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.

On the Town

'On the Town' was a movie musical old school, released in December 1949.  It followed 3 sailors--Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra & Jules Munshin on shore leave in New York for 24 hours.  They want to meet as many girls and see as many sights as they can.  Gabey (Gene Kelly) sees a picture of 'Miss Turnstiles' Ivy Smith(Vera-Ellen) and follows clues on the poster as to where to find her, thinking she is a big celebrity.  He is helped by a 'lady taxi driver' Brunehilde Esterhazy, played by Betty Garrett and a girl they meet at the museum, Clare, played by dancer Ann Miller.  In their search for Ivy, they sing and dance their way through New York City.  It's an amazing musical if you are a musical fan and I certainly am.

Alice Pearce played Brunehilde's roommate Lucy Schmeeler, a great character name.  She would later be remembered as playing the first Alice Kravitz on 'Bewitched'.  She died in her 2nd season on 'Bewitched' at age 48 of ovarian cancer.

Today, Betty Garrett died.  She was the last member of the cast and she was 91.  It is amazing to me that an entire cast of a movie can be gone.  Unless someone finds 'On the Town' or watches 'All in the Family' where Betty Garrett played a neighbor, an entire generation will never know her talent because she will never appear on screen in anything new ever again.

A sad side note, Vera-Ellen was a dancer who appeared in several movies over a 12 year period and was said to have been severly anorexic to keep her small frame.  In this movie and later in 'White Christmas' she wears high necked dresses, reportedly to cover a wrinkles on her neck, a side effect of poor nutrition.  She also lost her only child to SIDS and developed arthritis at an early age.  She died in obscurity at age 60 in 1981.

Rest in peace, cast.  Thanks for entertaining me.

The Wizard of Oz

When I was a little girl, once a year, on a Sunday night, Danny Kaye would come on NBC and introduce 'The Wizrard of Oz' .  The next thing we knew, Dorothy was singing 'Over the Rainbow' and mean Miss Gulch was taking Toto to the sheriff and the house was flying through the air.  Then a fact that I never knew until I was grown up is that once Dorothy got over the rainbow, the movie became a color movie instead of black and white.  That was probably because we only had a black and white tv til I was grown up.

As a little girl  with a boy's name, I was teased and, at the time, did not like my name so much.  I did eventually outgrow the hate.   One thing that made me feel better about my name is that Glinda, the Good Witch of the North was played by Billie Burke and she was gorgeous.  That Sunday night was a night where it was ok to be a Billie.

And was I the only person who was scared of the flying monkeys?   They always looked very mean.

And I always wanted shiny red shoes.

Can you guess that it was on tv tonight?