A different print of this photo appeared in this post. That one was quite dirty and faded, this one is much clearer.

As noted before, this photo of Mom (Florence McClain) was taken on the porch of the McClain residence at 1027 E Seventh in the fall of 1910. Mom was four months old or so in this photo.

The above print of this photo is on postcard stock, and was actually sent through the mail. The note on the postcard (written by Grandpa Arthur, I believe) provides some additional details about the photo. The postcard was sent to Grandpa Arthur’s sister Nellie Warren. The Warrens had recently moved from Albany to Orland, California (south of Red Bluff, west of Chico).

I’ll transcribe below…

This [is] my new high chair that drops down & makes a push cart.

Dear Aunt Nellie,

Want to thank you for these nice booties & bells. The shoes fit fine. We have been out to Grandpa’s for a week. Got home last night. Oh! how we did enjoy those oranges.

from Florence

—love to all—

The booties are barely visible on Mom’s feet in the photo. I can’t make out the bells anywhere, but I imagine they’re on the booties. Or possibly “these nice booties” does not refer to ones in the photo at all.

The reference to “Grandpa’s” must be to Nathan McClain’s farm. (They hardly would have spent a week at the Hammells, who lived just a few blocks away.) But farm where? Tallman or North Albany? They were still in Tallman in May 1910, but I don’t have a date for when they moved to the farm in North Albany. So I can’t be certain where they were in January 1911 when the postcard was sent. (If I had to guess, though, I’d say Tallman.)

But why would the Arthur McClains have spent that whole week with the Nathan McClains? Well, this was around Christmas and New Year’s. If Grandpa Arthur meant exactly a week ending on January 5 (assuming the postcard was mailed the day it was written), that wouldn’t include Christmas Day. But maybe he meant “week” in more approximate terms, or maybe the “McClain extended family Christmas” was celebrated after Christmas Day (if that is even what the week visit was about). The reference to a “week at Grandpa’s” without further explanation suggests that Nellie would have know what the week was for. An extended family celebration that was a matter of tradition would certainly be consistent with that.

I’m guessing the reference to oranges means that Aunt Nellie had sent some local Orland oranges to her parents, which were shared with everyone there. (That she sent oranges at this time also hints at a family Christmas celebration, perhaps.) That must have been a real treat, as the note seems to imply. I don’t imagine oranges were as readily available in Oregon in 1911 as they are now.

I’m going way out on a limb with speculation on this. Grandpa Arthur was working at Veal’s Chair Factory in Albany at this time. I wonder whether this fancy high chair he describes was a Veal’s product, or if not that, if Grandpa was allowed to make the high chair at Veal’s as his own special project. His comment about the high chair hints (possibly) at being proud of it. But maybe it had nothing to do with Veal’s, and he just liked the way it worked.

It is amazing how many questions a few lines on a postcard can raise, isn’t it? ;–)