Celebrations: Easter Sunday - 1951 (Again & Again)

Here's four-year old me with my Easter basket on my trusty tricycle in the backyard in Encanto; the blooming tree behind me is an avocado.

[Making its 3rd annual appearance, this photo is from my personal collection]

The Easter basket was a present from Jessie and Jimmy Neal.

I'm sharing this oldie but goodie for a third time.



© 2024 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Memento Mori: Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, honors the memory of all the people who have died while serving in the United States military.

This day of remembrance officially began on 30 May 1868 when the head of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. It became a federal holiday in 1971.

Parks, Gordon, photographer. Gloucester, Massachusetts. Memorial Day, . A Legionaire sounding taps for the War dead during services. May. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017855725/>.

The title of the Memorial Day image above (from the Library of Congress) informs us that this bugler was sounding Taps, which dates to 1862.

Harold Delbert "Hal" Currey, Jr. (the only son of the parents who raised me) and my uncle John William "Jack" Slater, both Second Lieutenants in the Army Air Corps, died in action during World War II. You can see their pictures and read more about them here.

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Sunday Drive: Spearfish, South Dakota - 1953

The caption on this slide in Dad's handwriting reads "at Florence's Spearfish S.Dak. 53" so have all the information we need.

[From my personal collection]

Florence Christine Weisman (1900-1985) married Mother's older brother Gilbert Grenfell (1901-1928) in 1924 and the couple had a son Milton (1925-2003) and a daughter Joyce who died as an infant in 1926.

[From my personal collection]

Gilbert was killed in 1928 when the tractor he was driving overturned.

Florence became the wife of Ralph B. Courtney (1903-1956) in 1932 becoming the stepmother to his two children by his first wife.

She's buried in Little Dane Cemetery, Saint Onge, Lawrence County, South Dakota along with both of her husbands, her son and his wife, and her stepson.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday Night Entertainment: Big Noses in Encanto

Dad Currey and his nephew and niece* were having some fun in our backyard in Encanto, probably in 1950. The tree in the background is a huge avocado.

[From my personal collection]

These images make me smile so I'm posting them even though the color is terrible.



*Nancy Lee Peterson (1937-1974) and Charles Frederick Peterson (1940-2008) were the children of Dad's youngest sister Marguerite and her first husband.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Christmas, Agua Caliente - 1953

That was the year Mother made matching pajamas for me and my doll.

[From my personal collection]

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Sunday Drive: First Time Down in Mexico - Thanksgiving Day, 1924

The people in this photo are Dad (Delbert A. Currey, 1869-1954), Mother (Ethel Viola Plank Currey, 1882-1961), Junior (Harold D. Currey, Jr., 1923-1945), Marguerite (M. H. Currey, 1913-1999), Min (Bernice E. Grenfell Currey, 1902-1980).

[From my personal collection]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Rockhounding on the Oregon Coast

I'm guessing that this picture of Mother and me was taken at Merchant's Beach, Oregon, in about 1960.

[From my personal collection]

I wonder what the joke was.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Flagstone for New Room

During the Easter break in 1955 we made a quick trip to Prescott, Arizona, to pick up flagstone for around the new front door. We only spent one night away from home and didn't take the trailer--Mother and I slept in the truck and Dad had a sleeping bag on the ground.* According to Dad's notes we brought back 3800 pounds of stone.

This photo, taken two years later, shows the stone in place.

[All from my personal collection]

*The notes say we spent the night in Blythe--all I remember is that is was cold.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: CALEWO Workers Plant Trees - 1936

Dad Currey (far right in the top photo) and his co-workers from California Electric Works traveled out to La Mesa to plant street trees along Palm Avenue.* I'm not surprised that he's the one with the biggest hat!

[Both photos from my personal collection]

*If I'm remembering correctly, he identified some eucalyptus trees at Collier Park as being ones they planted.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Fire on Grenfell Ranch - 1949

Dad Currey joined the fire line and shot these two photos of a minor grass fire on his father-in-law's ranch in Lawrence County, South Dakota. He captioned the second one "Getting names for fire checks" so some of these guys must have been volunteers, not members of a regular fire department.

