Another item from grandma’s scrapbook. John (grandpa) was sending her funny things all the time apparently, since there are a TON of postcards, newspaper clippings, and oddball little pieces like this tucked into that scrapbook. I’m really grateful she saved all this because it gives us a little glimpse into the life they led while separated by World War II. John entered the Army Air Force while they were dating, and they married in 1943 while he was home briefly. He served almost two more years after they married, so the majority of their correspondence via postcards is tucked into this scrapbook. Grandpa died in 1984, so I have one or two vivid remnants of memories of him (I was very young when he passed away) and I don’t recall grandma ever really talking about him much. I suppose we just didn’t talk about the past, so I didn’t know anything about our family history before I started all this and grandma wasn’t around to ask anymore either.
On to the card! On the back, John (grandpa) wrote,
One Fellow had these cards printed just for fun. He gave me one of them and I am sending it to you. How do you like it?
I haven’t looked into who “Chuck” Frailey might have been since it’s probably a little too common of a name to pin down to one person, especially without any details about birth, death, where he lived, or his real name since Chuck is in quotes. Obviously, the card is from the 1940s (probably 1941-ish based on the other items on the page), and the humor is definitely of the time period though more that a little bit cringeworthy now. I did a little searching and apparently these type of cards arose out of the Victorian era as Acquaintance cards or Escort cards as a way of introducing oneself without arousing the suspicion of a woman’s chaperone. They’d largely fallen out of favor by the time this one was printed, but I did happen to find a nearly identical one on flickr with the same lines about “Special attention to other fellow’s girls” and “Sole owner of lovers lane.”
Now that they’ve all arrived at their destinations, I can finally show off the holiday art card I made for 2021! I’m not too big on the winter holiday season – I’m not religious, I don’t really celebrate any sort of traditional Christmas or religious holiday, and have found it hard to find happiness during this time of year – I’m pretty deeply introverted, so large parties are not my thing, and feeling guilty for not being happy during that time of year is difficult to deal with when everyone has these high expectations and standards of how/when/where/why you should be happy and celebratory. For the past I think 4 years now, I’ve gotten into the habit of making a not-holiday-specific art card instead of buying pre-made cards as a way of giving myself a creative challenge and finding my own way to something happy without following a cookie-cutter mold of how things should be. It also fits in with my idea that the winter holiday season should be more about the people and the gathering rather than the stuff and the things, so creating something with my own two hands feels more meaningful and less wasteful than buying stuff that might end up being returned, sold, traded, re-gifted, etc. Being together in person with the pandemic and all has been difficult, so this sort of fills in that gap a little too by having something handmade to send to family and friends.
On to the card! After last year’s complicated 3 layer screen print, I went a little simpler this year with a two piece linocut of the canal houses in Amsterdam. I sort of took ideas from houses I’d photographed while traveling and various photos around the internet and mashed them together into this. Then, once I saw the empty space above just the houses, I took the scrap cut from the houses and made a little windy sky to fill that space. I used a batch of cards I picked up in bulk when AC Moore closed (I’ll be using those for years to come) and printed with black Speedball Fabric Ink in black as well as a standard Speedball Block Printing Ink (water based) in a light blue color. The block itself isn’t even real linoleum, it’s a rubber “Soft-Kut” printmakers block that I get in 12×12″ pieces and then cut down to fit each project. The rubber is like sneaker sole material and is easier to carve and definitely a lot less hard on the carving tools, though it can be a bit less exact, especially on corners and edges since it smooshes and squishes with the tools. Proper lino is a nice, hard surface and definitely gives me better lines, but it’s more difficult to cut and work with and can sometimes crumble. As for the ink, I like working with the oil-based fabric ink much better, but didn’t happen to have the blue color on hand in the same ink, so I used the classic water-soluble ink for the sky bits. The water-soluble ink tends to leave a texture behind, but dries immediately while the oil-based ink prints cleaner and flatter, but takes a few days to dry completely.
Overall, I really liked this year’s card! I did put together a screen for the inside message, “From our home to yours,” and the back of the card for the date and credit lines, so it’s all hand printed between the linocut and the screen print, no printer printing. Now I’ve got to start thinking about next year’s card at some point!
Curley Miller and his Ploughboys in The Economy Rodeo on Diamond Street
If the title sounds like a country music band, well..
It’s probably because it is a country music band.
