Category Archives: Life on Brick Row

Rhythm and Balance

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Rhythm and balance.

Requisite for dancing. Desired for living life well.

My grandmother, Eveline Coates Hoskins, is my example. There was a rhythm to her life. And there was also balance.

Her day followed a pattern:  Work. Rest/play. Work. Rest/play.

Work before play. But not work with no play.

Balance.

Rhythm.

The rhythm of her life was always andante – at a moderate tempo. I did not see her behave as I often do – frantically running around trying to catch up.

She rose and set each day at the same time. She served meals each day at the same time.

During the time I lived with my grandparents, Eveline was in her 50s. I feel certain she didn’t get to live with this much leisure as a young mother of six. Never the less – it is an example I always return to and wish to take as my own.

Eveline Hoskins in Ottumwa copy

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I’m still trying to get back to blogging after illness. It’s going much more slowly than I would like. I found that I have quite a few posts that I started once upon a time, but never finished. Like this one – started over two years ago. I’m sure I had more to add – perhaps I planned to write about the rhythm of Eveline’s week, or record my memories of how she spent her days. My intentions are long forgotten. I think I’ll go ahead a publish a few of these abandoned posts – more or less as they are. Maybe that will be just the spark I need.

Sepia Saturday: The Bigger Picture

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Sep Sat Nov 16 2013Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.

I haven’t participated in Sepia Saturday for quite a while and it’s good to be back – even if it’s just for a random week here and there. The prompt picture offered this week reminded me of one I have shared previously, but I’ll go with something else.

This photograph was taken the day my Uncle Roy married the love of his life, my dear Aunt Joan.
Deb before Roy's wedding copyThat’s my cousin Deb standing just off our grandparents’ porch and petting a dog. Although my cousin is not standing in the doorway, there are others behind her in the half-opened door. I think the woman in the doorway is one of my aunts. I am the little girl mostly hidden from view behind her.

I have another copy of this photo. My grandmother tried to cut out the extraneous people in the doorway, leaving only my cousin and the dog. Although my cousin was clearly the cute subject of the photo, I prefer the original. It tells more of a story. Croppers beware!
Deb and Bimbo

On the back of this cropped picture, my grandmother identified my cousin by name and the dog as Fido. But the dog was named Bimbo. Maybe Grandma was thinking back to the dog my Uncle Roy once loved and lost in a sad tale of a dog who killed a neighbor’s chickens. His name was Fido.

When I think of Bimbo, I always think of this song that one of my uncles must have taught me. It’s the chorus that I remember. Bimbo was primarily an outside dog and there were no fences so he had run of the surrounding area and we didn’t always no where he was – which makes the song rather fitting.

Knock on a few more doors and see what other Sepia Saturday participants are sharing today.

A Rediscovered Book from Childhood

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Oh the wonders of the internet, Google, ebay and Facebook! And the kindness of fellow bloggers! This time I reconnected with a book from my childhood.

Kat Mortensen blogs at Acadianeire’s Heritage. I met her through Sepia Saturday and she is also participating in The Book of Me and now we are Facebook friends. One day back in October, Kat posted that she was looking for a book from her childhood that held special memories for her. In a very short time she found images for it and posted them. She was so successful that I told her about a book I have always wanted to find from my childhood.

The description I provided her was very brief! The book had a red cloth library style cover with a black line drawing. The story was about a little girl who went to the circus, but lost her ticket. She went all around the circus looking for it, but it was stuck to her cotton candy. I assumed the book had been published in the late 1940s-early 1950s. I didn’t remember the name of the book or the main character.

In less than 10 minutes, Kat found the book! Once I knew the name of the book, I went looking for one with a red cover just like mine had – and I found one on ebay.
book.Sally Goes to the Circus coverbook.Sally Goes to the Circus inside

Since it was just days after my birthday, I decided to give myself a present. 🙂

I had forgotten that it is a “chapter book” with 12 chapters divided among 44 pages.
book.Sally with mom   book.Sally arrives at circus

Maybe I related to this book not only because I liked the thought of going to the circus and Sally’s adventure, but also because I often rode the city bus – and I seem to recall riding alone at a fairly young age.

Or maybe it was the thought of all those treats Sally just couldn’t resist.
book.Sally treats

Poor Sally, the show is about to begin and she still hasn’t found her ticket!
book.Sally looking

Cuckoo the clown found her ticket and Sally got into the show just in time! Her father was there waiting in the stands for her. Whew!
book.Sally finds ticket

Here is a picture of Sally dressed to go to the circus.
book.Sally
And a picture of me dressed almost like Sally. Our coats are even open almost identically showing our dresses underneath!

Me in front of Elsie Swick's house on Brick Row, Ottumwa, Iowa

Me in front of Elsie Swick’s house on Brick Row, Ottumwa, Iowa

I wasn’t sure of the location of the picture, although it looked like the street where my grandparents lived. I posted it on Facebook and my aunt confirmed that it was taken on their street, two houses to the west of my grandparents’ house. Elsie Swick was a good friend of my grandmother, Eveline Coates Hoskins.

Thanks, Kat, for helping me find this little piece of my childhood!

If you enjoy children’s books, I previously wrote about a few other books I had as a child here. And I mentioned this book that I hoped to find someday!