Cruse Cemetery Near Toga

We passed the Cruse Cemetery north of Toga on Stoddard County Rd 203 many a time on the way to visit one of Mother’s dearest friends, Daisy Zimmerman. When I paused there in the early 1970s, it was looking pretty shabby. (Click any photo to make it larger.)

Weeds had overtaken stones

It’s always disappointing to see any cemetery neglected, but this one is a fairly large one, with almost 200 interments in it, the Find A Grave website shows. The good news is that recent Google Earth photos show that it’s in much better shape today.

Local legend of the rich man

Somewhere along the line, I heard a story about a rich man who had been buried in this cemetery. Local legend was that the man had a fair amount of money and had always said he was going to take it with him. After he was put on the dark side of the dirt, it was said that his grave was dug up by someones unknown who thought that live crooks could better spend the stash than a dead man.

I don’t remember if anyone ever said if there was any treasure found, whether the grave was successfully dug up or any any other juicy details. The other piece of the story was that when he was planted again, this time his grave had a huge concrete slab poured over it.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the slab, but I can’t locate any photos of it.

Another tombstone mystery

There are lots of interesting stories about cemeteries in the Advance area. There was once a family cemetery on the town square in Advance. The tombstones all mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night. Nobody in town would give up the culprits.  Even my mother and Daisy, who were wired in, claimed no knowledge of what happened to the stones.

Daisy, left, is no longer with us, so she kept the town’s secret to the end, if she ever knew it.

I Have Someone’s Family History

Brother Mark always likes to hit the antique shops when he comes to Cape, so we started at Annie Laurie’s. I was doing a pretty good job avoiding temptation when my eye fell upon this 1959ish black and white photo shop owner Laurie Everett had under a Christmas display. It jumped out because it was uncharacteristically sharp and well exposed for a snapshot of that era. It was for sale. Mark paid for it, so it couldn’t have been much. (Click on any photo to make it larger.)

Look at the IDs on the back

When I flipped it over, I saw that someone had taken the time to document who was in the photo:

My Sis and our Grandchildren in Tom and Jo’s basement. Christmas Eve 1959

  • Tommy – 3 yrs 9 mos
  • David 2 ” m 90s
  • Jeanne 1″ 7 mos
  • Marie ? Ha Ha!

Note for the younger generation: “Ha Ha!” was the 1959 way to say LOL.

Throwing away photos is alien to me

For budget purposes one year, I calculated that the average photographer on my staff used about 30,000 frames of film a year. Back in the day when I was buying my own film in 100-foot rolls and cutting it into 36-exposure rolls (and under the influence of One-Shot Frony), I didn’t hit those levels, but it’s safe to say that I’ve shot a lot more film than most folks. (Kodak called someone who bought 12 rolls of film a year a “heavy user.”)

I would bet that I probably have all but maybe 100 rolls of those bazillion rolls of film. I may not be able to find an individual photo right away and it may not be properly identified, but it’s there someplace. My “coffee can film” contains pictures that are more interesting to me today than the stuff I shot for the paper and filed away in negative sleeves.

How can you throw away your mother?

How could you let a photo of your mother when she was about three years old in the midst of a flock of chicks slip away? Particularly since she’s with her brother Kenneth, my namesake, who was killed in a car vs. train crash. I sure couldn’t.

Other people, obviously, can. I was at a yard sale where I picked up about a dozen Kodak slide trays. When I went to check out, I noticed that the trays were full of slides: weddings, graduations, vacation trips, first car, basically all the facets of the family’s life. I pointed it out to the seller and she said, “That’s OK. Just throw them away.” I eventually DID throw away a lot of them, but I held onto some of the better shots because it would have been a crime not to.

Mother always fills our birthday and holiday cards with family photos she’s collected over the years. It’s always the best part of the card.

Do you recognize any of these folks?

If so, I have a piece of your family history. I won’t even charge you to get it back. Mark’s already paid for it.

Glee – Advance Style

Mother, my harshest critic and biggest whip-cracker, took me to task this morning because I didn’t run pictures of the Advance High School Band with the Advance photos I posted.

I tried to explain that I like to hold some stuff back for a slow day. To keep from getting cut out of the will, though, I thought I’d better feature the band and the 1936-1937 Glee Club.

(I put Glee in the headline, hoping that people who are searching for the TV show might land here by mistake, boosting my traffic stats.)

That’s Mother on the right side, holding a clarinet. (Click on any image to make it larger.)

Southeast Missouri High School Band

In the fall of 1937, students from all over the region and their teachers gathered at the State Teachers College to form the Southeast Missouri High School Band. W.A. Shivelbine from Cape was one of the conductors.

Cape Central was well represented

Much to my surprise, I found out that she was one of only two Advance students listed as playing in the band. She was on the clarinet and Thornton Jenkins played the trombone. Cape Central was well represented by some familiar names.

1937 Glee Club

The 1937 Glee Club doesn’t look particularly gleeful. Mother’s in the front row on the left. “I couldn’t sing,” she confessed.

Advance School Photos from the ’30s

September 3 is the Advance Hornet Alumni Banquet. My grandmother, Elsie Adkins Welch, and my mother, Mary Welch Steinhoff, were Advance High School graduates. Mother was in the Class of 1938. When I was home a few weeks back, she pulled out an old scrapbook I’d never seen before. In honor of the reunion, I’ll throw up some of her class photos. (Click on any photo to make it larger.)

Mother thinks this was her third or fourth grade class. She’s in the front row, third from the right. She recognizes her “fancy” socks. Fern Sample is to her left in the photo; Bonnie Jenkins is on the right.

“I didn’t much like him”

This is a photo with a mixture of classes in it. Mother is fourth from the right in the second row. The teacher in the dark suit at the right was Mr. Tippitt (Tippett?). “I didn’t much like him, she said.

I find the picture interesting from a photography standpoint. If you look at the right-hand size, you can barely make out some words at the edge of the frame. That’s an indication that it was a contact print made from a 5″x7” negative. Most photographs were made on smaller film and then enlarged.

Juniors in 1937

One of the pages in Mother’s Senior Memory Book was labeled Juniors / Seniors. This was the photo associated with juniors. If she was in the Class of 1938, this would have been taken in the 1937 school year. She is in the front row, third from the right.

I really like the girl in the front row, third from the left, with the tie and the mischievous grin.

Class of 1938 – Check out the belt buckles

This is labeled Seniors, so it must be the Class of 1938.

She’s third from the left in the front row. Check out the “A” belt buckles on the two boys standing at the left. The boy in the back row, fourth from the right is sporting one, too. I wonder if they were the Advance version of a letter sweater? Note how they are all wearing sweaters, but they are careful to have them pulled up to display the the buckles.

Undated school photo

She thought this must have been an upperclass photo, but she couldn’t be sure. She’s third from the right in the front row.

Caps and gowns

This must have been the Class of 1938 in their caps and gowns. It looks like there is a hornet in the window pane on the left. Mother said her class was the one that came up with that as the name for the school’s mascot. She’s second from the right in this shot.

More graduates

This is a larger group shot. She’s to the right of the middle in the front row. (She had a knack for getting in the front of photos, even then.) Mother hasn’t decided if she’s going down for the reunion. She doesn’t think there are many of her class left.

Here are the birthday pages from her Memory Book. We’ll have more of her scrapbook photos coming up if there are enough Advance readers to make it worthwhile.