This image is likely from a program or promotional poster/flyer for the band and was found in a scrapbook of my grandmother’s who was kind enough to note “Coalport, 1936, In Person” up in the top left corner. Coalport refers to Coalport, PA in Clearfield County, and it’s easy enough to assume she saw the band in 1936. Economy Rodeo seems to have been a popular radio station program during the time period, featuring country music acts. The reference to Diamond Street appears to reference the radio station WWSU that operated out of the Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh – an article from 1931 mentions the station opening on the 10th floor of the hotel which is located on Forbes Ave, formerly known as Diamond Street. The hotel is now the student union building for the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh. I couldn’t find an advertisement in any newspaper for that specific concert in the photo note, but I did find quite a few other ads for similar shows around that region of PA.
So, I went on a little dig to see what I could find about Curley Miller since genealogy is my focus and I know precious little about the early days of country music. Grandma was a huge fan her whole life, and we’d routinely show up for visits to find her watching the Grand Ole Opry reruns on TV, so this type of bluegrass/country music would’ve been right up her alley.
Curley Miller was born Calvin Ellis Miller to parents Calvin McCormick Miller and Elda Blanche Miller on 2 December 1914 in Versailles, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (found via the PA birth records index, the actual document should be online in the next year or two). He shows up on census records in 1920-1930 as “George Miller” instead of Calvin, but the birth record clearly shows his name as Calvin. It’s possible they may have called him George around home to differentiate between Calvin the child and Calvin the father.
He lived for the majority of his early life in McKeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania with his mother and father, and later his stepfather (verified by census records). A half-sister, Mildred Evangeline Espy, would later join him in the music scene as Millie Wayne. Our Curley Miller is not to be confused with a different Curley Miller from the Milton, PA area though which is what made my initial searches lead in the wrong direction. The first newspaper reference I could find was in 1935 when Curley was about 21 years old and playing on a local Pittsburgh radio station, KDKA.
Just two years later, Calvin Ellis Miller married Sybil Clarice Lowell in Greensburg, PA on 25 April 1937 (verified by Westmoreland county record search).
Sybil seems to have gone by the name “Sally Dare” or “Molly Dare” as part of the group and likely is the woman seated in the middle of the photo. Advertisements in old newspapers have photos of her that look awfully similar. There are also ads referring to their daughter “Patsy Belle” having been part of the act as a “Child Singing Star.” I did find the three of them living in Wheeling, West Virginia as of the 1940 census but was unable to find anything about Patricia “Patsy Belle” after that point. Patsy was also born in Tennessee (according to the census) two years before Curley married Sybil, so this may have been a daughter from her first marriage. Sybil was granted a divorce on 28 April 1941 while living in Wyoming. The divorce decree mentions zero children affected by the divorce, so I’m not entirely sure if Patsy Belle was their child or just part of their travelling act? Not enough paper evidence to support that, and I couldn’t find a birth record for Patsy at all.
Part of the fun of sorting out fact from fiction were articles like these, telling fantastic stories about Curley that were part of his stage persona and printed in newspapers, but weren’t at all true according to paper records. That article states Curley was born in Oklahoma, and while this birth location also appears on the 1940 census, he was very clearly born in Pennsylvania. I started to wonder if the stage/radio persona bled into his real life. That hunch was confirmed in a later article from 1974 in Florida.
The article, which has a problem with column formatting, states,
“Miller comes by his interest in “songs of the soil” naturally. Two of his ancestors were killed at the Alamo and a great-uncle (The Rev. William Snider) was the Indian agent to whom Sitting Bull surrendered when he came down from Canada.
While Many parents were reluctant for their offspring to enter show business, it was different with Curley. His parents were both horse enthusiasts and expert at trick riding. They were also amateur entertainers.”
As far as I have been able to research, absolutely ZERO of that is true. He didn’t have a great-uncle named William Snider (I found the names of his grandparents and none of them were Snider/Synder). As far as ancestors being killed at the Alamo, none of that tracks at all since all I can find is that his ancestors lived in Pennsylvania. For the bit about his parents, on their marriage license, it lists his father as a machinist and later in the 1910 census as working in an electrical shop, and his mother was a music teacher. Granted, his mom may have helped foster Curley’s love of music, but there’s no paper evidence to prove any of the claims he made in the article.
