Mary Welch Steinhoff Archives

October 17, 2025

It’s Birthday Season

This is the time of year when I’d saddle up the pony to head to Cape Girardeau to celebrate Mother’s Birthday Season that centered around Oct. 17. I always felt guilty because I always wanted to head back to Cape at vacation time. In fact, I don’t think we did more than half a dozen trips as a family that didn’t pass through my hometown.

Sometimes we’d end up at Kentucky Lake with Brother Mark.

Other times, it would be at Christmas

This was our first Christmas after getting married in the spring. I put together this photo book for a class project.

The Last Rose of Summer

I wrote a blog post about the Last Rose of Summer in 2015 after Mother’s death. Friend Shari was over enthusiastic in her pruning of the rose bush, so I’ve had to replace it.

This rose bush next to the mailbox got mowed down by a guy who ran off the road, but it survived that and a near-drought.

Time to whine about walnuts

Birthday Season is also the time for my annual whine about walnuts. We’ve had a bumper crop again this year. The first year I stayed in Cape by myself, I was freaked out by the sounds of the nuts bouncing off the roof.

If you don’t believe me, here are some of my walnut rants.

Tamed jungle

I’ve had some yard guys try to time the jungle on the east side of the house. There are still some limbs down, but it look a whole lot better than it did a couple of years ago.

A Furry Lawn Ornament

Phoebe the Bleeping Cat wasn’t around in the Mother era, but she enjoys playing furry lawn ornament when I let her out.

April 17, 2025

Dad’s 1942 Pontiac

I almost let Dad’s April 17 birthday slip by. While poking around, I found where he had bought a 1942 Pontiac for $1,328.86.

What was particularly interesting to me was that he had to get permission from the rationing board to buy the vehicle. (World War II, remember?)

Because of his job, he had better access to gas, tires, etc., than most folks at the time. Mother’s parents ran a restaurant in Advance, so they, likewise, had access to sugar, meat and other rationed items that were sometimes in short supply.

$258.55 for parts and labor

This was filed with the original purchase. I don’t know if this work was done as a condition of sale or if it was done later.

Dad was exempt from the draft

He spent the war years working for Markham & Brown building airfields and other war-related construction projects.

Mother went with him, which caused one memorable event.

A truck driver thought it would be funny to scare this strange woman by driving head-long toward her, not realizing that the woman was the boss’s wife.

Mother was not amused, nor was Dad. His “fun” cost him his job – and maybe his draft deferment.

When she was in the Lutheran Home, she regaled her grandkids with stories of all kinds of shenanigans, including the time when she swiped a dump truck because she wanted to go into town.

Hills Plant – Vichy

It took lots of materials to build airfields and the like. One of Dad’s jobs was to keep the rock flowing from quarries like this one in Vichy, Mo.

I may have to drive around to see if any of his construction projects are still around.

October 16, 2024

Birthday Season #103

Mother was born Oct. 17, 1921, which means she would be 103 had she not died in 2015. While rooting around in some old boxes, I discovered some photos of her that I had never seen before.

I love this shot of her wearing a jaunty hat and a saucy smile. It was a tiny print that still had tape around the edges, so it must have been pasted in something.

8 or 9 at house that burned

A note on the back said she was 8 or 9 in this picture in front of her family’s house in Advance that burned. I don’t know any details.

1938 graduation pictures

This sequence was slugged “1938,” so I have to assume this was when she graduated from high school.

A pack of den mothers

Mother was a Pack 8 den mother. She’s in the back row, second from the right.

She the only one with a medal pinned on her. It might have been a Purple Heart for injuries sustained while herding a bunch of Cub Scouts around.

Christmas in the dining room

We called this side of the living room the dining room, even though I pretty much sure we never dined there. In fact, we hardly ever lived in the living room except for special occasions.

We were kitchen, basement and porch folks.

A pensive moment

She’s all dressed up, but I don’t know where she was going.

Slipping in a Dad and Mark moment

I don’t want to steal Mother’s thunder, but this never-before-remembered shot of Dad and Mark at Easter is going to become one of my favorites.

Lots of Mother links

Mother was the subject of many blog posts.

Here are some links I pulled together for her obituary.

Mary Welch Steinhoff 1921 – 2015

Here is the day of her funeral

I Guess It’s Time

December 24, 2023

Poinsettias on the Graves

When Wife Lila came to Cape recently, she tried to convince me to replace the refrigerator when I remodel my kitchen. She’s a big fan of bottom freezers, and I prefer mine to be at eye level. (Her eyes aren’t that far off the ground, so that’s why she likes the bottom freezer.)

When we went to Lowes to look at ice boxes (using that phrase is a good sign that I’m old), we passed an aisle loaded down with Christmas flowers and cacti. The poinsettias were two for three bucks, so we picked up a couple of them and some cacti for friends and relatives.

Mother had always asked, “Who will decorate the graves after I’m gone?” That sent me back to Lowes to pick up some more flowers.

Sunset more colorful than flowers

After dropping off a pot at my Mother and Dad’s stone, I stopped by Lila’s mother, Lucille Perry. The flowers were colorful, but they couldn’t compare with the sunset in the distance. I wish the camera had captured all the colors my eyes saw.

Roy and Elsie in Advance

Mother’s dad and mother had health problems and lived with us from my early grade school days until after I had left for Ohio University. My life was much enriched by getting to know them.

Here’s a little more about Elsie Welch, as described by her friends.

My great-grandparents

Mother’s grandparents, W.M. Adkins and Mary Adkins died long before I was born, but I still have no trouble spotting their grave in the beautiful Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Tillman, near Advance.

A lot of my grandmother’s friends and relatives are scattered in that cemetery.

I wondered if they got stolen

After I had placed the flowers, I wondered if anyone would spot them and carry them off since they were so portable.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I said to myself, “I don’t care if someone does. I fulfilled my obligation to Mother, and if her flowers brighten another grave, that’s a good thing.”