Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - Kinnick-Williams picnic photo

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - Kinnick-Williams picnic photo

This is a photo I took in 1955 in the basement of the 'new' addition to the Star Church of my youth, near Coon Rapids, Iowa. The occasion was a June gathering of what we then called the annual Kinnick-Williams (or Williams-Kinnick) picnic. It was the family of my maternal grandfather, Paul Kinnick - see this post for his siblings and their spouses - well represented above. His father, of course, was Kinnick; his mother was Williams.

The three in the middle, above, represent the "Williams" side - Francis (Williams) Keck (center, white hat), her son, Bill, behind her, her mother, Clara (Hull) Williams, in front.

From left, are Everett and Gertrude (Kinnick) Brideson, Robert Ford (daughter of), Lillian (Kinnick) Ford.

The large gathering sort of went away, for many years - however, in more recent years, the Kinnicks have been getting together in Coon Rapids - in June. I won't be there, this year, but did attend a couple of years ago. Fun family times!

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Eileen KINNICK - 75 yrs ago - Week 52/53 - Dec 21-Jan 1, 1937

Eileen KINNICK
75 yrs ago
Week 52/53 - Dec 21-Jan 1, 1937

My mother, Eileen KINNICK (maiden name), kept a diary from 1932 until her death in 1999. In Feb 2005, I created a website of her 1936 diary, the year she graduated from high school, and started dating my dad later in the year. The transcription, week by week, with commentary, notable items, and my comments are sitting there to view, unchanged (a few bad links and all!). . You are welcome to click on the Weekly Index, and go back to read the first half of the year, at your leisure.
Key:
My comments - in red
Commentary at the time - in green
Notable items - in blue
Setting: The family lived in a farmhouse a couple of miles out of town (Coon Rapids, Iowa). Older brother, Leo, lived at home; his girl friend, later wife, Ida, visited regularly. Younger brother, Buzzy (she often wrote Bussy) was 8 years old; see photo.


Week 52 (Dec 21-27). Embroidering yellow scarf - couldn't listen to radio because the battery was down. Notice, no electricity. Aladdin lamb was a clue, last week, as well!

Got off from work early, and shopped, on Christmas eve. Goose dinner on Christmas. Turned into an adventurous afternoon and evening with friends.

To church on Sunday. Out-of-town family and friends there. Couple of interesting things to note, here. "Evline and Merle" reference is actually Pete's sister, Pauline, and her husband, Merl… they had already been married a year or so, lived out of town. Eileen didn't really know them yet - confused with Pete's older sister, LVene (name). Interesting; feels right for a young lady in a new family situation.

"Francis and Roger" reference is important. They were at the Kinnick house in the afternoon, and stayed for supper, along with two young sons, John and Robert. Francis would have been Paul's first cousin on his mother's side (Williams). (Frances had taught Eileen to play the piano when she was younger.) Even in 1936, they were already 'rich relatives.' Roger become a prosperous Des Moines (IA) business man, along with son, John (and Bill, yet to be born). John was an NFL Umpire (1972-1996) for many years, including a Super Bowl (1996). Robert became a minister and writer.

Here are Eileen (left) and Pete (right) in 1957, at Keck's house in Des Moines, with Roger (far end) and Francis (near), with her mother. I was there, as I was working for Roger that summer after I graduated from high school at Keck Motor Services.

Week 53 (Dec 28-Jan 1). She was studying her penmanship. Her Dad had an excellent, distinctive hand. She developed it, as well.

Pete appears to have caught her cold… see Thursday. Thursday night she writes "Our third Anniversary,' but January 1 is circled in red. They started 'going together' or 'going steady' - whatever they called it then, on October 1. November and December were marked as 'anniversaries' as well.

This ends the 1936 diary entries on the website. For 1937, I have copies of the diary pages and will be posting them, daily, on The KINNICK Project blog, beginning tomorrow, January 4. Weekly summaries will continue, here, starting next Tuesday, January 10.

Comments welcomed! 

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - Farm Home

Those Places Thursday

Farm Home

As I continue this occasional 'Those Places' Thursday theme, today I will focus on 'where I grew up.'

The aerial photo is of the farm in Willow Township, Greene County, Iowa, in 1947, where I lived from about 2 until about 18 (or until I got married, at 20, depending how you count, I suppose). It is just a mile to the east of the Map I shared on a recent Mappy Monday. It was technically my third home, as explained there. 

This view is generally north, and a bit east. The road you can see at the bottom of the photo, running east and west, had an intersection with the north and south road right at the lower left corner, above, behind the trees. That road, paralleled the Carroll-Greene County road a mile to the west, ran one mile to the north to the corner where Willow #3 school sat (north and east of the corner). Two miles directly west of that corner was the location of the Star School-Star Church corner described earlier.

The clump of trees, lower left, beyond the house was 'The Grove' - I built an infamous playhouse there where many stories were told (mostly by me to my cousins, mostly girls; wonder what, if anything they recall about that?) - my younger brothers took it over after I moved on... no telling what went on there, after that.

The buildings are, from the left: House, Wash House, Cob House, Chicken House, Barn (red, of course), Corn Crib, Hog House (north side of road) and the Cattle Shed - all white, on the south side of the road. There was a very large garden west of the grove, north of the house.

Those two years between High School graduation and getting married were taken up with:

1. Summer working in Des Moines with Keck Motors, owned and operated by Mom's uncle and his family.

2. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - dormitory, fall, winter and spring

3. Second summer, lived in Des Moines for awhile working (unsuccessful Vita Craft sales job), then returned home for a while (working at gas station in Coon Rapids, as I had done in high school), before,

4. Iowa State University - dormitory, fall, winter and spring.

5. Summer in apartment with friends near campus, until wedding first week of August.

These are my memories. It was a long time ago, and I now realize these memories don't come as easily as they did years ago. Anyone else have that problem? Comments welcomed.

First married 'home' next...

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Mom's Piano Teacher

Treasure Chest Thursday - Mom's Piano Teacher

Last week, I mentioned my Mom teaching piano lessons for so many years, and her first teacher, her Aunt, Frances WILLIAMS (later KECK). Here is a Christmas gift she received from Frances - Mom said they normally didn't get much in the way of Christmas gifts, in her family, back then - an autographed calendar from her teacher (looks like a neat promotional device, to me, but Mom saw it as something VERY special, and personal, at the time... and through the many years she obviously kept it... and passed it on!  ;-)

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Mom's First Piano Book

My Mom has been gone more than ten years now, but her boxes of "stuff" continue to bring pleasure. Her greatest self-identity was probably playing the piano. She taught piano lessons to at least three generations in Coon Rapids, Iowa, her hometown. This is photo of HER first piano lesson book, that she still had, from the 1920s. She took lessons from her aunt, Frances WILLIAMS (later KECK).

Families are Forever!  ;-)