While going through the attic at my mom’s house last fall, we came across a Christmas card mom made for her mother. As you can tell, my mother missed her calling. She could have made greeting cards for a living. (actually she did make many greeting cards for family and friends when I was a kid)
My Mother! York, NY 46 (unless the 46 means 1946 and NY means New Year?)
The address is interesting, mostly because they lived in Elgin, Illinois. Not New York, NY. I love the drawing with the fashionable hairstyle.
My grandma in 1946 as drawn by my mother.
She works and works in the kitcion like a slave. Sometimes I wonder if she didn’t once live in a cave She gits after us and gits after us Till she just desides to pick up after us
The drawings on this one are too good to miss so here they are in more detail:
Here she is working in the kitchen like a slave. Note her leg is shackled to something
Here she’s being dragged by her hair when she lived in a cave
Here she’s getting after the kids. With a belt.
I’m guessing mom was about 10 or 11 when she made this card (which would make 1946 reasonable) because all of her siblings are in the drawing. From left to right, (the kids) is Mom. Then Aunt Ginny, then Aunt Nancy, then Uncle Dick and finally Uncle Bud. In 1946, though, Aunt Ginny would have still been an infant and not running.
Here she’s given up and is picking up after the kids. It gives her a backache.
After all that she should think us all rats But I know my mother Beter than all others I know she loves us more in every way She loves us more every day
More details below:
Here she’s chasing the rats away with a flyswatter.
To my mother Because I love her May not miss my loving kiss on Christmas Day Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
The loving kiss:
Here’s she’s rewarded with a loving kiss.
Vahish (?) P.0 Box
Sometimes I’m annoyed that Mom keeps everything — but often I’m pleased. This was a lot of fun to look at with mom and to share with you.
My mom made me this poster for my 17th birthday. I don’t remember her making it nor actually receiving it, but I do remember my mom’s decoupage phase. She made posters for everyone — they were good too. She’d tailor them perfectly to the person. She was always saving magazines and clipping out the bits that she thought would be good on a poster for someone. We always had a jar of Mod Podge handy at home, in case we needed to decoupage something quickly.
Happy Birthday Dona Poster
Anyway, my poster. It had a pocket watch with the time I was born depicted in both the position of the hands and in writing along the bottom edge. Elgin, where I was born, was known for their watches, so perhaps the pocket watch also symbolized that.
clockNewborn Donaroom
The poster also had a copy of my first photograph — all 3 pounds, 9 ounces of me — with my astrological description pasted below. My daughter likes this photograph of me because of my pointy ear. She says it proves I am of either fairy or Elven blood. My dad’s name is Elvin, so perhaps she’s right.
Mom also included an image of my astrological sign on the poster. One of us, I guess, was into astrology at the time. I suspect it was her, but perhaps I was too.
Finally, the poster has a drawing of two women at the doorway of a room. One is older, heavy with glasses, and the other young and slender. A black cat rubs against the leg of the younger woman. The younger woman holds a floor lamp, frying pan and a goldfish bowl. She stands near a suitcase.
I think this depicted me moving into my new room. The drawing probably came from a magazine showing someone getting let into her first apartment, but my mom saw it and thought it could represent me moving to my new room. Either that or it was a not-so-subtle hint that it was nearly time for me to move out.
The cat is Cinder. I didn’t have a lamp like that and didn’t own a goldfish, but otherwise, she got it right!
The writing on the poster says:
Dona 17 Years Later
Happy Birthday
Love From Mom 1973
It’s cool that I found this a few months before my own daughter turns 17. I think I know what my mother felt, having a firstborn daughter so close to adulthood. Pride. Disbelief. Sadness. Hope.
Clutch Cargo Lips 