Monday, August 10, 2009

Not much Bling in the Carringer-Auble families

The impression I have about my Smith, Auble and Carringer families in the 1860 to 1940 time frame is that they were frugal and fairly simple people. In the hundreds of photographs in my collection for these families, I see very few noticeable rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Their income went to support the family, and many of these families suffered financial losses when the economy failed in 1873 and 1893 and again in 1929.

I thought that I would find some jewelry in the wedding photographs I have, but there is none apparent in the wedding picture of my parents, her parents, or her grandparents.

I did find one picture of my mother (Betty Virginia Carringer) and her mother (Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer) taken in about 1930:



In this photograph, Emily is wearing a very nice pearl necklace and fairly large pearl earrings (real or fake?) and Betty is wearing a pearl necklace with smaller pearls in the necklace and a larger pearl at the end.

My best guess is that this may be a photograph taken in honor of Betty's graduation from elementary school in about 1930, or of her birthday in July. She was age 11 in 1930, and Emily was age 31. In this time period, both of my grandparents worked at Marston's Department Store in downtown San Diego and, for probably the first time in their lives, could afford some nice jewelry and little extras.
I have no idea where this jewelry went. Perhaps one of my brothers, or their wives, have it as part of the family heirlooms passed down over the generations. Or sold at the garage sale when Emily died in 1977.

I love this picture because my mother is almost smiling. I don't have many pictures of her as a young girl smiling. And my grandmother is in the prime of her life, and is almost smiling too. Her family is stable (which was a challenge for her first 18 years), she is surrounded by loved ones, and she can be proud of her place in the world. This is a really special picture for me - two of my favorite ladies in my life looking absolutely beautiful!

1 comment:

Ginger Smith said...

All 4 of my grandparents and a couple of my great-grandparents worked in department stores. Let's just say I was a welldressed little girl!