Aunt Allene & Uncle Harold

First I need to say that my family was not much for pictures.  I think in older days it was expensive and time consuming to get film developed.  We all had school pictures every year and one set of professional pics when I was a baby but most others were hit and miss or later in our lives.  I have a nice digital camera and a nice film camera but still don't do a lot of pictures.   I take more of things than people even now.   That being said, the pictures of my aunts and uncles and grandparents are rare.

Here is a picture though of Aunt Allene & Uncle Harold:

Aunt Allene & Uncle Harold at their house in Colorado

Aunt Allene is my daddy's youngest sister.  She was born about 1923 and was a baby when their daddy died in 1924.   She was one of those tall, pretty McCombs girls, skinny as a rail.  She married Uncle Harold in about 1946 or 1947 I think.  They never had any kids.  Uncle Harold was a cowboy and for some reason, they left Texas and moved to a ranch near Alamosa, CO and lived there all of the time I was growing up.  When we lived in Arizona, they would come every summer and spend a couple of weeks with us and it was a time we all looked forward to.  Mom because Aunt Allene was probably her best friend.  They would can and cook and walk and laugh.   Daddy was daddy.  Whatever was good with him.  He & Uncle H hung out but they were guys.  And every night we'd play cards.  They had taught Cathy and Jo and they taught me and they taught Steve.   And I remember once in AZ I'd made Uncle H a birthday cake with green icing and the correct number of candles.  It was a burning, green porcupine.  And he gushed over it.    Later when we moved to Texas they just rerouted.   With all great props to all of my other aunts & uncles, these 2 were my all time favorites.

Uncle Harold played the guitar and played with a band in the 30's & 40's and played a little with Bob Wills.   Not touring or anything, but jamming.  When he died I got his guitar.  Here it is:

Uncle Harold's Guitar

Yesterday, I took it a show by the International Vintage Guitar Collectors Association and they were buying old guitars but if you did not want to sell, they would tell you what it was worth.  I would never, never sell it but wanted to know something about it.  It is a Harmony L1917, sold by Sears Roebuck between 1946 & 1959 and was relatively inexpensive.  They told me it was worth $125 now and the guy said it was a "wall hanger" that you hung up next to a picture of whoever played it and enjoyed the memories.   Mine will be a "floor sitter" but the idea is solid.   I think it is a beautiful guitar and I will cherish it forever.

Aunt Allene died my freshman year of college, in 1975.   Uncle Harold had always had health problems and died a couple of years earlier.  Because their house was part of his job, she had to leave her home.  She ended up coming to Spur and buying the house Uncle Raymond and Granny lived in and moved in with them.  Even though she had my mom and hers and her brother, it is my belief to this day that she did not want to live without Uncle Harold and she died of a broken heart.

  I loved them both dearly and miss them even now.