GUSSIE & PICNICS

These pictures of a picnic are from 1919. There's no place identified as to where they were taken, but my thought is it could be the cabin that Percy and Jen owned. (Somewhere near the Menninger campus. Maybe Mary or Helen could tell me if that's anywhere close to correct.) Apparently Gussie loved picnics much to the joy or at least amusement of most of her close relatives. One niece who was raised on a farm wasn't that impressed with her desire to commune with nature.

Erma Burk Wilson wrote: In the summer they liked to have their evening meal in the park. My aunt would fix bologna sandwiches and bring canned beans. I was never very thrilled with these picnics. My aunt called it “Communing with nature.” Living on a farm I knew all about nature. Also I liked my beans hot. My uncle would have met us with ice cream and that made it all worthwhile. Erma is the daughter of Myrtle Burkhardt, EA's older sister.

Mary has another take on the picnic:

She loved picnics and if my dad didn’t come home for supper she was a great one to load the supper up in the car and we went off for a picnic. I remember eating a lot of macaroni that was kept hot in the double boiler. On holidays we generally had breakfast at the park. Generally fried bacon and eggs.

The standout memory I have from those picnics were the shoestring potatoes in a can. I also remember the beans. But back to these pictures. It looks like a jolly group although I wonder what exactly was Alan trying to shoot. Bruce in England helped me with these pictures and he liked the dog begging from Jenny Walker.


The top picture from the left back row: Frank Epps (Eula Walker's husband),Edna, Jenny Walker, Bill Smith, EA and Ethel. The front row from the left: Marguerite and Mildred Epps, Bud Walker, Alan and Margaret Walker.

The middle picture in the background; Frank Epps, EA, Ada Walker Smith, Edna, Betsy Sharpe Walker and Jenny Thayer Walker. In the foreground is Eula Walker Epps.

The bottom photo is Frank Epps, Percy Walker, Jenny Thayer Walker, Bill Smith, EA and Ethel. The front row is Marguerite and Mildred Epps, Bud Walker, Alan and Margaret Walker.

One last comment from me - I think EA pulls off the jaunty beret better than Percy.

Happy Easter from the Morgans 1969

I always knew Steve was taller than the rest of us, but . . . . . At least Scott got to grow some more in the years after this.

But my point - Happy Easter 2011!

Rehearsal Picnic - 1913

EA and Edna celebrated their coming marriage with a picnic near Garfield Park the night before they wed. Unlike current day, it included only a few family members. Attending were Gussie's sister Ada, her brother Percy and her mother Betsy. Rounding out the celebration were Percy's wife Jenny and their son, Ernest, "Bud," and Jenny's brother Thayer. His given name was William so I don't know if Gussie forgot his name or he went by Thayer. There's also another person who is unidentified.

Gussie clearly took the first picture because she's the only one not in it. People look like they're having a good time. The second picture shows Jenny, EA and Thayer heating dinner. It's hard to figure out what's cooking because it looks like they're heating a paint can. I like the guys' formal wear and Jenny's white dress which she seems to have no fear of getting dirty.

For dinner the group moved to a different area. I used this picture for Chris and Stephanie's rehearsal dinner. I liked the casualness of it, the horse in the background and everyone having a good time. For those who love minutia, the picnic basket and dinnerware are resting on a small carpet.

The final photo is a cropped image that I included because I like the way Gussie looks. It's hard to call her Gussie because here she looks like Miss Edna Jessie Walker about to become Mrs. Edgar Burkhardt.

Houston Final Four 1971

In 1971 KU played in the Final Four in the Astrodome. As you can tell from these photos we students were placed somewhat below the floor. Sally and I and a couple of friends thought this would be a great event. It was fun, but KU lost two games - the semis to UCLA and the consolation to Western Kentucky. Oddly Villanova who lost to UCLA in the championship game, and Western Kentucky both had to vacate their spots. So the record is UCLA first and KU fourth with two asterisks in between. Apparently Western Kentucky's star player had signed a pro contract during the year.

These photos are from the consolation game because my film of the semis was lost while we were at the beach at Galveston. The semis were on Thursday and the final on Saturday. Friday Sally and I and the group went to the beach and someone opened my camera. I've always blamed the UCLA students, but I don't know.

For a good description of that final four, check out this http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkc/men/7459155.html.

Addendum

Mary Grace and Helen have brought it to my attention that Betsy moved into their new home on Jewell when she became ill. EA and Gussie finished their house in 1926 and Betsy died in 1927. Around the same time Bill and Ada also moved to Jewell, but a block away from the Burkhardts.

At the left is a photo of Betsy who looks like the quintessential grandmother. Helen and Mary Grace who were 6 and 3 when Betsy died remember her fondly. Mary Grace says that unlike their Grandmother Burkhardt, Betsy always remembered their names. Grandmother Burkhardt referred to them only as Edgar's kids.

I want to thank our rediscovered English relatives for restoring this photograph of Betsy. Bruce H., who's married to a descendant of Edward's brother, removed the years of mishandling of the photograph.

More Images of 1119 Polk St

These are the photographs of the Walker home from the street. The first photograph is part of the series that I have posted earlier. The second photograph with the caption about EA and Edna's wedding seems to be from a different time. The flowers look strikingly similar, but if you look closer the front steps are different. It's an exciting difference for those of us who love minutiae. In the photo with the caption about EA and Edna's wedding, the front steps are bare. But in the other photo, there is what I would call an Indian blanket covering the front steps. In one of the earlier photographs I published on this blog, the blanket or a similar blanket appears in the photograph of the room with the college pennants.

From what I have been able to learn the Walkers moved into this house in the late 1880s or early 1890s. One thing that makes this harder to track down is the destruction of the 1890 census records. The Kansas census of 1875 lists the Walkers as living in Ohio township in Morris County, but the next census record I can find for them is the Kansas 1895 census. In that census they are living in Topeka. Gussie was born in Morris County in 1888, but Ada was born in Topeka in 1893.

My thought is that they probably moved to Topeka in 1890 or so and into the house on Polk. They wanted better schools for their children, although at that point, Lily, their oldest who was born in 1873 was probably out of school. She is the only one of the seven children who didn't graduate from college.

After Edward died in 1911 Betsy continued to live in the house probably until her death in 1927. In 1917 Ada married Bill Smith and they took up residence in the Polk house. As has already been noted, the house has been torn down and replaced with a parking lot for an apartment complex. I've begun to wonder if the house was destroyed by the 1966 Topeka tornado. Mom and Helen don't remember, but I'll see what I can find out.

Correction: It's Spurgeon, Not Spaulding

In a previous post, I wrote about C H Spaulding, which is someone I apparently made up. This was belatedly brought to my attention by my spouse. To clarify, I meant C. H. Spurgeon. The following is a link to the church where the oldest Sharpe was baptized: http://www.metropolitantabernacle.org/. I googled Spaulding, but he doesn't appear to exist. I'll try to be more accurate.