Happy Easter!

I'm not sure when or where this photo was taken.  It may have been in 1954 in Menard, Texas.  The date stamp from when it was developed is JULY 1955.  We moved from Menard to Abilene in June 1954 and this was not in front of our house in Abilene.

Black eye from a fall

Easter 1982 with Grandma and Grandpa Robbins in Abilene

1983 Robin in Abilene with the Easter Bunny aka Mindy 

Treasure Chest Thursday - Lou Nora's Dress

I wanted to write about the dress Mother made for Lou Nora.  I remember it hanging in my closet in the house we lived in when I was in fifth grade.  I'm not sure where it was kept before that.  It was a bright yellow satiny dress with the typical gathered skirt and puff sleeves - very similar to this one I found.  The yolk was white cotton eyelet.  I couldn't wait until I was big enough to wear it and I think I did get to wear it a time or two.
Mother died in 1983 and I have saved a few of her garments.  For years I have thought the yellow dress was wrapped in with them.  When I undid the bag after all these years, the dress was not there.  I do not remember what happened to it.  I'm so sentimental about things I can't imagine that I would have disposed of it even if it were in tatters.  I've searched my cedar chest and have been going through Mother's looking for other things, but have not found it, so I was unable to take a picture of it as I had planned and unfortunately I can't draw.
There's another part to the story.  Mother entered the dress in a sewing contest.  She was an amazing seamstress, but only won third place for the dress.  Hopefully I have the comment card and swatches stored away and just haven't come across them yet.  The reason she placed third was the judges didn't think the cotton eyelet was the right fabric to go with the yellow satiny material and took away points.  Mother was somewhat embarrassed and humiliated by that comment.  Hopefully it made her feel better that I thought it was a fabulous dress.  She had made all of my clothes the years she was a "stay at home mom", but I loved the dress before I knew the story behind it.
Another thing that may have made Mother feel better about the dress she made was a comment I made a few years later when I bought (well Mother bought for me) a dress that had a dark blue denim skirt with a long-waisted bodice made of white voile and lace.  I told her she was just ahead of her time when she made the yellow dress and wondered what the judges would have to say about my new dress that had denim, voile, and lace!  We joked about it almost every time I wore the denim and voile dress.  Precious memories...
After writing this, I looked in a box of pictures and found the third place ribbon and samples of fabric pinned to a picture that was used for the dress. 

Birthday Pictures - Lou Nora Robbins

Today would have been Lou Nora's 72nd birthday.

This was not labeled as a birthday picture, but it's one of many favorites.  It was taken at our Granny Conley's.

This may be her fifth or sixth birthday.

This was labeled her 7th birthday.

She wrote on the picture on the left.  On the back it has an 8.

 

These are probably from her 9th and last birthday since they were included in a packet of things related to her death.

There was no label on this one, but it could have been for her birthday.

Matrilineal Monday - Lou Nora Robbins, my sister

Unfortunately, I never knew my sister.  Lou Nora Robbins was born on Thursday, April 3, 1940 in Crosbyton, Texas.  She died on Monday, April 25, 1949 in Eden, Texas almost exactly two years before I was born.  This month I plan to devote several blog entries to sharing what I know about her short life.  I didn't ask about her or her death very often because I could tell how painful it was.  After all these years, my brother still has difficulty talking about her.  I don’t remember when I learned I had a sister, but it was probably the first time Mother let me go through her cedar chest which I now have and still treasure.

Lou Nora was named for our paternal aunt, Elouise, whom we called Aunt Lou, and for our maternal grandmother, Nora.  Lou Nora’s baby book and some other mementos are tucked away in Mother’s cedar chest.  It says she weighed 7 lbs, 4 oz. at birth.  

 

This hand print and foot print were inside the baby book along with an unofficial certificate of birth. 

A lock of her blonde hair is in there as well; it was probably from her first haircut.  Only a few bits of information are filled in.  She weighed 7 lbs, 15 oz at one month.  On June 18, 1940 her first trip was to Cherokee, Texas from Crosbyton with a note she rode in her bassinet.  That was long before there were seat belts in cars and laws requiring their use.  Her first laugh was on June 1^st, 1940.  The note on the page about her first Christmas said, “Lived at Melrose, New Mexico.  Had the flu.  Had a Christmas tree.”  Her first birthday was on a Thursday and she “had a birthday cake with one candle.”  She had 9 teeth at 16 months.   A piece of paper folded and placed inside the front cover says “54 Mar ’48 / 58 ½ Jan 26 ‘49” Lou Nora which I assume was her height.

Lou Nora held by her mother, Iva Conley Robbins