He did participate for years in the West Virginia country music scene and participated in the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia (link to tour program in 1941, alternate link to the program page about him). He had been drafted into the Navy during WWII which meant he left radio. When he returned home after the war, he returned to civilian life and went into horse training, still as a showman, taking the title of “Colonel Curley Miller” with his dancing horses in various rodeos and circuses.
He later moved to Florida in about 1962. While in Florida, he continued working with radio as a talent director, according to the article above.
He died on 14 Feb 1994 in Orlando, Florida (obituary link). His obituary states, “Mr. Miller was a retired project director for an employment service,” which I guess could mean he was a talent scout which would fall in line with his history in the entertainment business. Every genealogist loves long obituaries with tons of detail, but this one had very little. There’s a granddaughter mentioned, but no daughter, though this could possibly be the aforementioned “Patsy Belle.” The 1950 census is due out this year (2022), so it’s possible I’ll be able to find out more once that’s released!
Random stuff in scrapbooks seldom leads me down a deep dive into the history of the subjects in photographs, but once I started digging, the information about Calvin “Curley” Miller ended up being so fascinating, and a great example of the difficulty in separating actual factual documents from self-reported information in newspapers and sometimes even censuses.
Long time, no blog! As you can imagine, a lot has changed in the 2.5 years since I last posted anything here. But, this isn’t a post about that.
We recently came across my maternal grandmother’s scrapbook, and I scanned everything into the computer. She kept a lot of fun little things, including a photo of “Herman Luzier” along with a page of photos of other musicians. Herman is holding a steel guitar in the photo, and a quick search on Newspapers.com turned up an article saying he was from the same area as my grandma and played music on the radio. Through some more sleuthing, I found that Herman was born on 20 Sep 1912 and died 3 Feb 1985, having grown up around the Clearfield, Pennsylvania area. The article from Newspapers.com is added below. Just a short update, but I hope to go through more of these random photos and bits of history grandma saved in an effort to digitally preserve them and maybe, someday, should someone go internet searching these names, they might be reconnected with their families!
This month’s prompt for Sew My Style included two pattern options, the Sheona Top/Dress by Athina Kakou and the Givre Top/Dress by Deer and Doe. Both are pretty basic tees that are extended to knee-length straight dresses. I really can’t wear straight dresses like that since they don’t flatter my body shape, so I opted to keep it simple and sew the Sheona Top. I didn’t have any knit fabric on hand for this, so I ended up finding a cute little anchor and “x” print from Girl Charlee. It’s *so* hard to find cute knits that aren’t florals or juvenile prints, so I maybe went with something a little more simple than I would otherwise, but the price was right at $6.75/yard and it’s 100% cotton jersey instead of a polyester blend. Before I sewed the top above, I did end up sewing a wearable muslin out of clearance fabric from Joann’s that was marked as “youth” fabric, but also the only cotton knits they had in the store that weren’t awful floral prints were in the youth section, and it was either the fabric seen below, or rainbows and donuts (I WAS SO TEMPTED THOUGH).
The fabric is kind of sheer in spots with a sort of burn-out effect and there are all these little lady bugs doing funny things like laundry, pushing a carriage, playing jump rope, etc. It’s adorable, but definitely designed with someone younger in mind. However, that’s never stopped me from wearing silly prints before, and it’s not about to stop me now! I sewed the lady bug top at size 24 thinking that since I was between sizes, I’d best size up since the pattern mentioned negative ease in the hips and that’s the opposite of my shape and comfort in terms of fit in clothing. I have Hips with a capital H, so.. yeah. Anyway, the 24 ended up being a little big – the shoulder seam is a little low, there’s too much space around the bust (another issue I have with fit in general), but the hips were right! So, I decided to cut down the pattern to the 22, but kind of cut between the two sizes at just the hips which worked out pretty well. I also opted for the short sleeve in the final version since I tend to layer cardigans over short sleeves.
It’s not a bad fit! I mean, it’s a fairly stretchy fabric for being cotton knit, and of course being a knit fabric means it’s got a fair bit of forgiveness in the fit anyway. The length is surprisingly spot on, considering I’ve got a super short torso and most tops end up mid-thigh instead of just above the widest part of my hips where they should be. If I did this again, I’d probably make the short sleeves just an inch longer, and see about maybe scooting the waist curve up a few inches. Maybe I’d even take the bust sizing down too? It’s a lot of fiddling around for a t-shirt, but having a go-to pattern that fits would be really great. Also, learning how to do those adjustments on an easy-to-sew pattern would make future sewing pattern adjustments even easier.
