Fun Friday from the Files
Spunky, Cute and Smelly, all in one fun article.
Hi, Rootsquad GeneaFriends!
Today, I decided to pull out and share one of my favorite newspaper finds - as you can see from the condition, this one is an actual clipping that was found in my Pappy’s suitcase. This grandfather, Walter Edward Granath, my mom’s dad, was called Pappy late in life by his youngest grandkids. Once my Grandma Blanche passed away, he took to travelling. My mom told me that he said since he had 12 living children and there were 12 months in the year, he would go visiting each one in rotation from homebase in New Mexico. I haven’t any proof that he actually intentionally rotated visits, but he did travel a lot and stayed quite a while, including Hawaii at least twice and California and Colorado multiple times. We have the brown sturdy suitcase that contained a treasure trove of family artifacts that I assume he took with him.
In those items and papers was this tiny article:
The Pat Granath in this article was my uncle, Mom’s brother, Patrick Ivan Granath. He was just 2 years younger than her and they stayed extremely close their entire lives.
Born and raised in the Stanolin oil camp just south of the dusty town of Hobbs, New Mexico, my mom tells stories of them playing outdoors and that her brothers were ‘pretty rambuncous’. Can’t you just see this little guy roming around the desert pastures and stumbling across the cute skunk? I’m assuming that he brought it home for show and tell, and made quite a story for his seven siblings still living at home, right? Enough for the local paper to send around a photographer and reporter, it sounds like! Or did the boy and skunk run in opposite directions, and it was just a tale that was told, because no one really wanted to verify the smelly facts? We will never know for sure! I wish I could find out if it was actually reported to Ripley’s! Anyone have any hints on how to find that out? Ah, rabbit holes in my research…
Anyway, Uncle Pat (and my mom!) were also noteworthy 6 months prior to the skunk incident in a much more serious newspaper article:
Surprisingly enough, my mother never mentioned to me that she had had her tonsils removed. I guess I never asked! They were 5 and 6 years old. I wonder why both of them at once? How very traumatic to have two children in the hospital at the same time, undergoing surgery.
I suddenly decided to zip out and see if I could find out how much a tosillectomy cost in 1939, and I discovered this amazing website that cites primary sources for prices and wages: https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/home. Library love hugs go out to the University of Missouri library for creating this great resource. Check it out!
No info on the surgery itself, but hospital stays were approximately $23 a day, and the average income for oil field workers was .42/hour. Cents per hour. Wow.
And finally, the closest photo that I have to this time period, approximated (by baby Jody’s birth date) to be fall of 1940. My mom’s wearing the striped dress in the front, and the boy with crossed arms to her right is Uncle Pat, and he looks just the size to be a good skunk-catcher all right, don’t you think so?
Thanks for reading!
If you have a cute newspaper article about someone in your family, please send or post a reply, I would love to check them out!
Relative Roundup for Reference:
Walter Edward Granath (1891-1968)
Blanche Ella Goodwin Granath (1899-1961)
Children:
Ruby Rose Granath Weske (1917-1996)
Ruth Opal Granath Wallace Jahr (1919-2012)
Edward George Granath (1920-1994)
Alta Mae Granath Thompson (1922-2003)
Vina Ted Granath (1924-1936)
Richard Keith Granath (1925-2009)
Robert Douglas Granath (1927-1986)
Walter Theodore Granath (1929-1991)
Dolores Peggy Jane Granath Ogle (1930-2006)
Patrick Ivan Granath (1932-2019)
Gene Alfred Granath (1934-2016)
Juanda Kay Granath Edmondson (1936-2019)
<living>
Jo Ann Granath Heflin (1940-2018)
Fun story! Have you tried looking for the photo of the skunk in the Post-Courier?
Hobbs, NM? I have lots of ancestors and relatives in New Mexico. I will have to check how close they are on a map!