My Oregon Ancestors

My camera is broken and in for repair, so I thought I'd share some beloved old photos of my mother's family and, in the next two days, the family popcorn wagon. I've posted them before, but it's been years ago. The family originally settled in eastern Oregon, where most of these photos were taken. This was the man who became my grandfather, Charles Jenkins. He was 24 when the photo was taken but lived to be 87:

The boy on the left is again my grandfather, and the girl is his older sister, Edythe. The picture was taken by a traveling photographer in 1895:

The extended family. The only two I knew were the man on the right, again my grandfather, and the woman holding the reins, my grandmother. This was taken near Fox Valley, Oregon in 1913:

Lillie Shanks Moore and Connor Oliver Moore, my great grandparents, in 1897. The traveling photographer took photos in a tent, which is why you can see grass at their feet:

Circa 1898, left to right: Gladys Bessie Moore (my grandmother) at 6 years old, her brother Claude Moore at 2 years old, and her sister Inez Moore at 4 years old:

My maternal grandparents in 1910: Gladys Bessie Jenkins (nee Moore) and Charles Amos Jenkins, with their first born, John:

Gladys Bessie Moore again, this time in 1908, one year before she got married. She had ridden down to town on a horse to have the traveling photographer take her picture and was quite upset that her dress was wrinkled and her hair mussed from the horse ride:

A comparatively recent photo, this one from 1934. Gladys Viola Jenkins (my mother), her younger brother, Claude, and a neighbor:

Pleasant Hill School in Mt. Vernon, Oregon about 1914. The school was way up in the hills and two of my mother's older siblings went to school there before the family moved to another town:

The Fox Valley, Oregon, Sunday School in 1909. My grandmother went to church there:

Zella Viola Jenkins, my maternal grandfather's younger sister in 1895. She died in the great Heppner, Oregon flood of 1903. You can read about the flood here. My grandfather was out of town on that day because he was on a date with the woman who became his wife and my grandmother:

November Pets At Home

November has been cold and blustery, just right for staying indoors with the house pets. They make a house feel like home, as this picture reminds me. Daphne and Bugsy were watching me while I was at the computer. I turned around and saw them, which brought a smile to my face:

Ruby and Meghan, the resident guinea pigs, don't interact with me much but I stop and pet them every morning when I clean their cage:

The dogs sleep with me. Usually all four little dogs are on the bed and Seamus is on the big, green floor pillow, but sometimes Jack sprawls out there and Seamus uses the smaller floor pillows:

Daisy and Sammy have made friends. She doesn't want to play much, but she's a great cuddle-buddy. When Sammy wants to run wild and play, Caspar is always available:

Bugsy likes to cuddle with the dogs. In this case, he was happy to be Clover's pillow:

Daisy, Sammy and Daphne:

Sammy loves this bed and can often be found there. It's one place where he trusts me to pet him, though I'm still going slowly on his socialization lest I spook him:

Jack loves to back into the corner by my computer chair. He can watch me from there without getting run over by my chair-on-wheels, but he does leave a dirty smudge on baseboard:

Sammy and Seamus napped together on a yoga mat, and Jack was considering joining them:

Usually it's only Bugsy who sleeps with the dogs in the kitchen corner, but Sammy is beginning to get the idea now too:

I couldn't find Caspar one day and began to panic. I finally found him on a chair cushion beneath the kitchen table. He was sound asleep and oblivious to my calls. Playing with Sammy can exhaust a kitten:

Clover has begun sleeping on top of Seamus like she used to do some years ago. It seems to be an arrangement which makes them both happy: