Wednesday, August 31, 2011

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 168: Bess and Gerry at the Train Station

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I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.
Before I started this (Not So) Wordless Wednesday series, I posted The best picture from Gerry's collection that showed my grandmother (Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver) and my Aunt Geraldine Seaver posing with my father (Frederick W. Seaver) and mother, and my maternal grandparents, at the San Diego train station in July 1942, just before my parents wedding.

Here is a photograph from the Geraldine (Seaver) Remley albums that I received after her death in 2007:




This picture is of my grandmother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) and her daughter, Geraldine Seaver (1917-2007), arriving at the San Diego train station in July 1942.  My understanding is that they came all the way from Leominster, Massachusetts on the train, no doubt changing trains at several stops along the way. 

My first reaction to this picture was "I'll bet they 'freshened up' and 'changed clothes' after they got off the train and before they took this picture."  Nobody could look that good after three days (?) on the train - wearing dresses, jackets, hats, gloves, pearls and heels (and who knows what else?) in July.

I wish that I could ask Aunt Gerry about this - I'm sure that there's a story here for a 25-year-old young lady traveling with her mother to see her brother get married.

1 comment:

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Randy,
If they had sleeping accommodations on the train, then they probably changed before getting off. The ladies room had mirrors and stools for fixing their hair and makeup.

You have some very nice photos that tell stories. I enjoy seeing them each week.