This weekend our Kramer family came together to celebrate what would have been Aunt Alice’s 110th birthday. So I thought it would be nice to show off her mother, Bertha Ary Woods Kramer in some negatives I found. I enjoy scanning negatives. Until you scan them you don’t know what kind of photo you’re going to get. It might be something really great like this photo above, or you might wind up with a double exposure or a photo cut off because it’s the last photo in the film strip. Any way you look at it negatives are great!

In 1943, after farming for 35 years on a farm outside of Streator, Bertha and her husband William moved in to ‘town” to live. I believe this is their residence at 909 N Monroe Street in Streator, Illinois. William died January 11, 1949.

I just love Bertha’s dress. You can’t tell where her dress ends and the apron begins. I wonder what the colors were. Did they go together as well as the photo might have us believe? And I also wonder what she might be gripping in her pocket or if her hand was just placed there out of habit? And while it seems to be a nice warm day, the flowers or bushes at the house seem to be barren.

Let’s not forget the children. They do not look familiar to me but with 9 children, I bet she had a lot of grandchildren. While they could have been playing together and just came to get in the photo with grandma Bertha, they seem to be spaced oddly as well. Below we have another photo taken at the same time showing two children who I do not recognize and a woman with a camera in her hands. From this photo you can tell that there are leaves on the trees, so perhaps its a nice spring or summer day. I love the woman’s skirt and shirt combo and her hair is cute, nicely done. I’m hoping someone will recognize the children and the woman and let me know who they are.

While I wasn’t able to be with them in Cullom this past weekend, I hope those that were there had a great meal, shared great stories and enjoyed the time together.