I discovered these photos in a drawer--I thought I'd seen all the family pictures, but these two are new to me. It took me a while to puzzle out the connection, but I'm sure they are my father's family. He always whenged on about how poor they were, but these photos paint a slightly different picture. My mother's family took no pictures--mom's mother was born on the reservation--actually, it was the Oklahoma Indian Territory in those days, or "the Nations", as gran referred to it.
To hear him talk on it, they were too poor to have these made. I know that his dad was an awful drunken bastard, named William Langsford Hoel. The story is-- I'm not making this up-- that he died screaming in a straightjacket at my father's feet. Apparently he had been committed to the sanitarium to dry out, was having delirium tremens, and had a stroke while my father was visiting- at the age of 16. Heavy stuff, and it screwed George up even more. I'm thinking that was when the family's financial state declined-- it starts to make more sense, as I write this. My grandfather's alcoholism must have been pretty bad to get him locked up, so these pictures must have been taken during better times. But if you look at the two youngest--my father, and my aunt Kay--you can see that they don't look very happy. Things must have been spiraling downward already.
George is on the left. I have no idea who the other two are. I think I would have like the guy behind my grandfather--I recognize that mischievous gleam-- I see it on myself at times.
The women are a mystery to me, except for the pretty lass on the left in the back. That is unmistakably my aunt Kay. She was the "blacksheep" of the family--the only one with any taste, style, or class in that bunch. My aunt Maxine was sweet, but crass, and my aunt Clara was a bit like something from a horror movie-- she and my dad were two peas in a rotten pod in my childhood. She married a rather passive gent, who she rode roughshod over, much like my parents marriage, but in reverse. Both she and George chose gentle, easily cowed partners. I believe Maxine is the front left, Clara must be backrow central, and Rachel must be front row right. The girl behind her has to be the aunt I never met, Cora Mae. She and George had a falling out, and he refused to speak to her or see her. I know she was alive during the 60's. My grandmother was named Era Vera Savidge before her marriage, and was known as "Aunt Sis" in the community. She held the family together as best she could. I know nothing else about her.
I look at the picture of George, and it blows my mind--makes me think of "The Picture of Dorian Grey", but in reverse. He was 44 the year I was born (the age I am now). Growing up, everyone thought he was my grandfather. He looked like hell. A combination of bad habits and a twisted personality made him quite ugly, so to see the attractive youth he once was is strange. He saved my aunt Kay from being killed by their father-- she had become pregnant out of wedlock, and her dad--the sick fuck- decided he would beat her to death with a chain. George fought him off while Kay made her escape. My aunt Clara adopted the baby, and refused to ever let Kay see her. Her daughter--my cousin Kay-- married a gent who owned a joke and novelty shop.
