Inspired by this weeks
Sepia Saturday Series.......
A little from my mom's side of the family, and quite a few cars.
My Maternal Grandfather, John Hickman in Crisfield, Maryland, with his first car, Lina.
My soon to be Grandmother, Frances Campbell and her friend. "Pals"
John, 1928, with unknown girls. Cousins or nieces perhaps. What the picture can't say is he had flaming red hair and lots of freckles.
The happy couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Hickman. They were married in 1933, and stayed that way for almost 40 years until 1972.
John, fishing on the Chesapeake Bay. By trade, he was a farmer, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a cabinetmaker, an electrician, a mechanic and a master story teller. There was nothing he could not do. He worked most of his life as the caretaker and manager of a 200 acres historic farm, Beverly of Somerset, in Princess Anne Maryland.
Frances, his wife, a nurse, a farmer's wife, seamstress, lacemaker, artist. There was nothing she could not do.
Their daughter, my mother Harriett, working on the farm in the 1940's. There was nothing she could not do. And yes, she's actually driving the tractor in this picture.
Alternate means of transportation for Harriett. This was a working horse.
Harriett with her date, thankfully things did not work out. Frances sewed the outfit. John built the house himself, to retire in. but he didn't get more than a few years there. (I remember that we were allowed to ring the dinner bell when we visited as kids. )
She instead chose a man who looked to be trouble, my dad Peter, but he turned out to be anything but. He enlisted, got shipped overseas as the war was ending, and my mom followed him to Germany. Her parents sat for their first and only portrait to send to them.
My parents married in July 1955 in Mannheim-Sandhofen Germany, living there for another year before Dad's tour ended. They were married almost 53 years. They had this painting commissioned by an artist who worked from the newspaper clipping. He did a pretty good job. So did they.