Nostalgia

The doily was crocheted by my father's mother, Pearl Ford Rutland. That's her in the photo with my Mom sometime around 1950. Our family's roots are in Washington state, where my family names turn up in books on local history.

Street Snap - 1945

A street photographer snapped this photo of my aunt Lillian and grandma Merle on the streets of Tacoma in 1945. World War Two was winding down and a new spirit of optimism infused daily life in the States. This picture seems to catch that feeling...

One Hundred Years

In 1908, my great-great-grandfather, Willard Tabor Payne, built a house at 3111 North 8th Street in Tacoma, Washington. For a decade, the house at 3111 North 8th was known as "Granda and Grandma Payne's house." My grandma Merle and her siblings played in the back yard or posed for photographs on the front steps.



Here--in 1910--great-great-grandpa Payne is watering the lawn and saplings. The house was to be his last residence. He died there in September of 1917 at the age of 68 years. Afterward, his widow, Lydia, went to live with her daughters and the house eventually passed out of the family.

I was curious to know if the house still existed. The north side of Tacoma is full of old neighborhoods and gracefully aging homes, but I was surprised when I found a street-view in Google Maps that showed Granpa and Grandma Payne's house still standing after a century.

Ethel Caroline Payne - 1898

Ethel Caroline Payne--Merle's mother and my great-grandmother--at aged 16 1/2 years. This is her graduation photo taken in 1898.