FEATURED PHOTO ABOVE TITLE: OLSON & THOMPSON FAMILIES -1946
Tomi, my cousin Bob Thompson’s daughter, emailed me after visiting my blog that “All of a sudden I’m nearly 73 and now I want to know about everything that didn’t matter when I was young. . . sigh” Tomi added in a second email, “Tim, I need to brush up on who’s who. I’m clear on Art & Myrt, Joe and Lil . . . and that’s where things get fuzzy. Funny how you care about all this when you get old and want to find out who in the heck your family is!”
Who is who in the extended Olson family is fuzzy to me too. The relatives I know well aren’t many and I’ve never quite figured out how to feel about that simple truth. Tomi’s agreed to write a post together, and she had a box of pictures and clippings that Doree Thompson, cousin Jake’s wife, left with her.
Lorelie and I spent a morning with Tomi and her husband Ray, sifting through photos and clippings. A picture began to emerge about the way it used to be. . .
In the thirties, forties, and even into the beginning of the fifties, our extended famiiy didn’t have reunions, they had picnics. This is how it worked. The men went fishing or played croquet in the morning. And what did the women do? They prepared the potato salad, jello salad, sandwiches, cakes, cookies – and more. The kids? The older ones were with the men and we younger ones chased each other and ran in circles. I know we were with the women and not the men.
When the men returned it was time for everyone to sit around the table. After grace, we ate all this bounteous food the women had prepared.
After stomachs were filled to bursting, the men gathered round, told stories, slapped their legs and smoked cigars. The kids weren’t allowed too close to the men. And the women? They cleaned up. They traded recipes, talked about who’d been sick, who graduated from high school and who was going through a troubled time.
What else did I learn? Everett including the surrounding area and Central Lutheran Church was the center for the family and, yes, family members knew each other. Art & Myrt, Joe & Lil, Bob & Delia, Archie & Anna and all their children!
Enjoy the photo tour through yesterday. We share a common past with the relatives known and unknown.
I would also invite you to use this blog to let friends and family know who you are, where you are, and what you do. Many of us will discover what Tomi and I found out about each other. Where will the common history be kept? And it might be fun to learn who it is that lives right around the corner and down the street.
To view previous Olson Family Scrapbook, click here
Hi, everyone!
I’m reminded of a letter about just the kind of day my uncle Jake wrote about the dinners, and how the women did all the cooking, served up meals for goodness knows how many, served dessert, and cleaned up mess.
Jake said, just like Tim said, the men got together in the living room and smoked cigars! Jake said that was an awful thing to do. “We should have gone outside!!”
More later!
Tomi Thompson