Showing posts with label family history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family history. Show all posts

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Fifteen-Thousand Photos and Counting


OLDNEWGREENREDO has been on Blogger the entire time I have been blogging. I've always loved taking photographs and the digital world is wonderful when it comes to taking images. I can't believe I have over 15,000 photos sitting on blogger. 

I'M  sharing a few of my favorites from over the years.



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This image is my Avatar and as a Google and Etsy photo. This sweet repaired ceramic was one of Mom's favorites...I also used her in the collection of photos that I use for my header on Etsy.,
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I've actually adjusted this original montage photo for Etsy and have since tweaked it. I simply wanted to show the items I loved to indicate my vintage products on BarberryLane on Etsy.

I started using two different cameras...I'm not a name brand person, basically I have no idea what they were, but every photo was stored on a memory card and then had to be transferred physically to the computer.  Lately I have taken most of my photos with Iphone or IPAD. The ease of transferring them to the computer through the cloud is just so simple. Editing is done directly on my computer in my Mac's photo program. I thought I would share some favorite photos from over the years.

FAVORITE PLACES: I've never shared tons of personal information...but my Hubby and I were both born on the shores of Lake Michigan 200 miles apart. The water and the waves are an integral part of our being, and though the hometowns on the Lake are far away, we try and visit often.

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Lake Michigan Beach

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Hubby's home town has a distinct Light House as does mine.

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Stunning isn't it, my hometown lighthouse is one of the oldest and tallest on Lake Michigan. I'm compelled to visit the park on the grounds every time I go home.

Personal Favorite Photo

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Our graduation photos from UWSTOUT in 1970-71.

Always our FAVORITE: 

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We are blessed with one Grand Girl, who is now 12...and camera shy always. She was 4 here and playing in the sandbox at Gramma and Grampas.

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SIMPLE FAVORITE: The favorite photos from the blog are actually the mundane and everyday...wash on a line.

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FAVORITE ANTIQUES: My mom's fish poacher which resides on the counter or in displays. I've only poached fish a couple of times, it's French and very old..

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FAVORITE SHAPES: The artsy part of me, often takes random shots of interesting shapes...this is a wicker lamp top out on our porch, which is full of antique wicker.

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FAVORITE FAMILY HEIRLOOMS: These three pieces are always on display or use in my home. The large jar on the left is HEAVY cut glass and top is below. It was once silver plated but the silver was polished away. I think it was Great Grandmother's. 
The lady is a piece from Grandmother the next jar is also crystal and holds cinnamon and sugar on my stove shelf in the kitchen now and was my mom's from where, I'm not sure. NUM!

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Shadows and form....love this.

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FAVORITE PATINA: I don't make these vignette's very often now...but this was a Spring display of some favorite things. I still haven't polished that teapot---I just love the patina it has. I have polished the tray to use for bouncing mini lights glow in the winter.

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FAVORITE BLUE: Our home is full of blues, but Favorite things include my family blue enameled coffeepots. I somehow ended up with three (1 sold). They are German enamel and designed for the old drip coffee fabric pouches that tied on to a neckpiece. I have two still in the kitchen I use for flowers and serving coffee.

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FAVORITE FLOWERS; Flowers of course are a favorite and I  have oodles of photos of Pansies, a family favorite...here is a whole flat from years ago.

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MORE: Wisconsin is dotted with fields of Sunflowers and one time we stopped and I took maybe 15 photos of some stunning Sun Flowers in a huge field. Who knew they would become a political symbol of support for Ukraine.

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MORE: I love all flowers but the stately IRIS (which are just started to bloom in our yard) are always my favorite. I imagined them as Queen of the Fairies' robe and dress, hanging out to Dry. I had a vivid imagination as a child.

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FAVORITE GARDEN SPOT: These two are my favorites in the yard no matter what season. Here they are quite new and not all covered in age and moss.

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Last year...Sometimes they are swallowed in foliage.,

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Very early on when the bushes were so small. My girl and boy's cane poles are blown away, and I periodically have to replace them. You would think this is sheltered area, but it's a wind tunnel of West to East Chicagoland winds.

