Here's a backyard picnic with several generations of Bill's family. The picture was taken in the late '40s. It is in Clarkston Washington, where both Bill and I grew up. Third from the right on the right hand side of the table is his great-grandmother who, as a small girl, was on one of the last wagon trains to cross the country on the Oregon Trail. She said she walked it twice. (To get rid of her excess energy, her parents would send her to run ahead of the wagon for awhile and then back.) Great-grandmother Elliot did not pass away until Bill was in his early teens, so he remembers a few good pioneer stories.
This picture of Bill was taken at around the same time as as the family snapshot above. Back then, he would far rather play with the dog than have his picture taken with his parents and grandparents. Weren't we all like that back then? And now wouldn't it be nice to be able to go back and revisit those days, so we could hear more stories?
(Click on the snapshots to see them better. This is my first attempt to scan old pictures and it really works well!)
When we were older than most of those old relatives in the first picture, we were lucky to get to visit the museum at the start of the Oregon Trail in St. Joseph Missouri. And here is Grandmother Elliot's great-grandson standing at the point where she started her journey way back
when. We would ask her more about the journey if we could.
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