Family and Friends

To those who might enjoy a follow-up photograph to the one posted 2 November, 2015 titled "Just Another Day".  The photo in this post is shown below.  [This post has received 3265 visits.]

Evelyn Jean is seated just to my right side in the picture.  Of course yours truly is seated in front with both fingers in my mouth sharing this moment in time. 

Now some years back the following photo was taken.  Just Evelyn Jean and I sharing this moment in time.

We are in the same position as shown in the first picture, and certainly haven't changed a bit.
[NOT!]  We had not seen one another for at least three decades, and enjoyed catching one another up on all the happenings important to us.  Just another day in our lives, but a little to old for tree climbing, rock throwing, snow ball fighting and the like...on this day in time, we were just family and friends.

Two Days Away

Post cards from friends are a delight.  Here a friend of my Dad mails this in 1945:

The battleship "U.S.S. West Virginia" is shown.  It was mailed from the "Great Lakes Naval Training Center" to "Pvt. Henry E. Jones, 15364821, 3704th A.A.F. Bu, Sqdn. V Class 236, Kesler Field, Miss."  What an address it is.  A name, and a number of numbers, could be difficult to keep straight.

The message on the back is shown:

A "Forgetful buddy" my Dad was.  "Look what you're missing not being in the Navy" it reads.  Check the post mark as it is stamped..."May 6, 10:30 AM, 1945".  Two friends, one in the Navy, and one in the Army Air Force, both just completing their training...two days before Victory in Europe was declared. [May 8th, 1945]  What would it have been like during WWII just two days away from victory in Europe.

Posing For a Memory

Faintly written on the back of this picture is: "this is the 5 Dolls at Lexington, Ky". Five numbers are given with the names (left to right) 1 = J.C. Ewen, 2 = J.B. Bam..ehan ?, 3 = G... Ewen, 4 = T.S. Jackson, and 5 = J.B. Goldon? They are standing proudly, each touching down the line from J.B. Goldon to J.C. (called Jake), posing for a memory.

I would take it that J.C. Ewen (b. 1887) was the anchor of the crew since they all seem to be leaning on him. He was an older brother of my grandfather, Sidney Brent Ewen (b.1899), who would have been a young child when this picture was taken. The middle person was Green Ewen, a younger brother to J.C. and another older brother to my grandfather Ewen. Both Ewen boys had mustaches just like their father George Washington Ewen. [See post and picture "The Sod Rest Lightly", August 17, 2010.] All wore hats except Mr. Goldon who seems to be wearing an apron, and certainly did not want to get his carefully combed hair disrupted. [Perhaps a bartender who served the boys on their big trip to Lexington, KY.] The second in, J.B. [could not make out the spelling] shows his pipe, a symbol of manhood. [See post "Brothers", March 16, 2011, for my great grandfather Jones, E.T.] What a crew. It must have been mother Susan [who else would have called them "Dolls"?] who scribbled lightly on the back of the picture hoping to keep this event and memory alive. The boy's big trip to Lexington from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. Friends, posing for a memory in time.