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Oh, Dear! The pair fish all year round, and I just have to take a photo of what they are up to even when it snows.

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Another favorite pond early on...with the old pump from the basement of the family Fishmarket. This was the first year, I think...and the right corner is now swallowed in Day Lilies. My son keeps giving me Frogs...LOL. I have oodles of garden frogs, some are faded and need some REDO.


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FAVORITE NEW: Of all the NEW things we did, building the Greenhouse was one of my favorites.

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It functions well and needs a new coat of paint this year...even that top board, we will use wood stain this time, the paint didn't hold up to the sun at all on the cedar. Last year we laid a stone floor which really helped hold the sun's heat this season.


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I ran across these photos---of our kitchen planning 2016. We designed and installed an IKEA kitchen by ourselves and a family cabinet and drawer assembly picnic.

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Since 2016 we have added new appliances, a small shelf installed to the left where the microwave is on the counter. Also added a spacer shelf next to a new stove for griddles and racks. New stove, hood, refrigerator and dishwasher. 

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One thing about designing a kitchen your self---is everything has a defined place...and I wouldn't change anything about our design at this point. Switching to almost all drawers was brilliant for our age. Everything has pull out shelves, very good for old people who can't get on their knees to look for things. 



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FAVORITE FOODS: Picture from 2013 of garden produce ...wow, we do grow everything sometimes.

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FAVORITE FOOD: Strawberries are up there on the list along with anything homegrown.

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I've always canned foods...Pumpkin Butter and Pickle relish...from our garden.

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Not everything is a powered machine. This crank juicer gets used every year...and simple tools that make canning ing easier....Rich Dark Tomato sauces pureed in the strainer.

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This is an old photo of our old stove...canning frozen tomatoes that were saved to do later. 

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And US: This one is even a bit old...6-7 years ago...but we are just grayer and older now.

Such are OLDNEWGREENREDO's  FAVORITE  PHOTOS! 

WHICH ARE YOUR FAVORITE PHOTOS? 

Thanks always for visiting, 


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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  


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Thursday, April 3, 2025

Girly Game Day: 122 Year OLD RECIPE for Blueberry Muffins

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Wednesday was GAME DAY!


I had a half of box of Blueberries in the fridge, and I couldn't find my Blueberry Buckle recipe. I had limited ingredients in the house, so I dug out my Mom's ancient 
Settlement Cook Book. 


I always chortle at the, "Way to a Man's Heart" subtitle. This particular text is over 120 years old, but the Victory edition from 1944.


Gifted to Mom in 1944...from her dear cousin, my mom's writing at the top only, saying for her 'Wedding Shower!'...Gosh the war was still on, my dad was stateside for the first time in almost 5 years...and she was getting married in a month.


The History behind this cookbook is very interesting. First of all it was succinct, easy recipes, with a limited vocabulary and designed to be used by the huge immigrant population we had in every state at the turn of the century.

What a daunting chore to go shopping in the new world markets with all the signs in a different language than you spoke or read. 

We were a huge melting pot and Milwaukee was teaming with...Germans, Poles, Irish, Scandinavian, Beligian, Dutch, African American, South American, Hispanic... all piled into the manufacturing neighborhoods of Milwaukee, south all the way to Chicago, to Gary Indiana. The Great Lakes were the great industrial melting pot of America.

Mom's copy was the 26th edition of the book, labeled the Victory edition. Going back to simple ingredients and how-to's to survive in a war economy...it was always her GO-TO cookbook.


Anyway for game day I chose the simple 100+ year old recipe for Blueberry Muffins. I did make a couple of changes, I used Almond Milk, and good quality margarine (Land-0-Lakes---I am a cheesehead after all) because one of our gals is lactose intolerant. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla, have to ---I'm half Danish.

At our age, we have changed to Almond Milk, for the taste, as well as it has a longer shelf life than milk...extra calcium also. 


This was the smallest muffin...and just chock full of blueberries.


