Brothers and Sisters...Smile for the Camera, 11th edition

11th Edition - Smile For The Camera
Smile For The Camera10 March 2009

The word prompt for the 11th Edition of Smile For The Camera is brothers & sisters? Were they battling brothers, shy little sisters, or was it brother & sister against the world? Our ancestors often had only their siblings for company. Were they best friends or not? Show us that picture that you found with your family photographs or in your collection that shows your rendition of brothers & sisters. Bring them to the carnival and share. Admission is free with every photograph!
Your submission may include as many or as few words as you feel are necessary to describe your treasured photograph. Those words may be in the form of an expressive comment, a quote, a journal entry, a poem (your own or a favorite), a scrapbook page, or a heartfelt article. The choice is yours!
Deadline for submission is midnight (PT)10 March 2009
Posted - 15 March 2009

Hanaway Clan,

August 31, 1930

I discovered this picture among many that I have of my grandmother. I never really paid attention to WHO was in this picture until recently, when I noticed WHAT my grandmother was wearing. You see she is wearing her wedding dress. This picture was taken the day she married my grandfather Bert Guinee, August 31, 1930. They married at Sorrowful Mother of Mary church in Wheatfield, Indiana.

This picture is of her family; parents, grandmother, her sisters, her brothers and their wives/husbands/boyfriends/girlfriends at the time. Some of my grandmothers nieces and nephews are also in the picture and with some luck I may one day find out who. At this point in time I can only guess.

My grandmother Lucy was one of eight children, she had four brothers and three sisters. She was number six and she grew up on a farm in Indiana. Were they a close family? Oh yes they were! I spent many a Sunday traveling with my grandmother and my mother visiting our relatives in Hebron, Crown Point, Chesterton, and DeMotte, Indiana. We would travel from one of my grandmother's siblings home to another and then whoever we missed that visit we would catch the next time out.

I have wonderful memories of my aunt Mabel and her husband my uncle Chuck Kleckner. They had a large family themselves and so there was always something going on at their house in Gary, Indiana! My aunt Toots (I don't know why everyone called her Toots, her real name was Marie Ethel) lived in a small house way off the road next to a hog farm. You could walk right up and pet a huge hog! My uncle Homer never married and was a farmer, I remember picking green beans during the summer at his farm! Uncle Jim and his wife aunt Marge lived on a farm, they had two boys who I am still in contact with and see one of them occasionally at the Wal-Mart in Valapariso, Indiana where he works! Uncle Jim and aunt Marge had a great big barn that cats roamed around in catching mice. They also had a truck tire swing in the yard that my sisters and I loved to play on when we were at their house. Uncle Von and aunt Margaret lived with their children in Chesterton, Indiana until they moved to a warmer climate in Escondido, California and then relocated again to Missouri. They are my cousins who own the cottage on Lake Michigan (previous post). Uncle Teddy and aunt Jo lived in Indiana and had nine children as well! My grandmother's baby sister is still alive and still lives by herself in Indiana. I paid her a visit last winter and I know I better get another visit in soon. Although elderly and in declining health I love to visit with her and usually bring some questions for her to answer regarding her childhood and her parents. She has shared some beautiful stories!

I consider myself blessed to be related to this happy bunch!