Overall, I’m really happy with how this came out, and I absolutely will wear both the ‘muslin’ and the final t-shirt. The pattern was incredibly easy to follow and sew, and I finished them each in maybe an hour or two between cutting and sewing. The designer also has TONS of modifications and pattern hacks available to change the neckline, sleeves, hem line, etc, so once I’ve got a solid base fit on this, the possibilities are nearly endless which is what makes it such a great starting point for other sewing!
If you want to check out what other sewists made this month, check out the hashtag on Instagram, #SewMyStyle2019.
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. There are repeat items, and man .. I really don’t care about Clinique. Clinique engages in animal testing and it’s always felt like something more suited to my grandma than me. I want to see indie brands who are cruelty free and do something new and unique, not the same old boring crap some company has been doing for far too long. Sephora, you’re better than this. Also, the website “View Box” detail hasn’t matched what I received for this and last month. Minor nitpick, but clearly something is wrong on Sephora’s side. Either I’m getting the wrong box or they’re not showing the customization on each box on the website anymore.
Kat Von D Saint & Sinner perfume – 50 mL / $65 – (Two samples, 1.5 mL each, value of $3.90 by volume) Received in the August 2017 Sephora Play box, so I’ll just point you there. (link). But also, Kat Von D is also apparently an anti vaxxer, and I’m pretty much done with her as a result. She backtracked later, saying she just had concerns, but you don’t make a post saying you’re going to raise your child “without vaccinations” and then say LOL JK later.
Wander Beauty Baggage Claim Gold Eye Masks – 6 masks / $25 – (One mask, value of $4.17) I mean, this is neat, and it’ll be fun to try, but this isn’t a product I’d ever buy for myself. The price point is way too high to be a regular-routine kind of thing, and I just don’t need them.
Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Serum – 30 mL / $79 – (10 mL, value of $26.33) I find it kind of hard to believe this tiny sample is worth $26. While I don’t think I’ve gotten this in the Play box before, I know I have samples of this around from other Sephora orders, so this is just not that exciting. Also, that tube is only about 1/4 full, with the product only coming up to just under the line above “Radiance Serum” which is a total waste of packaging.
Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick – .15 oz / $26 – (.05 oz, value of $8.67) The color I received is “Sake” which is described as a Dusty Mauve. You know, basically the same shade as the other Bite Beauty product I got last month. I still love this company and they’re cruelty free and awesome, but two products, two months in a row in the same color? Mix it up a little!
Clinique Moisture Surge – 1.7 oz / $39 – (.24 oz, value of $5.51) The first bunch of ingredients are silicones and glycerin, which is really not that exciting. I mean, I’ll still try it because I’ve got crazy dry skin, but .. meh?
Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense – .012 oz / $18 – (.005 oz, value of $7.50) It’s a black eyeliner pencil. Yay? I mean, again, nothing new. If it had been a unique color or new formulation or something, I might have been interested. But. Clinique. Black. Eyeliner. It’s basically plain oatmeal.
So the total value comes to $56.08 for a box that only costs $10.60 per month. For a personal value, while I’ll use the lipstick and everything but the perfume, I’m just not excited about any of this. It’s all old news, repeats, and nothing thrilling. I’m not even sure this box was worth $10.60 since I can pretty much get any of those as samples with purchase or using reward points from other orders. Sephora, if the point of this box was to get people to try new things to encourage future purchases of the full size items? This was a complete flop. I mean, again, for $10 a month, I’m having a hard time cancelling the box, but after the last two, I’m getting closer to just saying the hell with it.
It’s reveal day for January of Sew My Style 2019! I decided to join on this year in hopes of sewing at least one thing a month (while we’re home anyway), and having a fun challenge to work along with is great! They set the prompt or pattern choices every month and then you go off and interpret the basic guidance however you wish which gives me just enough structure and just enough creative freedom. January’s prompt was, “Anything Goes Workout Gear,” which left the field WIDE open. I had an old order sitting around from the now defunct Sprout Patterns which just happened to be a pair of Sloan Leggings from Hey June Handmade in a cute Tetris print by SpaceFem. The beauty of Sprout Patterns was that the size you selected came pre-printed on the fabric, so there was no pattern paper cutting, pinning, lining up prints, etc, etc. It was a pretty great idea, but rather expensive, so I’m not entirely sure how popular it was. This was my first experience with a Sprout Pattern and I have to say it went rather well!
The fabric is Spoonflower’s Cotton Spandex Jersey (93% natural cotton, 7% spandex). I washed and dried the fabric first then cut out the pieces which maybe took all of 15 minutes for all 8 pieces which included a waistband, waistband lining, a pocket, and the left and right legs, plus two pieces of knit interfacing for the waistband lining (not included). There were instructions to add an optional clear elastic around the waistband to help them stay up, but I really never have problems with waistbands slipping off my hips and butt so I opted against the elastic. This was my first time sewing knits, so I took some advice and picked up stretch needles as well as Maxi-Lock stretch thread. I did sew a couple test runs on the leftover fabric between the pattern pieces (there was LOADS), but kept having trouble with the top thread snarling up into nests occasionally on the underside. I used a zigzag stitch and adjusted for stitch length and width a little till it got better, but it still wasn’t perfect. Later I read that because I was using a traditional machine and not a serger, I probably should’ve only used the stretch thread on the bobbin and not the top thread, so, lesson learned! The snarls are small and don’t happen frequently, so I left it as is, and it doesn’t seem to affect the final garment.
These maybe took me a few hours, even with making some mistakes, having to rip back the entire leg seam (I sewed it the wrong way the first time, d0h!), but if I sew this pattern again, it would probably take an hour tops. Since the fabric is soft and stretchy, there’s a good amount of forgiveness for mistakes and fit, so they fit rather well! The waistband comes up pretty much to my belly button, and even though I picked the petite XXL size, I still had to take off 3 inches for the hem, and just ran a zigzag stitch around the bottom to make it easier. The ankles are a little loose, but I have that fit issue with most pants/leggings since apparently I have a plus sized butt, calves, and thighs, however my ankles are ‘standard’ size. Go figure! I don’t mind the ankles being a little loose since it’s probably easier to pull them over my feet, so that’s all good. The pocket is REALLY great and was a fantastic addition to the pattern with minimal extra effort. It’s big enough to even hold my Pixel XL although just barely, and isn’t bulky to the point that it sticks out or ends up lumpy under clothes when empty.
If you want to check out what other sewists made this month, check out the hashtag on Instagram, #SewMyStyle2019.
Another month, another Medusa’s Makeup subscription box! This is the one for the current month, January 2019, and it arrived at least a week ago, maybe more. I did say I’m getting back into blogging, but there’s some catch up to do here. Anyway! This month featured four items and a bonus clear zip bag, and as usual, everything is vegan and cruelty free.
Totally Baked Eyeshadow – 2 g / $9 – (Full size product) The color is “Fer Sure” and it’s a coppery red color. The eyeshadow is incredibly pigmented, but it can be applied lighter or a super-pigmented gorgeous metallic color. This is the kind of color that works really well to kick up the green in my eyes, so I LOVE this one to bits.
Lip Balm – .1 oz / $8.95 – (Full size product) The flavor is “Cha Cha Cha Cherry Bomb” (HELLOOOO EARWORM!) and it smells exactly like a very popular brand of cherry lip balm, but this one is vegan and cruelty free. Perfect timing for my dry, chapped winter lips.
Metallic AF Lip Gloss – .2 oz / $11 – (Full size product) The color is “Bad Medicine” which is a metallic light pink gloss. It goes on like a gloss but then dries almost like a matte lipstick, so it sticks around for a while. The color and metallic shine may be a bit outside of my makeup comfort zone, but I think using this as a layer over a darker lipstick might be fun to try.
Mystical Eyedust – 3 g / $11.95 – (Full size product) The color is “Psykhe” which is a really interesting chameleon of a color that looks purple and brown but with a gold shimmer. It’s a really neat color and I can’t wait to use it.
Makeup Bag – ?? – Bonus item this month! I’m not a huge fan of plastic, but I do like having bags like this for travel, and I’m pretty sure this one would be okay to use as your carry-on baggie of liquids on a plane.
The total value of this box comes to $40.90 plus the value of the bonus makeup bag which is pretty great for a cost of only $16.95 per month! It looks like the price went up $1 this past month, but the longer term subscriptions of 6 and 12 months bring the price down to $15.50 and $14.95 a month respectively. I love that all the products are cruelty free and vegan, and it’s just a fun box to get every month.
