Confession: I'm finding writing something relevant to the prompts for this series to be sometimes challenging. Reading blog posts from others is helpful. Maybe with all the coronavirus news going on it's just a bit difficult to stay on any task. The "stay at home" or "shelter in place" orders should be making it easier, right?
This week the prompt is "popular." My first thought was just how would I know someone was popular? I never knew most of them. Even my grandparents died long before I was born. After reading the Needles in a Haystack blog, I started thinking about the one uncle I find intriguing because of his smile. Meet Charles Edward Hawk and wife Amelia Idella Sterner of Letcher, Dakota.
I love this photo of my Uncle Charlie because of his eyes. The smile is nice too, but it seems happiness radiates from his eyes. Sadly I never met him. Anyone who smiled so easily must have been likeable, or popular. Some people just seem to radiate happiness.
Here's another photo from when they were young and either newly married or engaged. It's easy to understand the "happy" on his face. She is always reserved. I think most people were reserved in their photos back then, especially when posing for photos. They were married in September 1921.
I'm wondering about the little girl in the background. She could be a neighbor, or one of his brother John's daughters. One of those daughters, Edythe Helen Hawk, would have been six or seven years old. She sure looks happy! John also lived in South Dakota, both in Letcher, and Wall, before settling in the southwest corner of Minnesota. Sadly, Charlie and Mattie had no children of their own.
For some reason, I tend to link his smiles with a sense of place, in this case South Dakota. Does "place" make a difference? Books have been written about this. Charlie had been in the first World War. He had lost his brother who was shot in France during that war. And yet his coutenance in the few photos I've been able to gather always show someone comfortable with his lot in life.
I should probably explain that family photos were in several trunks lost in a fire when I was growing up on the home place in Texas. I did love looking at those pictures as a little girl, and sure wish I had them now!
A lot of stories I remember from childhood were about the depression, the dust bowl, the many deaths, tuberculosis, cancer. Not so much happy. This doesn't mean they didn't laugh, just that the family stories from the past I heard were mostly about sad times. Or maybe that's just what I remember. Possibly that's why I'm so intrigrued with this man's smiles. I think I would have liked this uncle.
This week the prompt is "popular." My first thought was just how would I know someone was popular? I never knew most of them. Even my grandparents died long before I was born. After reading the Needles in a Haystack blog, I started thinking about the one uncle I find intriguing because of his smile. Meet Charles Edward Hawk and wife Amelia Idella Sterner of Letcher, Dakota.
Charlie and Mattie Hawk, Davison County, South Dakota
I love this photo of my Uncle Charlie because of his eyes. The smile is nice too, but it seems happiness radiates from his eyes. Sadly I never met him. Anyone who smiled so easily must have been likeable, or popular. Some people just seem to radiate happiness.
Here's another photo from when they were young and either newly married or engaged. It's easy to understand the "happy" on his face. She is always reserved. I think most people were reserved in their photos back then, especially when posing for photos. They were married in September 1921.
I'm wondering about the little girl in the background. She could be a neighbor, or one of his brother John's daughters. One of those daughters, Edythe Helen Hawk, would have been six or seven years old. She sure looks happy! John also lived in South Dakota, both in Letcher, and Wall, before settling in the southwest corner of Minnesota. Sadly, Charlie and Mattie had no children of their own.
For some reason, I tend to link his smiles with a sense of place, in this case South Dakota. Does "place" make a difference? Books have been written about this. Charlie had been in the first World War. He had lost his brother who was shot in France during that war. And yet his coutenance in the few photos I've been able to gather always show someone comfortable with his lot in life.
I should probably explain that family photos were in several trunks lost in a fire when I was growing up on the home place in Texas. I did love looking at those pictures as a little girl, and sure wish I had them now!
A lot of stories I remember from childhood were about the depression, the dust bowl, the many deaths, tuberculosis, cancer. Not so much happy. This doesn't mean they didn't laugh, just that the family stories from the past I heard were mostly about sad times. Or maybe that's just what I remember. Possibly that's why I'm so intrigrued with this man's smiles. I think I would have liked this uncle.
