Mary Louise Eklund

Category: Tennessee

  • Monday Memories – 1908 Ship Postcard

    ship postcard front
    Ship Postcard Front
    ship postcard back
    Postcard message side Postmark 1908

    Hi, no I didn’t die. I have been dealing with a move, broken foot,  Mom’s broken leg, and connectivity issues in the country. Despite all of that I’m back and getting on schedule again.

    Let’s do another postcard from the past. This one hails from 1908. There are few things I liked about this one. First, the amount of message the person squeezed onto this single card. Second, it was sent from Springs Tennessee to Corryton Tennessee but it has a cruise ship on it. Thirdly, there is writing on the face. Fourthly, it is responding to an apology which is intriguing. So all these neat quirky features along with the fact it’s over 100 years old made it one I added to my collection to share with you. (more…)

  • Welcome to Sailor’s Rest, Established 2016

     

    26 Durret Rd 2016

    Yesterday we closed on our house here in Tennessee.  (psst any one want to buy a house in Wisconsin?).  I am proud to say we are the new owners of Sailor’s Rest, established 2016.  Yes that’s the name we chose for this place.  It’s already starting to feel like home.  A few tweaks of painting here and there.  Then it’s figuring out where to tell the movers to put our furniture. THEN the work of making it a home, settling in decorating begins.

     

  • So You Say You Want Internet?

     

    internet by tim lucas flickr 17May16
    Found: The Internet by Tim Lucas on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license he graciously granted with the photo.

    Wow, what a learning curve today on internet offerings.  Trust me there are some places that it’s just not possible to get high speed internet.  But let me start at the beginning.

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  • Excuse Me, Can You Repeat That?

    Internet Archive of book images page 162 from Flickr 12May16
    Image from page 162 of “Boll weevil suppression, management, and elimination technology : proceedings of a conference, February 13-15, 1974, Memphis, Tennessee” (1976) provided by Internet Archive Book Images on Flickr via The Commons. The image has no known copyright restrictions.

    Okay I’m a true GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) but apparently I’ve lost my ear for Southern accents.  (Oh and yes plural they are varied from the mountain twang to the Lowlands drawl to the Louisiana who has at least 10 of their own).   (more…)

  • The House Search

    dollhouses by Aimee Ray on flickr 2 May 2016
    Dollhouses by Aimee Ray on Flickr.  Used by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License she so graciously granted.  Do check out her shots on Flickr

    In the years past I have worked in real estate offices.  I even held a realtor’s license just to make it easier in dealing with customers.  I never listed or sold housed just managed the office section of it. So I know the first rule of house hunting is not to fall in love with a particular house. (more…)

  • Monday Memoir – Postcards From The Past – Guess Who’s having Fun In The Park

    Postcard 4 Front

    A bit risque for 1908! What’s the man doing with his hands behind that parasol that makes him smile so? Want to see more risque? Read the message on the back below…

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  • Throwback Thursday – Ollie Belle Hicks Rolen, my great grandmother

    Hicks Rolen, Ollie Belle wedding picture crop

    This is another of my great-grandmothers. We each have four, two from our mother and two from our father. This is my mother’s paternal grandmother or as we liked to call her Granny Rolen. No she’s not unhappy it’s just what we called for years the Rolen mouth, turns down in a frown when resting but after some genealogy research found out it’s the MacMahan mouth. Ollie was a strong woman.  She took care of her husband for years after a stroke left him an invalid. She raised her children alone getting temporary residence to send them to better schools. She lost a child to untreated asthma, doing all they could for the girl. She was living when I was young and I remember her well. She was a fun woman that loved to garden and show children how things worked. Of course when I knew her she was an old lady not the young bride she is here. This was her wedding day. For years I’d see just this photo but finally we turned up the other half with her husband Milas Lavator Rolen. Here it is uncropped and not cleaned up: (more…)

  • Throwback Thursday – Short Skirts and TVs in Cabinets

    Bright, Mary Louise photo from brown photo album (8)

    That is me in about 1969. Yes the miniskirt was in full swing and I was hip to it. This was our home on Jennifer Street in Greeneville Tennessee. That TV there was black and white. It had two click dials one for VHF and one for UHF. We had cable that gave us five channels – ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and the riveting local data channel. This consisted of a wall with a clock, thermometer, day and date in a flip calendar, barometric pressure, and a board with weather conditions (cloud, sun, rain, snow flake stuck on a felt board) The exciting thing about it was there was a camera set up to pan over these in the line at a very slow. It was one for 24 hours seven days a week! You didn’t have to call time and temperature just turn to the channel and wait for the pan. The clock up there was made by my grandmother or my mom. I remember there was a bunch of bananas on it and one was black. I have the clock now, it doesn’t work but still reminds me of a time when cable was five channels and miniskirts were the best style going.

  • Thursday Throwback – Me and My Hair Hat

    Bright, Mary Louise furry hat in the snow (5)

    Okay two things to clear up here. First the date Apr 71 is when the film was processed not when we had snow in Greeneville, TN that year.
    Second that’s not my hair on top of my head – it’s my hair hat. That’s what I’ve always thought of it as being. If you look my hair is down on my shoulders there. I loved that hat, warm, cool style, and had a magnetic chin clasp. What more could a girl want?

  • Monday Memories – He-Man Belongs In A Hole

     

    He Man figures at ComicCon Rob Blatt Flickr 12dec15
    He-Man figures at Comic-Con by Rob Blatt on flickr. Used under the Attribution NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license he so graciously granted with the image.

    He-Man belongs in a muddy hole.
    Why?
    I dunno.

    (more…)