood is Ann Arbor's most desirable by far. There are similar houses in nearby Ypsilanti that sell for way less than half of this. In 1939, once my grandfather had a thriving practice, they moved to the much fancier area Barton Hills just outside of Ann Arbor

 

Buried deep under our wet bar (which never was used for that purpose, just filled the shelves with dusty glasses and very old liquor bottles)was a box of photos placed there maybe 30 years and then forgotten. Included are 2 wooden boxes for two manuscripts; one from my grandfather and one from my grandmother. Both considered themselves writers though these manuscripts came by from a publisher who rejected them both. I pried open my grandfather's box. The novel, all 18,700 words of it..he must have counted by hand, was called Drab. I assume it's some sort of mystery. If I ever get time, perhaps I will read it. I didn't pry my grandmother's box open yet. Both were addressed to the house I have pictured above. When would they have had time to write novels? My grandfather was in med school and my grandmother was raising my father though I assume they had maids. They had them around in Barton Hills for sure. My grandmother did not do housework.

I was going to be named Cecelia after this grandmother though she nixed it. The name seems to be coming back as baby CeCes are popping up.. Her actual name was Sappho but she hated that more than her middle name she went by. Her mom Florence pictured above was one of those rare women who went to college in the 19th century, in her case the Boston Conservatory of Music to become a concert pianist despite being raised in Iowa. Her father was a physician so I guess this gave him money to educate a daughter. Florence was the second wife of an Irish immigrant, who must have been fairly successful too sending his youngest 2 daughters to college. How many women got a master's degree?

How easily am I distracted? Still my clothes are in boxes or laying on the floor of our closet not hung up. I did some decorating touches yesterday as that is more fun and Steve wasn't around to veto anything as he was dealing with Naomi or the old house. I returned to the Y. Yep all those snowpiles have severely cut into available parking. I found lifting the weights easier yesterday. Maybe carrying things has increased my strength. Also by taking the expressway directly into downtown, going there didn't take as long as I thought it would.

Allie is still sick and very crabby though she was cheerful with Steve yesterday. Josh is staying home this time. I had told him this is not a good week for us to babysit every day. Plus the other grandpa has much more time and is only a few miles away.

If it ever warms up (not afraid of cold, just the ice that forms because of it) I will run. Then my cooking class.