Happy Birthday Gma Lu!!

I miss my grandmother.  She was a wonderful lady.  Today would have been her 99th birthday!  She died in 1997 right before my oldest daughter was born.  The last time I saw my Gma Lu, I told her that I really wanted my children to know her, but knowing she was going to be dying soon (I was told by the hospice nurse that she had been waiting for me to visit her before she died), she and I agreed that it was now my responsibility to make sure that my children knew her.  Hence, one of the reason for this blog.  

So, in honor of my Gma Lu's birthday, I am sharing some photos, and a story she told about one of her birthdays.

Lu Penrose - Senior photo

Lu right around the time of her marriage to Richard Bond - 1941

Lu Penrose Bond - October 1983

Lu and her granddaughters in 1993 - back: Lora Marshall, DeeDee Castle, Jennifer Castle

front: Laurel Castle, Lu Penrose Bond, Kristen Castle

My photos of Gma Lu from when she was young (that are not in profile) are copies of copies and are horrible.  If anyone has actual photos I would be so grateful to have a copy of them.

Gma talked about one of her birthdays:

One of my birthdays stands out in my mind, and I think it must have been when I was about twelve, because I invited bit girls and boys to my party for the first time, and because my birthday in close to Halloween, I had a Halloween costume party.  And everybody was coming to dinner and party and in costumes and one person came in particularly early, which we weren't too thrilled about, but we were polite, but I didn't know who the person was, but I was ashamed to admit that I didn't know who it was, and I said, "Come in."

"Am I early?"

"Well, yes, a little, but that's alright."

The rest of them were coming.  Well, so we had out dinner and played games and I kept thinking, "Who is that girl?  I don't know who she is, but I must have invited her."  And, I think, "Oh, that crazy Joe, he probably forgot the party was tonight.  His birthday is tomorrow and maybe he didn't even care about coming to the party tonight.  Well, he's the loser."

Anyway, we played games and did all those things, like bobbing for apples in a big wash tub thing and we had pumpkins with candles in them for lights.  We played spin the bottle and all those exciting games.  Had birthday cake and ice cream and when all the kids were ready to leave to go home, this girl came over tome and she says, "You don't recognize me, do you?"  Put me right not he spot, and I said, "No, I don't.  At first I thought you were so-and-so and then I thought, no I didn't invite her."  It was this Joe that I thought had forgotten to come to the party and he was in costume made up like a girl, everything about his costume and his makeup was so perfect nobody recognized him.  Nobody knew that the girl was a boy.  And that was Joe Paytrick that lived two houses away from me all my life, till I grew up and got married,  He was invited tot eh party and I thought he didn't come.  Nobody knew who that strange girl was who came to the party in a dress and long hair.  Absolutely perfect, and I think one of his sisters must have helped him.  Maybe he was wearing one of their dresses, who knows.  But that's the only party I remember from when I was young."

  (transcribed by Lora Nehring from a cassette tape recorded by Marji Castle 2 May 1982)

Here are pages from our family scrapbook that I made when Gma died.

Direct line ancestry: Lu Penrose Bond --> Kathryn Bond Berkowitz --> Lora Marshall Nehring

Gpa Marshall

My Gpa, Richard Allen Marshall, passed away today.  He was 93.  He lived a long, full life and I am glad I got to share it with him.

I love you Gpa!

Google Maps

The internet can be so cool!  Just for fun I have been entering addresses on Google Maps of great and great-great grandparents, whose homes I have photos of, to see if their homes are still there.  A lot of them are, and some are now parking lots or convenience stores.

When I was living in Arizona, my mom came to visit me and we found one of the homes that my mom had lived in as a child.  There really wasn't that much difference in the photos, other than an overhang.  And, yes, the house is still there.  I checked Googled Maps.  The overhang has been shabbily filled in to make another room.

1830 Indianola, Phoenix (Maricopa), AZ - 

My mom said she lived in this house when she was in the 1st grade, which would make this photo taken about 1949.

This photo was taken in 1992

I also looked up the home of my great-great grandparents, Frank and Henrietta Bond in Washington DC.  

This is a photo of Henrietta and Frank in front of their home in 1939.  

This is their home on 3127 Newark Street in Washington DC, probably taken around the same time frame.

I looked it up on Google Maps, and there it is!  It is s a lot closer to the road than it appears in this photo, but all the elements of the house are still there.

Unfortunately there is no way to save the maps on Google Maps, so if you are so inclined, you can always put the address in to see it for yourself.

Trick or Treat

I have been busy.  And I hate it when busy keeps me away from the things that I love to do.  Thankfully most of the busy has been with things that I love to do. : )

One of the things I have been doing this month is visiting my Gma Willie.  She is not doing very well.  She just turned 89 (I am sorry I missed her birthday on here!) and her memory is gone and she is having a hard time completing coherent sentences.  She hasn't said my name for a very long time, but last week she was moved to a new home, and she introduced me to the nurse as her grand-daughter.  I was very happy to hear her say that!

It is still hot here in California.  Fall doesn't actually start here until December, no matter what the calendar says.  We carve pumpkins the day before Halloween so they don't collapse into moldy globs of goo before the Trick -or-Treaters arrive at the door.  Costumes have to be thin so you don't sweat to death in them.  Ironically, I grew up in Alaska where my parents drove us door to door or we went Trick-or-Treating at the mall because it was too cold to walk.  I don't mean we were wimps kind of cold, I mean your breath froze in your throat kind of cold.

Anyway, in honor of Halloween and all the other things that come with the month of October, here are a few photos of my Gma Willie in Halloween costumes as a child.  These are circa 1925.

Willie Love in a cat costume in 1925

In the book, "Grandma, Tell Me Your Memories. . ." Willie said: "[Dressing up in a costume] was my favorite thing when I was little.  My mom was really good in letting us use her things to 'look older'.  Also Halloween called for costumes.  (The knee socks are the kind that we always rolled down when we weren't near home.)  Trick or Treat wasn't around when I was growing up.  We had parties and rang doorbells and ran.  It did always call for a costume."

Willie and her sister, Juanita.

It is always a "treat" to be able to share all these photos and stories.