The featured photo is soon after Jerry was born in 1943. But the photo that is my favorite image of our family is on the El Dorado Page, and is where I have more “family-of-origin” memories than maybe any other location. It was there I grew up as a child in Yocum Elementary School and then became a young teenager in El Dorado Junior High School, having a first date, experiencing life adventures of all kinds, and maybe becoming the person I am today. After that, Tulsa Will Rogers High School became my “coming of age” years, developing independence, and planning my future adult life, which of course continues in college. But my real “growing up” as a child was in El Dorado and that old house.
This Family Through My Eyes
On these pages I’m trying to tell the story of my family of origin as I personally remember it (as an old man of 80 years now), which will not be how any of the other 5 members of this family would have remembered or told it, nor is it guaranteed absolutely accurate! 🙂 And with only Bonnie still being alive to tell it differently now, you will just have to go to her! 🙂
Being 12 years apart in age, I think Bonnie would agree that we almost grew up in different families – as well as in different towns, different times or eras of the American culture, and certainly different periods of Mom & Dad’s marriage and relationships, causing all three of us kids to see our parents from different perspectives over the years. I was maybe the luckiest one to have our parents when they were younger, though also when poorer and in a time of war. All is relative! 🙂
The following “menu” items are each a separate page of what I remember about my family of birth in that particular time/place and sometimes how I think it affected me or influenced my future and that of my brother and sister and how all of our relationships seem to have gotten more complicated over the years, while simultaneously each of us was changing into different people and continued changing as long as we lived. I will include a few photos for illustration, with more photos, scrapbook pages and Mom’s Mail found in linked galleries for family members or others wanting more details of that era.
Family of Origin MENU
- 1938-39, Mom & Dad Courtship-Marriage (how this family began)
- 1940-41, First Year of Their Marriage & My Birth
- 1942-43, Birth of Jerry, Warren to Camden
- 1944-46, Surviving World War II as Family
- 1946-47, Marianna & Pine Bluff Post War
- 1947-55, El Dorado & Bonnie Born 1952
- Extended Family or Relatives
- My Life Formed in Small Towns
- The Adventure of Tulsa, 1955-58
- Separating from Family in Universities-Seminary 58-65
- Family of Origin is Always With You
- Death of Mom 1988
- Death of Dad 1995
- Death of Jerry 2008
- Mom’s Page (with links to all the letters she saved)
- Dad’s Page
- Jerry’s Page
- Bonnie’s Page
Family of Origin Book
The Volume 1 of my Biography/Scrapbook series of photo books has been the best overall look at my family of origin and what happened in my childhood and young adult years up to age 30. I literally converted many years of personal scrapbooks into one printed book, adding some information or stories and it is these additions and stories that I hope to expand on here as these pages of my website.
For now you can review the book electronically online, every page, free, by clicking cover above or title here:
First 30-Years Scrapbook, My Photo Biography Volume 1: Birth to Age 30. It is in my bookstore and available for sale as well as free review. The other volumes of my biography are listed on the Biographies Page.
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MISC. PHOTOS & STORIES of Family of Origin
2013-October 15-18 – Bonnie & Tom Nashville Visit & Tours, Photo Gallery
See my sister Bonnie’s Quilt Gallery, with photos of many of the quilts she has made including that brown & gold one for me! 🙂 It’s her web gallery. Then when she began retirement she also began a great online blog titled: It seems Like Only Yesterday.
2008, 13 September – Spreading of Jerry’s Ashes, Mississippi River Headwaters, Photo Gallery
2007-2008 – Rochester, MN with Jerry, Photo Gallery
2005 May-June — Jerry+ Bemidji, Northern Minnesota & Great River Road, Photo Gallery
Photos & Scrapbooks Throughout My Life
- 1940-1948, Arkansas (several places + Dad in War)
- 1948-1955, El Dorado, Arkansas
- 1955-1958, Tulsa, Oklahoma (they there a little longer)
- 1958-1959 – I’m a student at University of Oklahoma
- 1960-1962 – I’m a student at Ouachita College, AR
- 1962-1965 – I’m a student a SWBTS in Fort Worth, TX
- 1965-1967 – I’m in Miami, FL with less about family of origin
- 1967-1969 – I’m in Dallas, TX with less about family of origin
- 1970, My Wedding Photos include Mom, Dad & Bonnie
- 1969-1975 – I’m in Memphis with less about family of origin
- 1975-1977 – I’m in Dallas again with less about family of origin
- 1977-2014 – I’m in Nashville with family or origin coming in and out of my life including the death of both parents and my brother Jerry on top of my divorce and job loss.
LIFE STORIES from Family-of-Origin Days
I’ve tried to incorporate these in the above sections as a part of the story of our family. They are located under another webpage titled Life Stories which goes way beyond my family of origin days.
1940 – Yankee Doodle Contemplation
1940- A Watermelon & Firecracker Birth
1943 – Earl Doggett – War Hero *
1947-1952 – Visits to Grandma & Grandpa’s farm
1953-1955 – Jr. High Marching Band
1956 – Tenth Grader’s Rocky Mountain High
See all of my “Life Stories” on another page.
Summary
To be written . . .
“The family is the first essential cell of human society.”
–Pope John XXIII
¡Pura Vida!