[From my personal collection]

I was two years old so it's not surprising I have no memory of this event--without the captions on the cardboard slide holders I would have been clueless.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Bernice Evangeline (Grenfell) Currey - Encanto, 1930

This snapshot of Mother shows her standing in their Encanto backyard next to a little sailboat they had bought for their son in 1930, when Junior would have been about seven. 

[Photos from my personal collection]

All the time the Currey family spent on the water made the son an excellent swimmer and sailor. Dad said Junior's nickname around the docks was "Scully" because he could propel a row boat with one oar off the stern faster than most people could do with two.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: San Diego - Circa 1920

Although the only person I recognize in this snapshot is Bernice Grenfell (the mother who raised me), I have reason to believe that this is a gathering of some of the "Encanto Crowd"* somewhere in San Diego County. Unfortunately Dad neglected to add any note to the it when he pasted it in his photo album.

[From my personal collection]

*I've posted a photo of a group that Dad (Harold D. Currey) identified by that name here.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Atascadero Lake Park - Summer 1955

After all their years of camping around the West, Mother and Dad had a mental list of a succession of free places to stay up and down the length of California. The oak-shaded parking lot of the Atascadero Lake Park was a favorite.

[From my personal collection]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Mules at the Starting Point - Grand Canyon - June 1951

This is as close as we got to the mules as the Dad wasn't up for the experience.* (He later shared how he had watched some brave souls dismount after their trip and commented on how stiff and sore they all appeared to be.)

[From my personal collection]

Nowadays a visitor to the Grand Canyon has a number of ways to view its wonders.


*I was only four so I couldn't have gone anyway.





© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Whiskey Run, Oregon Coast - Summer, 1955

This sheltered campsite, far enough back from the beach to be comparatively warm, was one of our favorite places to stay. (And true my parents' frugal habits, it was free.)

In those days the road to Whiskey Run wasn't paved.

 And in one area there were several choices, so Dad always checked out the route on foot to see which one appeared to be the best. We never got stuck in the sand.

Here's a photo of me on my way down to the beach in search of agates and petrified wood which was the attraction this area had for us.

[All photos from my personal collection]

Whiskey Run's history dates back to the early 1850s when gold was discovered in its black sands.


TripAdvisor rates this beach at 4.5--you can see current photos of it here.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Cape Perpetua, Oregon - 1954

Here we are, seven-year-old me standing next to the Forest Service sign, while Mother watched from the truck. Whenever our summer trips took us to Washington state, we always stopped at Cape Perpetua.*

[From my personal collection]

*You can find out more about Cape Perpetua in one of my previous posts.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Bernice Evangeline Grenfell (1902 - 1980)

I found this snapshot of Bernice (Grenfell) Currey (the mother who raised me) in one of the family's photo albums. None of the pictures pasted on this page have captions or dates but I'm guessing it was taken sometime in the late 1930s, probably somewhere in California.*

[From my personal collection]

*I don't recognize anything in the background that helps me with the location.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Pismo Beach, California - 1936

This snapshot from the Currey family album was taken on the beach at Pismo. Mother and Junior are are posing in front of their 1935 Dodge truck. From the caption you know what they were going to have for dinner.

[From my personal collection]

This picture, taken a few days earlier at a different campsite, gives us a glimpse of the interior of the tent structure Dad had built on the back of the truck as well as a peek at their cooking arrangements.

[From my personal collection]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Fourth of July - Encanto, 1928

[From my personal collection]

Encanto, 1928...the little boy is Harold D. Currey, Junior. I still haven't figured out who the young man standing next to him is.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Fathers Day

The father who raised me: Harold D. Currey (1902-1981).

[Coos Bay, Oregon -1911]

[With son Harold D. Jr., San Diego, California - c. 1928]

[Holding me, San Diego, California - 1947]

[After Mother's death - La Jolla, California - 1980]

My biological father Tracy Stuart Warren (1923- )

[Center, with half brothers, probably Dallas, Texas - c. 1936]

[In the Navy - World War II]

[Probably Corsicana, Texas - c. 1998]

All the photos of Harold Currey are from my personal collection, the first two pictures of Tracy Warren are courtesy of James Turnbull, the portrait was sent to me by Tracy after we contacted him in the late 1990s.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.