Alas, Leora Wilson didn’t start keeping a diary until 1958. She filled in one from the bank during 1946, but it was made of cheap paper, which now is fragile.

I’d hoped to find1952. Nothing, but a Christmas card to me (she must have sent them to her other grandchildren as well) and photos of all of us arriving at her little house in Guthrie Center, where she made a home for her own mother, the Sunday after Christmas, which was December 28.

She printed a note to her oldest granddaughter inside the card.

We’d just arrived from our farm south of Dexter, all bundled up in the snow–Joy, Doris, Gloria, and Warren Neal (wearing buckle galoshes).  The leggings Gloria and I wore came with our coats and were worn under our dresses. Yes, dresses in those days.

Mom’s sister’s family, who farmed near Earlham: Darlene (carrying baby David), Robert, Sam, Dennis (in front) and Richard Scar.

Their oldest brother’s family, who lived in Des Moines by then: Evelyn, Donna (carrying a doll), Delbert, Leora Darlene, and Delbert Ross Wilson.

Grandma and her mother (Laura Goff) always used Great Grandmother’s Noritake china from the bargain basement of Omaha’s Brandeis department store (from 1939). They usually served roast beef, broccoli, cottage cheese, and whatever else Mom, Darlene, and Evelyn brought with them.

These family photos show all nine of Leora Wilson’s grandchildren. Delbert’s family would eventually move to California, where he got a job with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Seventy years later, there are just four of us grandchildren living: Dick and Bob Scar, Joy and Gloria Neal.