Monday, May 13, 2013

A little family history

My parents were married 80 years ago this month. They didn't have a big wedding; the time was the nadir of the Depression. Though they came from families that remained more than comfortably well off, the times were too uncertain for grand celebrations.
Roger was 27 years old, possessed of an engineering degree that he had never used. He had gone to work for his father in "the brokerage business" in 1927. Pretty soon they were both out of work. My grandfather retired and my father went on to do accounting for a series of employers, mostly relatively small businesses. 
Martha was three years younger. She too had a college degree, in history. In better economic times, she might have become an academic. Her degree served her well when she held a job writing abstracts of esoteric literature for a local soap magnate.
The fashions of the time didn't flatter them in this newspaper picture announcing the event. Look at those shoes!
I didn't come along for another 15 years; I think they didn't believe in adding a child to the uncertain world of the Depression and then World War II. I was the only offspring.

Their loving marriage endured 58 years until Roger's death in 1991.

I'm scanning bushels of family photos these days. Occasionally I'll share here.

3 comments:

Hattie said...

Fascinating to think of these people and their lives. I was born in 1939. People would stop my mother on the street, look into my little buggy and exclaim, "Oh, a baby. I haven't seen a baby in ages."

Sandra de Helen said...

I love the clothes, even the shoes. It's all a matter of taste. I think your parents are gorgeous, and they certainly were dressed in the fashion of their times. But tasteful! Thanks for posting about them, and for including pix.

janinsanfran said...

Thanks, Hattie. That's a great anecdote.

Hi Sandra -- I prefer the pictures of Mother as a teenager in her 1920s best ... Being a member of what they called "the younger generation" seems to have suited her, pocket flask, daring cigarette cases and all. :-)