Mom's post cards of castles - One

My mother graduated from high school in 1934.  I remember her saying she went to some Catholic college for about a year, but don't know the name.  She didn't marry my dad until '39...so I don't know what she did during that time.  She did have a pen-pal.

It's interesting for me to remember writing letters to many people in my youth.  Sometimes you'd get assigned a pen-pal, who you didn't even know, that some group or another wanted to give young people a way to communicate across the world.

One of the few things my mother left me was her post card collection. Many of the cards are stored away somewhere, and I doubt that my kids or their kids will care about them.  I have scanned a few that at least had a note on the back indicating who wrote them from where.  They have no postmarks, so they may have been sent in envelopes with letters.

Hazel Autley wrote my mother on postcards, from Birmingham, England to San Antonio, Texas.  I think Hazel had probably been in school with my mother. There was a Hazel Pabst in her class, so perhaps she had married by 1937-8 when the cards were sent.

First let me share these three cards.  There will be more that I'll share in the future. After all these years, I only want to put a few up at a time.

Mataley's note in her handwriting says this card was received April 10, 1937 from her friend Hazel Autley, living (I think) in Birmingham, Eng.

Shrewsbury Castle was built around 1074 by Roger de Montgomery^[16]. Today the Castle is home to the Shropshire Regimental Museum, Shropshire, England.

History - The castle was built as a defensive fortification for the town, which was otherwise protected by the river. Town walls, of which little now remains, then radiated out from the castle and surrounded the town (although the area known now as Town Walls still has a small section of it and a tower known as Town Walls Tower and in the care of the National Trust).

In 1138, King Stephen successfully besieged the castle held by William FitzAlan for the Empress Maud during the period known as The Anarchy. The castle was also briefly held by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Wales, in 1215. Little of this original physical structure remains.^[2]

The Shropshire Horticultural Society purchased the castle from a private owner and gave it to the town in 1924. 

Source: Wikepedia

I think the typed note came from Hazel, with my mom's note saying it was now 5/38

  5/38 Postcard of Queen's Closet sent from Birmingham, England to my mother from her friend Hazel A.

You may notice discoloration of two tabs on the back sides right of each one, which may have been from tape which was applied in a scrapbook in which they were afixed so the backs could still be seen.

I confess I know next to nothing about  Windsor Castle. There are many folks in Sepia Saturday who have more knowledge about it, and have probably even visited it.  Take a step over to see what the Sepia Saturday folks are up to this week.
 I obviously wasn't able to follow their suggestion very well this week.



I used this resource and was overwhelmed!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Castle

So I'll be satisfied just to share my mother's pen pal's contributions, and not attempt to learn too much about the castle itself.

Today's quote:

Like a tree our growth depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed boundaries and defenses we no longer need.
Madisyn Taylor on Daily Om

Mom's work and play

My mother, Mataley Rogers, had a job almost all her life.  At least all the life after she moved to St. Louis where my sister and I went to a private school.  My mother became the technician for creating slide shows for that school.  It was called the Patrons Office.  A lot of the school was funded by contributions of Christian Scientists across the country. Also new students would come after their parents heard about the school (from grades 9-12 there were dormitories for boarding students.)

My mother learned how to use a tape recorder (reel to reel) and help people read scripts that were recorded. These tapes were played in conjunction with a slide show of the school, with a "ping" whenever it was time for the next slide.  She even would splice the tapes using some really lethal stuff, carbon tectra chloride. I really liked the scent, along with gasoline.  I was doomed to become an addict.  Wonder how I got out of that! Perhaps because I also liked the scent of coffee.

Mataley Rogers has on the headphones

Now in 1950 having a mom working full time, meant that my 4 year old sister, and myself at 8, needed to have someone care for us after school.  I don't really remember how that happened. Perhaps when we were very young, Mother got off early after school to be with us.

I do know I read every book* in the elementary/middle school library, and started on the high school library during the summers. (*Books of interest to me, of course!)

And as soon as I was 12, I helped out in Mom's office, like stapling papers and cutting things out.  I later learned how to work the old switchboard.  I was so proud of myself earning $0.40 per hour on my own.

Not myself or my mother, but that's the kind of switchboard I used on my first job!

But this is about my mother's life.

In the 50's a woman was the housewife in a family.  But since mother was at work all day, she did everything when she got home which the other wives had all day to do.  Dad would come home from work and sit in a rocking chair and read the paper until dinner was cooked...by my mother of course.

And as very young daughters we weren't much help.  I could iron handkerchiefs and pillowcases.  I doubt that my sis could do much work of help for quite a while.  And eventually I learned how to iron my dad's shirts....and of course my own clothes.  I don't remember doing any of my mother or sister's clothes.

At one point I remember my mother driving a station wagon to pick up other children (like a school bus) mornings and evenings.

 She also spent at least one year as a girl scout leader, or maybe a brownie-then a girl scout leader.  She was amazing, to have accomplished all of that.

After I took Home Economics in 8th grade I was able to bake cakes and make a few dinners which gave my mother a break.  I even learned how to sew some of my own clothes on her sewing machine.

For play, I think she liked movies.  And she also liked to read, mostly when she was in bed.  We would listen to music on the radio when we were home, and when we got our first black and white TV, it was great to be able to see Howdy Doody and The Lone Ranger. Oops, that is what us kids did!  The Walt Disney show every Sunday was popular with all the family.

Mataley Rogers posing with an antique train at a museum

Mother grew up in her grandmother's household, and her grandfather was the conductor of a train in Texas, so she was interested in the train from Texas at the museum .

I think my mother also liked to spend time in the car going for drives on Sundays.  She especially liked the Jewel Box botanical garden in Forest Park, in St. Louis, MO.

And another Forest Park favorite for every summer as I was growing up.  One night a week, Mother would take my sister and myself to sit in the free seats at the Muni, or the Operetta, as we called it.  Wonderful musical performances all summer long.  No wonder I loved Gershwin, Rodgers and Hamerstein, and all those show tunes!

It wasn't until I looked for a photo of it, that I learned this is the oldest outdoor stage in the US, since 1917.

A big salute to my mother.  I enjoyed (mostly) her opinions, as well as her directing all the traffic and decisions of the family. She was a very strong woman.  Her religion was her daily practice.  She never voted, however, saying each election that she and my father would cancel each other out.

Another week for Sepia Saturday, with the meme of Work and Play.


Go to their site to see other folks' posts (click on links with their names).


Today's Quote: (Look, I'm back adding a favorite saying here again!)

There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. St. Paul