Possum Philosophy: The photo galleries of life

By ROBERT CAHILL/Columnist

My mother-in-law, Eunice Adele Mutter, and I get along well. We talk a lot, especially about the “old days.” I generally enjoy these conversations as I am something of a history buff and she, having been born in the mid-1920s, has lived to see a good bit of it. While her memory isn’t quite what it used to be (then neither is mine), it is still pretty sharp and she has done a lot of interesting things over the years.
For the last week or so we have talked about the old days more than usual. Thanks to the “economic stimulus checks,” she and Terry are taking a trip this weekend to Renfro Valley, Ky. They are going to meet her sister, Lequita Tilley, and one of Lequita’s daughters there. Lequita is Eunice’s youngest sister, who lives in Dayton, Ohio. Sadly, these two are the last remaining siblings from their fairly large family of five sisters and four brothers. The last time these two had a visit was back last October when Terry and I held our wedding. The two don’t get to see much of each other. The distance between their homes (roughly 400 miles) and their ages and various health conditions (and now the high cost of gasoline) prevent frequent visits.
Now you may ask why Renfro Valley, Ky. Well for those of you who are as uninformed as was I, Renfro Valley is just about half-way between the two places. It also is home to what I guess could be called Kentucky’s rival for the Grand Ole Opry, the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, which has been in business since 1939. It is also home to the Renfro Valley Gatherin’, a radio program, which according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), has been broadcast every Sunday since 1943 (second only to the Grand Ole Opry, which began in 1925, as the longest running rural/country oriented program). Not being much of a fan of the older country music like this, I volunteered to stay home and look after Brandy and Daisy, our dogs.
Eunice Adele is a great fan of photography. She has a ton of albums, many filled with photos of her family from when she was just a young girl. At the time, they lived in western Kentucky, where her father worked in the coal mines. She has been busy looking through her albums, selecting various shots from their younger days to make copies of as a gift to her sister. I have been helping by scanning some onto the computer, doing a little editing to make some of the faded ones a little clearer and e-mailing them to either Wal-Mart or Target where she gets them printed. But mainly I have just been listening to her reminisce about her life growing up in rural Kentucky during the 1930s and in Dayton, Ohio, where her family moved, in the late 1930s as her father sought work in the factories there.
Last Christmas Terry and I bought her mom a digital photo frame. She has enjoyed it so much that when she found a smaller version, a digital photo keychain, on sale, she bought one for herself and one for her sister. So we have spent a good bit of time going through albums and computer files, selecting photos and loading them onto these devices.
This brought up the topic of the ones in which she could not recognize everyone in the photo. Now there were not many, but the occasional shot had some relative of theirs included and Eunice could not remember the person’s name. We agreed that anytime someone has a photo printed, they should write a brief description on the back with names of the people in the picture (if any) and the place taken along with the date. This is a good idea for anyone.
Oddly, this was apparently the week for old family photos and mementoes. My brother Rusty called a few days ago and asked if I had looked recently at anything on eBay, the online shopping center, antique mall and flea-market all rolled into one. I had been looking for some kind of unique birthday present for a dear friend, but otherwise I had not. Rusty likes to look for the odd, strange or antique collectible item regarding Saltville. It is surprising what he has uncovered on this site. The item he discovered last week topped them all, at least when it came to surprising us.
When my uncle Phil Smith passed away a few years ago, they were auctioning off the property to settle his estate. The family thought they had already removed all the personal items such as family photo albums prior to the sale. Neither Rusty nor I attended the auction. However, last week, Rusty uncovered a scrapbook full of World War II news-clippings, mementos, ration coupons and, more importantly, a few photos. The seller listed it as coming from Saltville and having at one time belonged to Dorothy K. Smith. This was our mother’s sister Dot, a favorite of all us kids and our cousins. We were, to say the least, surprised. I even sent the seller a message asking for more details and it turned out the seller’s sister had bought it at an estate auction in Saltville. Other information verified it had indeed come from our aunt.
My sister Lynn, brothers Rusty, Ron and I decided we would all pitch in a few bucks and try to buy it. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have the winning bid. It went for more than we expected, as apparently some collector of WWII vintage items was fairly interested.
We are anxious to recover this scrapbook and see what bits of family history it holds. It will be fascinating to see what she included in this small slice of the history of the Smith family and their neighbors and friends. I do hope my aunt has most of the photographs identified.

A freelance journalist, Robert “Rocky” Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column publishes in each Saturday edition.