Grandpa Luckert spent virtually the entire year at our house except for holidays and the occasional sprees when Dad gave him money to spend a few days in Bloomfield drinking and gambling as much as the money allowed. He generally spent the Christmas week at Lizzie's with her family, through New Year's, so annually we'd take him down to her farm and drop him off. Hence, these photos from three different Christmases, because Aunt Lizzie has a light sweater on in one set, a dark in another set, a white blouse in another (and Dad and Grandpa have different clothes, too). I don't know the years except to say that Dixie was born in 1944, Owen in 1945. And [Great] Aunt Lillie Stein (b.10 May 1881-d. 3 October 1959) was the oldest of John C. and the Widow Dannert's second family.
These are also the only photos of Aunt Lizzie's house. I've had some at her front door in previous entries. You entered into a big, broad room the width of the house, the kitchen on one side, the dining area on the other, where we gathered most of the time, the living room very small, north of this large space, with a bedroom off to the east and the other bedrooms upstairs. The cook range is visible in the background in some pictures, but the most fascinating feature of the kitchen area, including work table and cupboards, was the sink. She didn't have running water but had a little hand pump--a miniature of the kind I froze my tongue to in Center--and a zinc-lined (I think) sink with an enamel basin in it for washing up. And it didn't require priming, as the bigger ones sometimes did. We boys always loved those old pumps.
Lizzie's oldest was Clark. Her second, third, and fourth, all daughters, are here with their husbands and children. Anna Etta/Anne married Harold Alexander, seen in his swimming suit in an earlier entry; they farmed in the Bloomfield area. (And I have no dates for them.) Elizabeth Evelyn/Bubbs (b. 3 October 1919) married Frederick/Fritz John Davids (b. 20 October 1915-d. 26 March 1985); they farmed east of Creighton. I have no data for Hazel, married to Archie McShannon; they ran a shoe repair/leather goods store in Bloomfield when I was in school.
As promised, the kitchen range is at the left, with Lillie Stein and George W. Luckert seated in the front. In back, L-R, are Evelyn/Bubbs, Hazel, Anne, Harold behind Anne, Archie, George Thiele, and Jack/Dad (?). In the rear the door to the living room, the bedroom door off to the right. And, of course, a horse on a shelf.
We're in the northeast corner of the dining area in front of the buffet. At the extreme right in the other corner was a big china closet full of horses. L-R, Jack/Dad, Gary, Fritz, Bubbs, Grandpa Luckert, Aunt Lizzie. We had a crank phone on our wall in Center until we got a dial system in the Forties and no longer had to ring for the Operator or crank a Morse-code-like series of longs and shorts to ring others on the line or listen to the others on the line pick up to snoop on our incoming calls. I'm wearing a maroon corduroy coat and white scarf. (I remember all my clothes; doesn't everyone?) We usually didn't stay that long, but Dad is playing cards in the next photo (again, Mom seems to have the camera).
The view is toward the northwest corner of the living room with the west window, the asparagus fern, and the door to the stairwell closed. Dad is at the left, I assume Gene is leaning over Archie's shoulder, Harold is in the center, George Thiele at the right, but I don't know whose hand is showing his cards. Should be Grandpa Luckert's--or Fritz's.
Another living room shot, the third Christmas in the group and the most hurried, since there's only the single photo with the four of us dressed like that.
Joan McShannon and Owen Davids are in the lower right-hand corner. [Great] Aunt Lillie Stein and Grandpa Luckert are seated as before, with Lizzie to the right and Gene McShannon crossing his eyes. In the back are Hazel, Fritz, Archie, George, Allen Swanson (a neighboring farmer and close friend of Aunt Lizzie's), Dad, me (a year older, same jacket, in my acne stage, it seems).
Aunt Lizzie with Dixie Lee Alexander and Owen Frederick Davids; Joan and Gene McShannon and I are in the back.
Lizzie with her three daughters, Hazel, Anne, and Evelyn.
Lizzie and Evelyn are behind Joan, Owen, Dixie, and Gene (still crossing his eyes).
At left are Evelyn/Bubbs, Jack, and Lizzie. At right are Lillie, Dixie, and Lizzie.
At left are the McShannons, at right Anne and Dixie Alexander (Neal and Beth weren't born yet.)
At left are the Davids. I've always liked the photo at right of Owen at the table, in front of the metal planter full of begonias at the east window.
In the photo below, Kenneth is under the conifer at the far left. His parents are about midway between that tree and the conifer at the far right in a double row not visible like the two in the foreground.