The recipe took very little sugar...so I served with cinnamon/sugar on the side for anyone who wanted it.


Of course Tea or Coffee is mandatory with a muffin.


We are group of four ladies that meet an afternoon every two weeks to play games and Hostess's choice. We are flexible on dates and each take a turn as hostess. 
Senior socialization really is a must...I still haven't joined the local Senior center---as I look at everyone and think I'm not that old...but probably soon. LOL.

The 'GIRLS' ended up playing OLD MAID...with a lot of laughter as the mean age is over 77 for this group. And then 10 rounds of UNO. 

My muffins were a hit...sweetness really just right.

Here is the recipe:


I really like how easy and quick this was, and really can use just one bowl. I have a new stove/oven...and I followed the directions for 425 degrees, despite that my oven usually runs really hot. And they came out perfect. I did give the filled tins a spritz of oil spray to encourage browning.
Again, Almond milk worked well with the Margarine, instead of butter.
Taste and texture was excellent!

PS....I never did one hand of UNO out of 10...which should be 

STATISTICALLY   IMPOSSIBLE!

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  


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Thursday, March 6, 2025

History: Have WE forgotten Where we came from????

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One of the points I dislike the most about the current political climate is immigration...
Let's just take a little look at USA History...and how we became...

WE the PEOPLE
Signed in convention September 17, 1787. Ratified June 21, 1788
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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The above words are from the Preamble for the Constitution 
 from Constitution Center

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 None of these institutions of government, created or recognized by the Constitution, is superior to the Constitution itself. None is superior to the ultimate power of the people to adopt, amend, and interpret what is, after all, the Constitution ordained and established by “We the People of the United States.” 

from Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law. 
Read the full discussion here.

This is why three branches of government protect and defend the WE.

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James Madison, one of the leading architects of the Constitution, put it best in The Federalist No. 49: The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived . . . .  Constitution Center

 So who are WE THE PEOPLE?

In..."1492: Christopher Columbus landed on a Caribbean Island after three months of traveling. Believing at first that he had reached the East Indies, Columbus describes the natives he meets as “Indians.” On his first day, he orders six natives to be seized as servants." Native American History  


"There are three main sources of controversy involving Columbus’s interactions with the indigenous people he labeled “Indians”: the use of violence and slavery, forced conversion of native peoples to Christianity , and the introduction of a host of new diseases that would have dramatic long-term effects on native peoples in the Americas." Columbus Controversy

The above sites gives every American a condensed version with many links to our ancestors and the abominable treatment of the indigenous peoples inhabiting this FREE? land. Today the 570 tribes still existing under our 'spacious skies' are truly members of WE THE PEOPLE.
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"O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!...

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America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"
Source for lyrics



We the People... 

and more and more, We came....

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From sea to shining sea, or Lake Michigan 

 WE came on journeys long and hard.
America's first waves of immigration during the 16th to 18th centuries were from the British Isles. WE came for economic opportunities and religious freedom, most often as Protestants. WE were well-to-do with land grants, organized communities, and indentured servants. 

The Spanish settled Florida, which is now our Southern border, and the Western Coast, the French up the Mississippi River and it's tributaries, and while trappers explored the 'Purple Mountain Majesties of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Later, during the 1840-50's huge European populations fled famine, religious persecution. and the ever changing maps of political conflicts.

And still, WE came... the Irish, German, Scandinavians and more with many Catholics. So many were from poorer backgrounds and less skilled.
WE arrived with the clothes on our backs, 
 calloused hands, and souls' full of dreams.

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My husband's great-great-great grandparents arrived from Bohemia/Czechslovakia/today it's the Czech Republic in 1851. In the photo above are the sons and daughters of his family grown and their spouses.

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Political turmoil in Czechoslovakia, the Austrian Hungarian Empire and war was most likely the reason for  leaving. Hubby's family (both sides) became farmers in Wisconsin. My husband's parents both descended from this Joseph's Father who appears in both family trees 5 generations back.

