A Cube, a House, and a Dress or Two

Here it goes.  I’m starting this post with a few ideas of things to write about, but the ideas don’t really seem to go together.  I suppose that’s okay.  It’s kind of like a puzzle, but with pieces that don’t fit together.  

Speaking of puzzles, that’s one of the main themes this week.  That’s because there has been a puzzle making its way around work this week.  Many people tried to solve it, but nobody has been able to, yet, including myself.  So when I started thinking about a topic this week for my family history blog, I thought about the theme of puzzles.

How does that relate to family history, you may ask.  Well, as a matter of fact, it does.  When our family was at my grandparents’ home in Hathaway one day in the early 1970s, we were all visiting in the dining room.  I remember reaching up on top of the refrigerator to look for something, and that’s when I made a discovery.  There were several pieces of wood that were cut and shaped into different-sized pieces.  Like the photo you see.  I was fascinated by it.

I think I tried putting it together, and then my dad showed me how to do it.  Thinking back on this now, it brings all kinds of questions to mind.  Why was a puzzle on my grandmother’s refrigerator?  It was in pieces, so someone must have taken it apart and couldn’t put it back together again.  And how did my dad know how to put it together?  He liked puzzles, too.  He used to make videos of himself putting a Rubik’s cube together.  And no, there are no Youtube videos of my dad doing this!  The other day I had a dream that there was one on Youtube, so I had to check!  No luck. 

I don’t think the cube was for my dad.  The grandmother with the puzzle was my mom’s mom.  I thought about making this post a Keepsake Post, but the puzzle I have is not the one from my grandmother.  I don’t know what became of that one.  But this one still reminds me of my grandmother. 

That grandmother in question was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  I don’t know why I always say it was on my grandmother’s refrigerator.  My grandfather was in the house, too.  Fred D. Bucklin was his name.  They lived in a house that used to be in Hathaway.  The house is still around, but it was moved and renovated.  I recently met a distant cousin who is the friend of my Aunt Loris.  Her closer cousin owns the house, so she sent me a recent photo.  I want to go visit the house sometime soon.  Maybe a cousin or two might want to go along as well.  I was thinking of posting a photo of the house, but I didn’t feel right about posting the recent one.  It belongs to someone else, and the house doesn’t look like the way I remember it.  

So I went looking for a photo of my grandparents’ house from back in the day.  Instead, I found these photos of my mom showing off some of the dresses she made for herself when she was in high school.  Sure, she is standing in front of her house in Hathaway, but in no way is the house the main subject in these photos!  Yet, I do have a question about the house.  I’m pretty sure it’s the same house, but I don’t remember there being a porch on the side of the house where we entered.  What’s up with that?

But look how sweet Betty Lou looks in these two photos.  She seems so happy to be showing off the hard work that she did.  The one that is colorized shows a dress that was used as a 4H project.  Mama must have written that on the back of the photo.  How else would I know that?  So how do my mom’s dresses connect to the earlier part of this post?  My mom was never a fan of games or puzzles.  But she liked to sew.  Isn’t sewing like putting a puzzle together?  You get the different shapes to go together in just the right way, and then the cube is made.  I mean dress!

So there you have it – a cube, a house, and a dress or two.  It’s been put together.