January 2009 Archives

It was this group that started the whole Christmas sequence with its reddish discoloration.  Oddly, some black-and-whites were taken at the same time, David, Linda, and Ryan K. being the telling clues along with my sisters.  Anyway, the photos show how Christmas became an extended family occasion, in this case with the Hupps, Betty's parents, over from Bloomfield and Great Uncle Glenn and Great Aunt Paula Peters and Great Aunt Myrtle Wefso up from Randolph, mainly why I wanted to preserve the occasion, I guess.  You will also note the Christmas tree is my insistent favorite--to the ceiling.  At the time we had just the small living room.

Here then are Laurence and Fern Peters Koftan at the left, her brother, Glenn, and his second wife, Paula Nordhues Peters, at the right.  (Both of Dr. Peters' wives were from Randolph, where he practiced.)   

Laurence is the extra to the Peters quartet, Myrtle Peters Wefso added to her sister and brother and sister-in-law.

There's clearly an earlier Christmas photo of Fern and Laurence with their grandchildren, because Ryan K. is a baby in Grandma K.'s arms but a toddler held by Micheal E. in another grandchildren shot and in all the other photos.  Here is Ryan K. as a baby, Linda and David K., Dennis, Micheal, and Lindsay E. arched over Grandma and Grandpa K., JaVee and Sue L. in front of the grandparents.  

And here is Ryan K. as a toddler held by Micheal E., Gary L. in the back with Grandpa, David and Linda K. on either side of Grandma, Sue and JaVee L. in front.

Then the three Koftans, David holding Ryan, Linda in front of JaVee L., with Michael E.  (I don't know where Sue went.)  Earl E. made the lamp on the room divider, incidentally. 

And the Ellingsons gathered around Grandma and Grandpa Koftan, Mike's different outfit perhaps meaning a different time.  (It's still at our house in the living room.)  Earl, Dennis, Audree, and Micheal E are the back row, Penny and Lindsay E.the front.

These two black-and-white almost duplicate the ones above with the Koftan children and the Luckert girls, Mike E. in one in his shirt with stripes.

Then these two of our overloaded dining room table, with Jack L. and Earl Hupp on the west side by the windows, Glenn Peters with his cigar and Myrtle Wefso by her corsage box.  I think Sue has the prominent blue coffee carafe.

Another place in which Earl and Audree and family and then Fern and Laurence lived--or was it the other way around? Dug into a bank with a cement-block first story and a huge open attic space as second, the back of which went directly out on the top of the bank, the house faced east.  As nearly as I can tell, aside from the two first photos of the place itself, these are a single holiday group--going by Velma's and Fern's dresses, mainly. 

All the photos are in the living room to the left of the front door, beginning with this dark one of Earl E. sitting on the couch by the front window between Jack and Velma L, Fern K. at the right, Penny E. on the floor.

Later, Larry K. is on the couch next to Jack, who's holding a tired JaVee.

Then Audree bends over Larry, presumably talking to JaVee.  I think the checked shirt is on Rolly Burkett, he and his wife best friends with Earl and Audree; he's in the background of the next photo with Velma (Mom) and me by the stove.

I'm going to assume Larry took off his white shirt and tie before his T-shirt photos above, the shirt and tie seen below, for Fern still has the same dress and Laurence is in a white shirt.  (Once again, we dressed up in those days for special occasions like holidays.)

Below L-R are Velma L., David K., Fern K., Audree E., and Betty K.  The stove was opposite the front window, obviously; in the background is the south side door and the passage into the kitchen.

Velma L. has shifted to the front couch with Earl E., Audree E. mugging, but not Fern K. behind her (Frannie Burkett?). 

And, finally, Lindsay in another cowboy outfit, Earl E. and Velma L. at the right behind him, (?) at the left and (?) in the patterned sweater behind him.  And, since I doubt we moved the Christmas tree, this might be apparently two separate holidays, unless there was a second tree on the west side near the stove (seen above in the photo of Mom and me).  But I can't imagine Gram and Mom wearing the same dresses to two different Christmases.

Some of these photos may be Thanksgiving, for the edge shows "Nov 55," while other photos show the Christmas tree and Larry setting up a model train in the north bedroom off the dining room.  I do have other interior photos with the card club, wherever they are, but these can be used with the recent entry of the exterior photos.

Clearly the living room, this looks east, with the big window that had the stained-glass panel at the top.  Laurence (Grandpa K.) is in the blue velour chair; Jack L. (Dad) is on the blue velour couch, the rocking chair I have next to him.  Mike E. is on the floor with my sisters, Sue and JaVee.  The wall picture is a landscape on velvet, better seen in the second photo. 

Larry K. is plugging in the movie projector for home movies.  Again, the view is to the front door, but I don't know who's put up the white cloth screen standing there.

Velma L. (Mom) and Fern (Grandma K.) are in the archway between the dining room and the living room.  Gram's wearing her usual apron.  To the right of her head is Whistler's Mother on the wall; Arrangement in Grey and Black:  The Artist's Mother is the actual title.  Around the corner on the wall was an Edgar Guest poem, "The House by the Side of the Road."  As far as I can tell, that's me back in the corner on the blue velour sofa, with Betty K. holding baby Ryan.  As evidenced by the ceiling lights and the arches, the place had been much remodeled since Earl and Audree had moved there, before Grandma and Grandpa lived in Grandma's birthplace.