Arable lands in Europe were worn out from centuries of cultivation. Inheritance laws left lands and property only to the oldest male---leaving the rest to find other ways to feed their families. 
The opportunity to farm in the America was more than attractive.
Starting a new life was a necessity.

And, so WE came to this new country needing all sorts of skills and determination in all fields of labor, finance, and manufacturing.

But, WE were also SLAVE LABOR.

"Slavery in America started in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia.  See Black History and Slavery.


Slavery in Georgia.

Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to African slaves as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans and would be freed after 7 years. Though it is impossible to give accurate figures, some historians have estimated that 6 to 7 million black slaves were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone,...." 
WE fought a long and bloody Civil War
  to abolish this abomination.


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from a 1911 print once in my position.

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation, and on January 1, 1863, he made it official that “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion,…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”



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In the name of  WE THE PEOPLE, 
Congress adopted the

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...13th Amendment on December 18, 1865, and officially abolished slavery. But freed blacks’ status in the post-war South remained precarious, and significant challenges awaited during the Reconstruction period.
If you know little about reconstruction, please click  the link.


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WE moved on,  
and a new Patchwork of our Nation sewed the 
colors from old homeland flags, blood and tears from war, and now  
combined with the shades of 
OUR skins. 


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Laborers were still needed for our growing nation. 

Chinese came to work on the railroads, Hispanics from below our southern borders for farming and ranching, followed by more and more Western, Eastern Europeans from every corner of the continent to build our cities, dig our canals, build our roads, man our mills, and dig deep into our mines. 


Free source

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. 

"“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,...


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...The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”


https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/about-the-statue-of-liberty

How many of YOUR ancestors passed through Ellis Island?

My parents' families came from Lithuania and Denmark, 

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escaping fishing villages skipped by railroads on the North Sea and the devastated by war the farmlands of Lithuania. Constant European wars continually changed the maps causing upheavals and economic chaos. 

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Half of all my great-grandparents' extended family left Denmark for the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. The same for the Lithuanian side swallowed by the Polish empire and then the Soviet in the late 1890's.

Our last contact with my father's family was in 1953 when the Iron Curtain tightly choked Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Letters ended and churches had been stifled, and records removed during the Soviet regime. So dead end there.

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My Danish Great-Grandfather on the right moved back and forth several times, but finally settling in Wisconsin and fishing the Great Lakes. He and Grandfather (left) opened a Fishmarket in 1921specializing in smoking fish and carrying 'old country' foods.

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My grandfather at age 14 had a photo taken to look older. He wore a larger suit with layers under it, and the cigar. The sailor's hat, and expression denied the fact he had just been confirmed, 
when he lied about his age and joined the 
Merchant Marines. 
George was over six-foot and definitely a character.
WWI loomed, since not yet a citizen, he wanted to see the world and be a part of the conflict.

He became naturalized and a member of

WE the PEOPLE 

in Portland Oregon in 1919 aged 21 between sailings.


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My father enlisted in January 1940 at age 18.

WE were still in the Depression and despite a partial scholarship to a state college, he could not afford to go. My hubby's dad also served in the South Pacific and fought at Okinawa for WE the People.

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After almost six years in the Army, stationed in the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia with a Medical Surgical Unit, Dad came home the first time, without a fanfare or welcome in 1945.
He was proud to be an American and to serve and WE of him, and all the generations who served in our military to keep us free.

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Honor Flight and Welcome HOME!
RIP Staff Sargent 

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WE...

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WE FLY our Flag!

WE
Children of Immigrants...

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or immigrants ourselves. I have two foreign born daughter-in-laws, bless them. They are my true heart loves and will be added to the 
WE 
of our United States. 



WE come from every religious expression,


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and every corner of this earth..

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 Tightly stitched and woven into  this 

PATCHWORK OF HUMANITY and 
PROUD TO BE 

WE THE PEOPLE.


If you comment please list your ancestors' homelands and when they arrived on our shores if you can.

I think it would be interesting to see how diverse we are, this collective of WE.


All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle






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