Blast From the Past October 2016, Part One

I'm still going through a huge box of photos which belonged to Ben's mother.  This charming picture was one of the first I pulled out this morning.  Unbeknownst to any of us at the time, one of these boys would later be married in that temple.

This photo was labeled, "Aunt Alta."  I found her in Family Tree.  She was a cousin of Ben's grandfather John Wiley Redd.  Her name was Alta Alvira Redd, and this is now the only photograph of her in her Family Tree file.

This photograph was not labeled, but I hunted through Ben's lines and found her, a cousin of Ben's other grandfather.  Someone had already uploaded this picture of her.  Her name?  Otella Markham.

This lovely woman's photograph was not labeled, either.  I can tell her dress was carefully hand-embroidered.  She looks gentle and kind. Since this picture was next to Otella's, I assume she is a Markham aunt or cousin, but I could not find her today.  Maybe tomorrow.  Sadly, there have been many beautiful photographs from this box I have not been able to identify.

The man in this photo is named Clisbee.  I met him several times.  He's the younger brother of Ben's grandmother, on the right. I was delighted to find a picture of him, and now Clisbee has a photo in Family Tree.

This photo was also not labeled, but that's ok.  I recognized the little boy as the father of my children.  Ben happened to pass by my computer while it was on the screen and said, "Hey, that's Dad's truck!"

Ben's father Ben needed a truck.  He camped a lot, although maybe little of it for recreation.  He was a geologist for Utah's Bureau of Land Management.  He traveled and camped and studied rocks and plants in remote places, such as the Noxom Mountains.  What a job!

Ben's father was good at labeling photographs.  On the back of this picture he wrote, "New Ford truck, new camp tent. Oct 1940."

Ben's father traveled with a large group of men to the Hole in the Rock in southern Utah.

They took horses in addition to cars.  Today we have the pictures, but no narrative and no dates.

I loved looking at this particular set of photos.  Some of these men wore bow ties on the expedition.

He took pictures of this historic place which his wife's ancestors traversed.

My husband's ancestors were tough folk.

Ben's father is the third man from the right in this picture, taken at the San Rafael Swell.  They are working hard.  All the men were identified, but their project was not described.

I met Ben's Grandfather Redd.  He claimed to have ridden with Pancho Villa, which may or may not have been true.  Grandpa Redd is on the left, loading a pack animal.  Maybe this was the one named Julie.  

Perhaps Ben's father was behind the wheel giving his daughter Judith a ride down the snowy road.

This is another picture of Judith.  Look at that happy grin!

The box held two copies of this photograph of Ben's sister Judith.

I then found many pictures of Judith's daughter Michelle's wedding.  Ben and his sister Judith both have five children.  Michelle was married in the DC Temple, just as Dave would later be. You might be wondering why Sammie is missing from this picture.  Yes, I'm wondering that, too.  Like, really?  We took this picture without him?

Photographs have been randomly stored in this box.  Stacks of pictures, envelopes holding pictures, and a small box inside the larger one which I'm going through this weekend.  This cute kid in the jumper is Ben's uncle George.  It was labeled, or else I don't think Ben would have recognized him.

Many, many people gave Ben's mother school pictures of their children.  I was one of those people, and in casting my bread upon the waters, it has come back to me.  I love this Kindergarten picture of Sammie.  He wore this suit on the opening day of school, where his teacher called him by his first name.  Smitten by his beautiful teacher, he came home and announced that he would be known as Ben that year.

I bet Sammie would have jumped at the chance to go camping with his grandfather, who died long before he was born.  I know that because he took his own son camping this weekend.

Studying this picture of Davy brought back many memories for me.  For example, there were three sweater vests, each a different color, each for a different brother, which they rotated through as they grew.

I love this picture of Jeff, who was always a happy kid.

This picture was not in today's box, but this happy kid is very much like his dad.

I was delighted to find this picture in the box.  It's also one of my favorites.  This little boy used to be called Tommy.  Truly, Lizzy loved him.  Maybe she thought she was his mother, not me.

In studying this picture, I remembered that Tommy used to often go missing.  I always found him at my neighbor's kitchen table eating cookies and milk.