Another modernizing arch took out the wall between the dining room and kitchen, as seen here, looking west past Fern at the dining room table.  And Grandma no longer had her old cook stove she fired up with cobs and wood pieces, with a hot water reservoir at the end.  But she still baked as much as ever.

Laurence K. (Grandpa) with Mike E. and Denny E. playing cards with someone whose hands I can't identify:  Dad's, Earl's, Larry's?  Mike's silhouette is on the wall above Gram's desk, to the left the familiar corner mirrored bricabrac shelf.

Audree E. and I are at the dining room table.  Behind Audree is the door to the narrowest, steepest stairwell I know of outside the Clemens house in Hannibal, Missouri (but Sam Clemens/Mark Twain was a little guy, not a burly Koftan).  The buffet is behind me.  On the wall above it is The Last Supper.  I'm not totally sure, but the picture between us is the one with silver foil used in clear spaces in a landscape painted on glass.

The final two are indisputably Christmas, Betty K. and Fern K. standing in the living room, then Larry K. putting together the model train before Lindsay E., Linda K., and David K. in the north bedroom off the dining room, I think.

As will be seen, a set of family Christmas photos is deteriorating rapidly, color photos turned all red--so much for photographic color processes.  Because of that and because other sets show the insides of two other Laurence and Fern Koftan homes, I decided to do all four (the fourth is at our house) thematically.  These are the only ones I have of the inside of the Bloomfield farm house, all in the living room.  They are not cropped, to show Fern's (?) handwritten identifications.  The blue velour couch, ultimately ending up in our big living room where Denny and Mike always slept on it when they visited my parents, sat along the east wall to the southeast corner.  Directly across from it on the west wall was the piano I later was given to learn to play on, presently in JaVee's basement.  A sofa-matching blue velour chair sat between the windows.  Grandpa's rocking chair that I have is out of sight, as are Grandma's desk and other chairs.  Obviously, Penny has a new doll, Fern has a new nightgown, and I have a new dark blue robe and white monogrammed scarf.

L-R:  Penny, Earl, Audree, Lindsay on Mike's lap, Denny behind.

Among the loose photos easier to scan were these of the Ellingson cousins' grandfather and step grandmother and their new car.  The photos are all by their house, behind (east of) their large general store replaced by the present Center Post Office.  The first photo of Ole alone is along the west side, looking south.  The next photo is on the east side, looking northeast, with the Clara LaFrenz home in the background, seen through the trees at the right.  The two with the car are taken by their garage, their south/back porch behind them. 

And, for a bonus, one of his oldest and youngest grandchildren by Earl (and Audree).  Audree has written on the back:  "Denny & Lindsay.  He was 9 in July.  He has on Denny's uniform."

As I discovered the photos in the last entry, so I did these, which have to be probably the last we took of the farm Up West.  The prints are confusingly marked for Jan 61/Jan 57/ Feb, but appear to be from about the same time.  These are in sharp contrast to the present obscurity of trees as seen in the 5 September 2008 entry.  The first looks west at the house with the carport added by Grandpa Koftan.  The stained-glass panel now at Penny Ellingson Mindemann's was over the living room window.  The left upper dormer window marked the frigid bedroom where Ellingson cousins Denny and Mike, and I ordinarily slept   The other dormer is to the little space of the narrow stairwell and a single bed in the open.  I don't know who the boy is, who looks like either Denny or David (unlikely).  The dogs are Salty and Pepper.

This next photo is from the south, slightly east, looking north, with the trees Grandpa Koftan planted that now obscure the house.  The main entrance (into the kitchen off the long porch) was at the left end of the single-story part.   

  From the southeast looking northwest at the hog barn at the left, built new by Grandpa Koftan, where we had our biology lessons on birth, and the corn crib at the right where Grandpa butchered hogs, where we could confront death.  The little barn for the cows and horse is back of the hog barn.  To the left of the photo was a ravine of sheep sorrel (?) where we played a lot.

     After I had written this entry, I found this photo of Micheal Ellingson directly in front of the little barn I disliked for its mire of dung and urine.  Until I edited this, I had not noticed Dennis at the right side, obscured by the sunlight leaking in.  On the back Audree had written to Velma, "This was taken on his second birthday & just as I told Denny to get back and went to snap the picture he turned his head.  Not such a good hair cut either."

 And these are two extras, also confusingly dated but from the same occasion (Easter?), when everyone was dressed up (I'm assuming Lindsay's in a new cowboy outfit).  L-R: Fern Peters Koftan, Lindsay Ellingson, JaVee Luckert in the arms of Penny Ellingson, Sue Luckert, Audree Koftan Ellingson.  The long porch behind them bordered the kitchen and dining room and was where we separated milk and churned home-made ice cream.

L-R: Audree's back, Sue and JaVee, Velma Koftan Luckert, the edge of Penny.  On the back is written, "Yes, I want one of these of proof she always bullys me."  Signed "Audree,"  referring to big sister Velma, of course.

Thanks to their great great granddaughter, Jana Chapin Dierker, whose father, Frankie, is a grandson of Levi and Bess/Bozena Koftan Chapin, I have these two excellent photos of my great grandparents' grave in Maplewood Cemetery, Clarence, Missouri.  I had stuck them in a drawer and just rediscovered them.