In 1922 my grandmother, Thelma Oakley graduated. Hanging on my wall in my living room is the Bradford Area High School senior class trip photo from Washington, D.C. This picture hung on the wall of my grandmother’s bedroom as I was growing up. Not only do I have the picture, but I have the dresser that it hung above. The picture itself is about 26 inches wide and surrounded with a dark gray simple frame. I scanned the print and have posted a larger version.
Although the class went to the White House, this photo was not taken in front of that building. I have been doing a frantic search to find the location that this picture was taken. The story that was told me was that the White House was under construction and that this location was the temporary White House. From what I can tell through net searches, the White House wasn’t under construction and this was just a part of the trip.
Grandma is on the left, second row, 3rd female from the left. The photo was taken by J. M. Naiman of Washington, D.C. Everyone in the picture was all dressed up, wearing hats, without a flip-flop in sight!
I have her class book from 1922 and it seems that they called her “Teddy.” I wonder where she would have gotten that nickname from. By the time that I knew her she was deteriorating from diabetes. It was my grandfather, who never graduated from High School because he had jumped out the school house window in the 6th grade that would entertain us. With him we walked the woods and went to the City Creamery for big boxes of fudge bars. When the man mixed a Whiskey Sour you could smell it across the room.
For him, ice cream was served in soup bowls, heaping out of the top and beer was 5th food group. Grandma wasn’t supposed to have chocolate but loved it and after her death grandpa found bags hidden around the house. The thing I remember most about her was her turning off her hearing aides when the house was full of people and she had enough of the noise. Her insulin was in small plastic baskets on the dryer that was in the bathroom. She wasn’t that great of a cook and I think she rather liked supplying us with the frozen fried chicken and mash potato meals that we found to be a special treat when we came to visit over night.
The members of the 1922 Bradford Area High School, Bradford, Pennsylvania graduating class that may appear in the photo are: Literary Seniors – Theodore Allen, Agnes Alsterberg, Russell Berwald, Wayne Brawley, Marion Brown, Rhoda Brown, Helen Brinton, Donald Bart, Howard Clark, Martha Cody, Dorothy Currie, Lillian Davis, Mildred Donohue, Mary Downs, Wade Ellis, Francis Ernst, Margaret Evans, Alan Fraser, Helen Frederick, Wilbur Freer, Pauline gash, Earl Gibson, Minnie Hartman, Bessie Hendrickson, Griffith Herold, Myrtle Hoagland, Philip Holly, Margaret Hubbard, Richard Hulme, Gladys Hyde, Gladys Johnston, Robert Kalb, Alton Kunkel, Isadore Levinson, gale Locke, Chester Lyon, Jean McCrum, Charles McIntosh, Ruth Miller, Cora Mortland, Thelma Oakley, Isidor Offenbach, Arthur Parsons, Mary Robinson, Joye Sharpe, Richard Schieffelin, Dorothy Shultz, Margaret Sloan, Ruth Stewart, Ellen Strotman, Esther Sullivan, Paul Tamer, Frances Titus, Fay Upthegrove, James Valentine, Mary Villock, Arthur Wasson, Gladys Windsor, and Irene Winn.
The Commercial Seniors – Wilbur Angevine, Margaret Arnold, Florence Barret, Claude Bedeaux, Virginia Behen, Myron Birmingham, Grace Bullock, Enah Chase, Frances Cole, Esther Crandall, harry Fisher, Theresa Goodman, Lorena Hartburg, Francis Hall, Wilbur hall, Raymond Hausman, Irene Hayes, Frederick Johnson, Lillian Johnson, Rose Koblenz, Rose Lasky, Frederick Lunn, molly Marks, Gerald Maybury, Vivian Merkt, Elizabeth Moffatt, Lucille Moffatt, Helen McIntyre, Ida McIntyre, Myrtle Phoenix, David pitcher, Dorothy Reed, Phillip Rich, Janet Robertson, Gene Scouten, Emily Shay, Helen Shick, Florence Slocum, Marion Stevens, Gertrud Totten, Lyle Travis, Aileen Vreeland, Margaret Ward, Ruth Ward, Erwin Warner, Clyde Wight, Arthur Williams, Edward Wilson, Mary Wilson, Rhea Wittie and Russell Zeigler.
