Yes, yes, I know last Sunday was Father's Day! I was busy celebrating, plus I had house guests here to help me. Good grief, these dads are a so much trouble. No wonder they did not get a holiday until 1972! And beside that, I have so few sepia photos, I save them for Sepia Saturday posts. So, here we have my father John Daniel Patterson. This is his high school senior portrait from 1929. His first job was working for Tennessee Coal & Iron aka TCI as a miner. On the back of this photo, written in his own hand "Mr. John Patterson, Edgewater Mining Camp." I think he must have been proud of becoming a working man. He was working for college money and soon made his way to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. There is a better version of this portrait, but this 4" x 6" is special to me because it features his handwriting. (The mark on his left cheek is a stain on the photo.) My father had thick, auburn hair. I was his fourth and last child, and the only one with the same color hair as his. I can remember my Grandmother Patterson telling me that every time I visited her as she would pat my head and comb her fingers through my hair.
This is a postcard addressed to my mother when she was a young and single working woman in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. There is no message, only the address "Miss Nina Cox, and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi" written in pencil and a one cent cancelled stamp. (I can't quite make out the date, but my best guess is maybe 1933 or '34.) When I would shuffle through the photo box and come across this handsome fellow and ask, "Who is this man, Mom?" A big knowing smile would appear on her face. With a sweet, little chuckle she replied, " That was almost your daddy!" I think his name was Hollis Lloyd or maybe it was Lloyd Hollis. I am not sure now, but I am certain he was not my father. Click here for more Sepia Saturday Posts!
14 comments:
Very cool not-quite-father's day but still nostalgic father's day-post!!!
Your father looks very, very serious and mature. It seems that that generation of young people were ready to be mature adults when they graduated from high school.
Wouldn't Hollis Lloyd (or Lloyd Hollis) be surprised if he happened onto your blog and found himself?
Love you new K, Kate!
Yes, Nancy, I bet he would be, but not nearly as surprised as I would be! He would have to be in his 90's!
Great pictures. Well I would guess that Hollis Lloyd or Lloyd Hollis wasn't your father for lack of trying. Imagine sending a picture like that to a young woman. Well, your father must have won out for a good reason.
My mother also had a "this was almost your father" photograph in her collection. I love the way these old photographs preserve such folk-tales for ever - it's like laminating dreams.
Yes,your Father looks a thoughtful & strong man.I love Grandmother Patterson's hair-restorer!
Christine, I too have often thought the picture of Hollis was a bit ...shall I say forward, if not rude. My father was always a gentleman, and still a take charge kind of fellow. (I promise to teach myself how to include a link to another of my posts if you will check out my April 3, 2009 feature on my mother.) It will illustrate just what I mean! {{smiles}} Thank you for stopping by!
Alan, you are such poet! "Like laminating dreams!" Have you ever done a post on the "almost father"? I am honored and honoured to have you visiting here!
Tony, odd you say that...she never made hair restorer, but she did make a concoction famous in our family....Penny Linament...something like witch hazel, mineral oil, and God knows what else with a copper penny left in the bottle. It was used for sore muscles!
Don't the golfers wear copper braclets for copper's curative quality?
Hi There, Thanks for visiting my blog. I am enjoying yours. The Sepia photos are excellent. I do alot of Family History---so i have lots of old photos--many of which I have no idea who it was.... Sigh!!!
Anyhow, I was raised in Southwest Virginia --where mining was the THING. My Dad was not a minor--but he did work for the railroad his entire life... I knew lots of mining families.
Great picture of your father.
Come back to my blog anytime.
Hugs,
Betsy
Lovely, interesting post. Your father was a very handsome man. I have a real weakness for red haired people. My one and only beloved much younger brother had flaming red hair. He died seven years ago when he was only twenty-eight.
The little snippet 'almost your Daddy' had me smiling broadly. Those sweet little tidbits help to gives life and heart to old photographs.
Mom's always have a story about "the one that got away", don't they? (Come to think of it, I have a few of those stories myself, but none to pass them down to.)
Your dad's photo puts me in mind of Harry Connick Jr. (whom I love) for some reason.
Kat
I'm still chuckling over Lloyd Hollis! Just think, you might have had that boxer's nose instead of your lovely auburn hair! You handsome dad reminds me a bit of a youthful Hume Cronyn.
I'd be proud of my dad's photo if I were you, too. He's a man with an interesting look about him. I'm glad he went on to college. Fun to know the boxer was an also-ran. I wonder what THAT story was.
Well first I thought the boxer was the same, your dad, but you quickly explained it, still he is quite the dude! And then an almost but you wouldn't have had your same hair unless he had that color too...Nice photos and I can understand how the wallet size with his writing is dear to you. I love your blog especially the photo garden at the top.
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