Alice Myers - Mother of William Denver Myers
Grandma Alice - Note from Granddaughter Margaret
Although I have so few memories of Grandma Alice--ginger cookies in the orange carnival glass jar on the kitchen table and the hand pump for water at the kitchen sink--I do have these doll clothes she made for my beautiful walking doll in approximately 1954.
Although Grandma Alice looks very grim in nearly all of the pictures we have of her, she was clearly skilled at finely detailed needlework. And more than that, she had a completely lovely sense of style shown in the hand stitched ribbons and lace and the velvet of fitted waist coat. The contrast between what her life seems to have been and these beautiful handmade doll clothes is so stark, it makes me very curious to understand more about her.
These exquisitely detailed and feminine doll clothes are now (in 2015) over 60 years old and the only things I have from her. The doll who looked so pretty in them is long gone, played with by WD and mother's grandchildren. But these clothes have survived and make me wish I had known Grandma Alice better.
Note from Grandson John:
I clearly remember her home-made bread she made on a wood-fired cooking stove. The bread was the best I ever had, then or now. And I was fascinated with her wood-fired stove.
Note from Grandson Philip:
I think we all have our special memories of Grandma Alice.
When it came to food, she had some special recipes she prepared on that wood stove.
Ralph and some of her other children decided she should have a gas cook stove. I remember the installation. However, to my knowledge she never adapted to using it. She used the gas cook stove only on every other Sunday when the extended families would meet at her home, bringing prepared dishes to heat/cook on that gas stove.
After the meal, she covered many of the foods left on the table with a tablecloth. We kids would sneak into the kitchen, lift that table cloth, and using our fingers rob some of the tidbits found there.
There were times she would lift that table cloth herself offering more food for the young ones.
There was one recipe in particular that always had me drooling - her made-from-scratch blackberry cake with the burnt sugar icing. I think it was the heaviest cake in existence. I have that recipe yet today. However, I have not yet tried to create it. I feel I need to do it to honor her. She knew how much I loved that cake.
I'm drooling again now.
One Christmas when I was very young, I gave her a set of salt and pepper shakers shaped in the Mr. Planter Peanut form made in plastic. I also put some coins in the package that I had. I think I was about seven years old at the time.
Before she died, I spent some time with her at the Ferguson home. She knew I was coming to see her. While I sat next to her bed, she said, "I have something to give you." I was about 19 at the time. Yes, it was the box I had given her years before with all the items still in it.
Needless to say that was a great moment for me, with her, so late in her life. She died about two weeks later.
FROM DANNY JOE FERGUSON: I forgot about this relic and thought you’d enjoy this pic of your grandma Alice Clark’s 150 year old (guessing) rocker ! She cut the legs down cause she was tiny ! I have some memories of her living with us on Ruby Ave.
The cane seat came out completely. We covered it with a board so we can still use it.