Treasure Chest Thursday - Things in Mother's Cedar Chest

As I mentioned previously, I have my mother's cedar chest.  Occasionally she allowed me to look in it and go through things.  Since I'm focusing on my sister's life this month, I want to tell about a few of her things that are in the cedar chest.

This is a picture of Lou Nora wearing a crocheted cap, top, and mittens.  They are an off-white.  That may be partly because of age, but I remember they were a cream color, not white.  They are loosely crocheted and very soft.  The top has three pale blue buttons on each shoulder and blue flowers with green leaves and stems are embroidered on the front.  The cap has a blue satin ribbon running through it to tie it on.  If I was told who crocheted the pieces, I don't remember, but there are no tags on any of the pieces and I would guess Mother made them.  What I do remember is admiring the top and being allowed to wear it once.  I may have tried on the cap and mittens, but I didn't want to wear them.

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 Although I don't remember it from my childhood, this purse is also in the cedar chest.  It seems rather unique to me.  It is a light blue plastic with a shoulder strap.  The front has a red ruler with a pencil sharpener on the end, a red pencil, and a red address book.  The ruler seemed stuck to the plastic, so I didn't try to pull it loose to take a closer look.  I'm surprised I don't remember it and or wanting to use it.

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The address book has a 1948 calendar on the inside front cover and a 1949 calendar on the inside back cover.  The names she wrote in are Sue Carol W. and Gail P. who lived in Eden, Texas.  Her red wallet was in the cedar chest, but not in the purse.  There were pictures in it that I'll scan for another blog entry this month.  One picture is of Sue but I did not find one with the name Gail on the back of it.

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Inside the purse I found two hankies and a small, yellow plastic coin holder for dimes.  There is one very tarnished 1948 dime in it.  By pressing in the right place, the dime can be removed.  Since many of the things I've found are blue, I wonder if that was her favorite color.

  

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Other than the crocheted top, the thing I remember vividly is the string with plastic charms on it.  I think I was told they were from a gum ball machine.  I loved looking at the charms and counting them.  The locomotive, bugle, and skull seem to be metal.  There are animals, patriotic symbols, teapots, and assorted shapes.  After taking this picture I picked it up to look at it once more and the string broke, so I've placed it inside the purse before returning it to the cedar chest.

Tuesday Tip - Taking a Closer Look at Photos

Most of us have family photos that aren't close ups.  If you try to zoom in to get a closer look, the image gets so blurred you can't see it very well.  Even with my glasses on and a magnifying glass I sometimes can't see parts of the pictures as well as I'd like.  I've found if I scan the picture and crop it, I can often get a closer view that isn't distorted.
Scan the picture at the highest resolution possible.  Then use photo editing software to crop a face, the address on a house, or a license plate to get a better look at it.  This isn't meant to be a step-by-step tutorial, but I will mention that Picasa is a free photo editing software and Adobe Photoshop Elements is one I bought.  I use and recommend both.

 

Here's an example of a photo of my sister, Lou Nora.  I don't know how old she was or where the photo was taken.  I cropped the picture and zoomed in on it as I was resizing it.  That allowed me to see her sweet face.

          I also cropped the license plate on the car and could tell the date on it was 1942. 

Since she was born in April 1940, that gave me her approximate age when the photo was taken.

Matrilineal Monday - Lou Nora Robbins - Early Days

The photo on the left is labeled.  She is with her older brother, Curtis, in Crosbyton, Texas.

Our Aunt Lou told me Curtis would let Lou Nora 

pull on his ears until they were red and never complain.

The photo on the left is labeled Lou Nora in New Mexico, which I would assume was Melrose, NM where they lived a short time.

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