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| Pearl & her baby, Stanley |
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| Julian & Ina with 2-year-old Stanley |
Pearl and Al had just one child, Stanley, and he came along in 1920. He was a cute little redheaded kid, and we can see that he was much loved. (He was also much spoiled, but that’s a story for another post.) My mother said that Aunt Pearl would like to have had more children, but it didn’t happen for her.
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| Stanley & Uncle Earle |
Photos tell me that from time to time in the 1920s, Pearl and Al visited the family farm. Sometimes other family members would be there as well. I don’t have written descriptions of the ‘20s – just pictures, but you know what they say: "A picture isworth a thousand words."
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| Uncle Vance, Stanley, & Uncle Earle, 1922 |
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| The Julian & Ina Dobson Family, 1926 (identification below) |
[Group photo identification: Earle, Shirley, Julian (behind), Bernice (Earle's wife), Vance, Pearl, Stanley, Ina, Ernest Robinson (Ethel's husband), and Ethel holding baby Shirley Jean.]
4 comments:
Was Shirley Jean named after Shirley? Were those sisters very close?
As I recall, Shirley Jean was named for Ethel's sister Shirley and Ernest's sister Jean. In that era, In that era, it seems that babies were named for someone, whether it was an an honor or just because they couldn't think of a name.
Yes, they were a close-knit family. They kept in touch with each other, sometimes through Ina. Letters to her might be other family members. They wrote a lot of letters. And there were opinionated people, too, and didn't hold back in expressing criticism. Somehow they managed not to alienate one another.
Great photos! What a long, long trip it must have been to come all the way from Alberta to Orofino! Maybe by train?
Al did have a car. In 1933, Pearl and Al came by car, and they picked up Aunt Muriel in CAlgary and brought her and her baby with them. Shirley Jean was at the farm, and a spur of the moment decision was made for the Sanders to return her to her parents near Havre, MT, thereby saving them The original plan was that Shirley Jean, who was seven, would return home on the train by herself.
Anyway, the Sanders then returned to Canada by way of the "Going to the Sun" highway, which was just opening.
But when Pearl came alone, I wondered if she came by train. I'm not sure she drove. A lot of women didn't, especially in that era.
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