For some reason I certainly don't remember, we have many more photos of Mary than Edward, but we do have some of the couple, as here in a photo I find charming, though the figures are a bit distant. Great Grandfather Peters is at the left; Great Grandmother Peters is at the extreme right in a hat which shows up in another photo--or at least the same kind of hat. They are picnicking with the Wiltses (?).
I wish I could recall more of what Mom said about her grandmother, of whom she was so fond. I do know that the chatty sociability and poetry recitation came from Great Grandfather Peters. Their literary gatherings probably centered on the popular tastes of the time, such as Henley's "Invictus," Sam Walter Foss' "House by the Side of the Road," which Gramma Koftan had framed in her living room, and Edgar Albert Guest, James Whitcomb Riley's "Little Orphant Annie," perhaps the Robert Service poems, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," "The Cremation of Sam McGee," all titles Gram and Mom could recite, plus many more like "No Kicka My Dog" in Italian dialect. (The only reference I could find for that last title was that actress Eve Arden won a medal as a child reciting that poem.) Memorization is a key trait of all early civilizations, both Homeric epics, for instance, The Iliad and The Odyssey, entirely oral centuries before being written down. Buddhist monks today have memorized the whole Tibetan Book of the Dead. Of course, memorization was much more important in our culture before cheap paperbacks and electronic media, even when I was young and forced to memorize Longfellow's "A Village Blacksmith" and Kilmer's "Trees" in grade school, besides the regular school and church program recitations. Apparently the whole Peters family was very good at it, and that literary fondness may explain what led to all the children except Forrest teaching as their first jobs. Before Glen became a doctor, he taught, for we have a photo of his school (later). Nellie and Myrtle were lifelong teachers, and Fern taught after completing the eighth grade--as, probably, the others did, meaning they had better than average educations themselves. I considered that I was simply following in their footsteps, since Mom was a teacher in my childhood, and so it seemed natural as an easy second choice occupationally to me.
I like this picture, too, of the couple before what appear to be blossoming apple trees. And I have to stick in a photo of Mary that Mom was sentimentally fond of, considering it typical of her grandmother. This is one of those enigmatic photos open to various interpretations, but I will claim a rooster at the front corner of the corncrib, if that's any help.
Here is a Peters visit to Laurence and Fern at the brick house between Bloomfield and Center, L.J. holding Audree, Velma in the front with the puppy.
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