Monthly Archives: August 2012

Treasure Chest Thursday – Abbie’s Photo Wallet

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I was looking for some pictures of my Uncle Mike and I found a couple in this little photo wallet that belonged to my Grandma Abbie (Webber Smith Brender). I bet she kept it in her purse at one time or another.

I decided to scan all the contents as they will likely be separated some day and I want a record of how they once “lived” together.

The first item is this cartoon that I assume is an advertisement for a company named ABBEY. Maybe one of her relatives or a friend cut it out and gave it to her. Was Abbie the person to call when there was a problem? Had she come to the rescue of the person who gave it to her?

Next I found a couple of photos of Uncle Mike (Abbie’s son). I feel like there must be a story behind this one. Look at that big smile!

Next is a picture of Uncle Mike and Aunt Beth with my cousin when he was one month old. They make such a cute family!

The next few pictures are school pictures of the cousin above and his sister. Then there is one of Abbie’s sister’s son.

The “pages” are all empty after that until the very last one which holds this:

This prayer, written in the 1550s and included in English prayer books (primers) was set to music by John Rutter. It looks like Grandma cut this out of a Christian newsletter or church bulletin and folded it to fit in her photo wallet. Here is a recording of the melody:

If anyone in the family can shed light on the picture of Mike or the ABBEY cartoon, I hope you’ll leave a comment!

Military Monday: The Big Picture

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Sometimes you do an internet search and find something completely unexpected and better than what you were looking for in the first place.

That’s what happened the other day when I typed in “1950 map Ottumwa” – or something along those lines – and one of the returns was a link to the National Archives and Records Administration page titled The Big Picture: Ottumwa, U.S.A.

Hmmm…. a segment of a television series produced by the United States Army…. featuring my hometown.

As explained on the website of the Army Pictorial Center:

At the start of World War II, the U. S. Army acquired a defunct motion picture studio at 35th Avenue and 35th Street in Astoria, Long Island City, Queens, New York, taking over  in February 1942.  The studio became the Signal Corps Photographic Center, later Army Pictorial Center, home to filmmakers and still photographers who covered the war and who produced countless training films.

“The Big Picture” was the Army’s ground-breaking television series. The half-hour weekly program featured famous or before-they-were-famous actors and actresses in top quality productions, filmed on the Astoria stages…… The series covered a wide range of subjects, telling the Army’s story in history and in current events.

“The Big Picture” ran on ABC-TV from 1951-1964 and continued in syndication into the 1970s on local television stations. The series even won a couple of Oscars.

I’ll do a separate post on The Big Picture: Ottumwa, U.S.A. In the meantime, here are a couple of episodes that have a different focus than most of the series.

First up (since we are in the midst of the 2012 Olympics) is an episode titled Big Picture: Olympics, which highlights members of the military participating in the 1952 Olympics.

Next is another non-military military film – The Big Picture: Army Talent Show. If you ever watched The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, The Carol Burnett Show, or F Troop you’ll recognize one of the performers.

The National Archives and Records Administration has made individual episodes of The Big Picture available via Amazon and the Internet Archive, where they can be viewed or downloaded for free. Type “the big picture” in the search box and you will get results for available films. In addition, a catalog listing is available. You can find many of the films on youtube.com. Each episode is just under 30 minutes long.

I don’t remember The Big Picture. Do you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Recipe Friday – Sweet and Sour Meatloaf

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I’ve been thinking about this little cookbook.

The ladies of the Friendship Circle of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Clovis, N. M. put it together in 1973.  We moved to Clovis two weeks after I graduated from high school in 1971.

Mom contributed several of her “go to” recipes for the cookbook. I’ll be posting those recipes here for the next few weeks.

Usually I try to prepare the recipe I’m posting and take a picture or two, but today I can be lazy because I have some pictures I took back in 1999 when I thought about making a family cookbook.

I could get in serious trouble for including this picture of my daughter making meatloaf back in ’99, but since my kids never read my blog, maybe I’m safe.

Shhh! Don’t tell!

When mom served her meatloaf, the menu almost always included mashed potatoes and green peas, so that’s how I always serve it too.

Not long after my husband and I married, one of his high school buddies came for dinner. After dinner he told me that he really wasn’t a fan of meatloaf, but that this was good.

I think he meant it…. I should ask him.

 

If you make the recipe, be aware that the tomato sauce is mixed in a small bowl, then you go and get another bowl to crack that egg into. Also, I started putting about half the sauce into the meatloaf and the rest on top.