A FAVORITE PASTIME

Cindy Wilson Hart, do you remember how much you enjoyed Colorforms? You loved them at home but you especially enjoyed them on flights when you will little. The airlines used to give them out to little ones on planes.

MY MATERNAL GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S OBITUARY

This is the obituary of my mother's grandpa. He died at my Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins' house in Guthrie, Indiana.

WHO REMEMBERS AUTOGRAPH BOOKS?

Becky and I each got one just like this one year for Christmas. We love them. I'm sure our friends wrote many silly things in them and we were so proud! My grandkids would think it crazy to get one of these today. Technology has taken over.

Sears Christmas Book 1952

Becky and I loved sitting cuddled up on the couch looking through the annual selection of Christmas Wishbooks. In 1952 Becky was two and I was 5. We always had big dreams deciding what we wanted Santa to bring. We also knew to narrow that list down to only a couple of items! We always got the main item we wanted. Somehow, Santa always knew!! I have so many fond Christmas memories.

BEDFORD, INDIANA SQUARE, 1930s

I wasn't born until the forties but I still have found memories of Christmas shopping on the square, visiting Santa and the Toyland at the Fair Store, etc when I was a young child. Being out on cold days like this on the square was exciting. This photo is looking south from 15th and J Streets. I love the pictures of these old cars.

MY DAD 1944

So thankful to my niece, Stacy Ritter, for sending me this picture today. This is my dad Harold Wayne Sowders, on the left, and his cousin Ervin 'Bud" Ritter together in London during their time in England during WWII. What a treasure this is not only for me but for my children and grandchildren.

MOM AS A YOUNG WOMAN IN THE 1940s.

This is a picture of my late mother taken in Grandpa and Grandma Hawkins' front yard in the early to mid 1940s. This is in Guthrie, Indiana with the Guthrie Christian Church in the background. I love this picture.

OH MY! WONDERFUL CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

I loved going to Woolworth's with mom and Becky. We had such fun stores when I was small. I especially loved Toyland at The Fair Store.

ENTRANCE GATE TO SPRING MILL STATE PARK

A friend posted this picture today and it brought back so many memories. Love this state park in Mitchell, Indiana. I have so many childhood memories of this park from family picnics, school trips, Junior Prom at the Inn and Sunday School trips. Later in life I enjoyed taking my kids there. We had a birthday party for Cindy there one year and took the kids there to the Virgil 'Gus' Grissom Memorial to get their first look at a real spacecraft. I could go on and on.

PEONY MEMORIES

A good friend I went to school with in Indiana posted this picture on facebook this morning. It brought back so many memories for me of my Grandma Hawkins and what we used to call Decoration Day, now Memorial Day. I am going to write down some of these memories for my grandchildren to see. 

Grandma had a couple of huge peony bushes in her yard between her garden and her house. One was white and one was pink. She would cut the blooms and make bouquets to take to the cemeteries to put on relatives graves. Grandma and Grandpa didn't own a car and neither ever drove so we were their transportation. We would load up the car  - Dad, Mom, Becky, Myself, Grandpa and Grandma and head out. We would always run into other relatives and spend an hour or two visiting under the shade trees in the church yards. We usually took a thermos jug and a snack and of course grandma's bouquets. First we would go to Mt. Ebal Cemetery where grandma's parents were buried as well as my mom's baby brother, grandma's only brother and other of her relatives. I would learn much about little Morris Eugene and how horrible his death was at age 4 of diptheria. I heard about being quaranteened in a house with no one allowed in, the other children kept home from school and the neighbors standing outside in the yard while the family stayed in the house by themselves for the funeral. I would hear about my great-uncle being electrocuted when a storm knocked down some electrical lines. Electricity had been fairly new in our rural area at that time and its power was fascinating. I would listen to my grandma talk about losing her only brother, her beloved baby, etc and her faith in God that saw her through those times. I believed if my grandma could survive all that and continue to love God and trust him like she did that I, too, could survive anything with God's help. That has served me well over the years.

My dad had several relatives, mostly uncles, buried in that same cemetery. I was always fascinated when he would point out their gravestones. My maiden name was Sowders. I couldn't understand how all these men had been my grandpa's brothers because their names were Sowders, Sowder, Souder, and Souders. Years later when I lived in New York City I looked up the name/s out at the Statue of Liberty. Yes, they were all there.

After Mt. Ebal we would drive over to Chapel Hill Cemetery where my grandpa's family was buried. Those stories were interesting as well. My Great-Grandma Hawkins was evidently quite a character. She was known as the local who could fore-tell things and was called a witch by some. She would tell people that far-away relatives had died before they ever got the official word, and other things of that nature. There was actually a newspaper article written about her many years later.

Entertainment was also a part of the day. In those days the Indianapolis 500 was run on the actual day, not on a weekend like it is now. Someone, usually my Uncle Bill, would have his car radio on to keep us updated on the race. Sometimes when I would get bored with everything I would sit in is car and listen to the race while the adults visited.

One of the main lessons for me was this; Be kind and do for others even when it isn't what you really want to do with your time. My dad worked in a foundry and I know this was not his favorite way to spend his day off. But he did it year after year with a smile on his face because he knew it was important to my grandparents and therefore important to my mother. Later when I became an adult with a job, a home, and a family I came to see how precious a day off work could be and I had a greater appreciation for all my dad had done for my elderly grandparents out of love.

And all that came from seeing the picture below on my friend's page this morning. Isn't it beautiful?

MY AUNT ELSIE, UNCLE KELSIE, AND MOM DURING WWII

I love finding these old pictures of Mom's. She often told me about going with Elsie and Orville to Florida to see Ansel when he was there before being shipped out in WWII. I'm thinking she said this was taken in Panama City but I am not sure. I assume Uncle Orville was the photographer.

Elsie Hawkins Clampitt, Charles Ansel Hawkins, and Nora Helen Hawkins (Sowders)

1940s HELEN AND MARY

This is a picture I found the other day. This is my mother on the left and my Aunt Mary on the right. This was taken in the 1940s while my dad and my Uncle Kelsie were away in the war. Mom and Mary enjoyed being together and Mary loved going to Guthrie to spend time at Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins house. This was taken in their backyard with the old wash house in the background. Years later my sister, cousins and I loved playing in that wash house. I also remember church services being held there occasionally. When I was a little girl my parents bought that lot, tore down the old wash house and built a home there. Precious memories!

Helen Hawkins (Sowders) and Mary Walters (Hawkins)

Guthrie, Indiana

GOODBYE TO FLORENCE

We lost a dear friend last evening. I always called Florence Childers my 'other mother' because I spent so much time at her house when I was young. Since I have lived in Texas we communicated over the years with cards, letters, and phone calls. Whenever I would be in Indiana I would go to her house for a meal. She always made my favorite - goulash! She usually made me an oatmeal cake, another favorite, too. My kids and grandkids knew that if we went to Indiana there would be a trip to Florence's house, that would be a given. My heart breaks for her five children as I know what it is to lose your mother. Here husband died when her children were ages 11 to 3 months old. Not only did she do a great job raising them to be great citizens and Christians, she always allowed others of us to tag along. We will miss you, Florence, but we know you have gone to a place of peace and joy.

TWO OF MY DAD'S SISTERS

My dad's two oldest sisters at the family dinner last night. Love my Aunts Thelma Prince and Oweedah 'Sissy' Butcher. They don't look like ladies in their 80s and 90s! Wish I could have been there.

ORIGINAL MCDONALD'S RESTAURANT

A little history for the grandkids. This is what the original McDonald's looked like. This one was built in Downey, California in 1958 and is still operating like this today. You had to walk up to one of the front windows to place your order. We didn't even have one in Bedford but sometimes after church on Sunday morning dad would drive up to Bloomington so we could eat at the one there. Aunt Becky and I loved to go there. On our wedding day Papaw and I got dinner there and took it to the Holiday Inn across the street where we were spending the night. Now how was that for a fancy honeymoon? We left a few days later for Clovis, New Mexico.

THIS DAY IN 1836

1930s - 1950s READERS

This picture from an antique shop in my childhood hometown caught my attention. On Cherry Street was one of my favorite readers in elementary school.

LOVE THIS 1817 GRIST MILL AT SPRING MILL STATE PARK

Great state park in my home county in Indiana. We used to go here almost every October to celebrate my grandpa's birthday. Such a beautiful place in the Fall. And I loved buying the stone ground cornmeal in this mill.
Cindy Hart do you remember having a birthday party and weiner roast at Spring Mill?

MAIL SERVICE 1907

And this kiddos is how the mail used to be delivered in Texas and elsewhere.

The Plainview-Lubbock Mule Mail service, 1907. 

STATE FAIR OF TEXAS 1955

A look at Fair Park in Dallas during the 1955 State Fair of Texas. Hard to imagine the fair being so small. I was an 8-year-old Southern Indiana girl at the time.