Bits and Pieces

Yesterday, March 25 would have been my mother's (Helen Weaver Stapp) 99th birthday and my Aunt Marge's (Marjorie King Weaver) 91st  birthday.  They were two strong women who raised six fearless headstrong children during the 50's and 60's.  My mother and Marge both met their husbands during World War II.  Marge was a SPAR stationed in Seattle, Washington where Uncle Tom was stationed.  Mother was working at Boeing in Wichita in the library and proudly wrote to her friends that they built the famous B-29 there.

Mother in the white dress in Aunt Della's apt. The Pigeon's Nest.

This photo brings back delightful childhood memories for me as it was taken in my Aunt Sissie's "Pigeon's Nest Loft."  The roof loft was on the 4th floor of  my grandmother's boarding house on North Broadway in Wichita.  She is the smiling mother-in-law to be sitting on the far right.  Aunt Sissie (Della) is on the floor on the left and my favorite character in this picture is Murphy Doodle, the one who appears to be standing under the flower pot with the greenery streaming down.

In one of the letters that I found of my mother's the note read:  Johnie is everything I could wish for in a man. They were married May 25, 1946 in Las Vegas at the Little Chapel of the West.  On July 30, 1983 Jack and I married in the same church, a small brown wooden structure filled with charm.

In another letter my mother wrote to her cousin Ethel, "Tom asked me last January to write to you and thank you for the fruit cake.  He said it was swell, but that he was no good at writing.  He doesn't write to us often but I have surprising news.  He got married last week.  The girl is a Coast Guard SPAR.  He met her in Seattle about two years ago and must have fallen hard.  Tom never had but about two girl friends in his life."

Tom's wife, Marge, with baby number two, Dana, in Independence, KS at the Country Club. 

 Love is in the air and my heart just giggles when I think of these great memories.