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What I tried so hard to develop in you was the inner power of perseverance which gives one the moral will-power to continue and complete a job, no matter how bored or tired one may be with it.

Katherine Dreier, co-founder with Marcel Duchamp of the Société Anonyme, knew my great-grandmother Ruth Seely Preston and Ruth’s mother, Charlotte Seely. I inherited a letter from Katherine Dreier to Ruth Seely in which Dreier writes to the census bureau because Ruth had no birth certificate:

This is to certify that I was one of the workers at the Girls Friendly Society at the time that Charlotte Seely, the mother of Ruth Seely Preston belonged to the Girls Friendly Society of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church of Brooklyn: Dr. S. McConnell, being the rector and Miss Rodman the deaconess, at that time.

I was very fond of Charlotte Seely and therefore recall perfectly when she gave birth to her daughter Ruth Seely in the spring of 1901 in Jersey City.

I recall it very clearly because I had hoped to take charge of little Ruth, when her mother found it impossible to support herself and take care of her child. This turned out not to be feasible.

I can therefore certify that Ruth Seely Preston was born in this country.

In the section of the letter written to Ruth, she writes:

What I tried so hard to develop in you was the inner power of perseverance which gives one the moral will-power to continue and complete a job, no matter how bored or tired one may be with it. Maybe I tried too hard!! Perseverance and endurance are twins! If one develops perseverance one has endurance. But it must be developed in each of us — very few are born with it — and the best way to develop it is through loving what we are doing — not always easy!

It is a great quality to know that we do not know it all — but it is best to keep it to oneself — for few have reached that wisdom and do not understand. As I have grown older I realized more and more that there is not — good and evil — only understanding or no understanding.

If we understood — we would not do many things — for every action has it re-action — and we often wonder why life is so hard. This also teaches us great tolerance — which is very needed in the world today.

Something to grown on and something to chew on. Legacies like this letter are just as valuable, if not more so, than material heirlooms.

My grandmother’s stage name was Linda Preston when she was younger, and she recorded this song under her stage name, so I can only guess she recorded it in the ’40s. When she was older, her screen name was Audrey Arent when she acted in TV commercials and as an extra in such movies as King Kong (1976), Turning Point, and Network. She was my maternal grandmother, and the second photo in the slideshow at the beginning is of her holding my mother when my mother was a newborn baby. You can also see Grandma with me when I was a little boy.

This video is closed-captioned for the signing impaired.

The funniest thing about how our little dog scratches the ground is how she holds her hind legs back in a stretched pose. The other funny thing about her is she will scratch the ground to mark it with the scent glands in her paws even if she hasn’t peed or pooped. I’ve never seen a dog scratch for nothing before and hold the hind legs back in a stretch like that. She’s like a ballerina holding an arabesque.

We adopted a new dog into our lives. Her names is Zoey, and she’s a small Chihuahua. If a picture tells a thousand words, then eighteen photos of Zoey tells a nice story. And if a picture tells a thousand words, then a movie tells a million. Here’s a million reasons why we love our new girl:

Our dog Lady has been weak lately. We’re working with the vet to try to figure out what’s wrong with her and help her.

When I heard this on the radio in the car this afternoon, I could not help but beam with joy. I didn’t mean to have such an emotional reaction to the news; it just bubbled up from within. Regardless of whether or not the inevitable appeal against this ruling is upheld in the next hearing (which I don’t think it will be), this is a great step forward for equal rights.

Andy & I were legally married in California the first Saturday same-sex marriages were performed: June 21, 2008. Our marriage was upheld even after Prop 8. Still, it is meaningless where we live in Arizona. I have hope that this new ruling will set a precedent for similar rulings in other states.

I think the gay marriage argument is simple: opposite-sex couples have nothing to lose by same-sex marriage while same-sex couple have much to gain. The idea that “marriage is between a man and a woman” is Biblical at best and arrogant at worst. There is simply no reason a man and a man or a woman and a woman shouldn’t be allowed to marry if they want to. Separation of church and state; equal rights for all. That’s the American way.

Related posts from Smithers–Greene:

• Just Married!
• Our California Same-Sex Civil Marriage Ceremony

My grandmother, Helene Greene, died in 1999, and my grandfather, Ernest Charles Greene, died in 2004. I inherited these photos of theirs six years ago, and it took me this long to scan them. Now that I’ve scanned them, I can’t wait to share them! This photos–especially when viewed larger in these high-resolution scans–show amazing detail, history, personality, and style. I would be thrilled if the descendants–children, grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren, see their mothers, grandmothers, or great-grandmothers in these photos. If I love them, I’m sure these ladies’ progeny will love them even more. If by some chance you recognize one of the young women in these photos, please let me know!

Julie Zeckendorf

Gladys Lubin

Janet Lewis

Janet Lewis school photo

Helen Ovrsler

Harriet Johnson

Clara Ray with Jack Dempsey

Jean Kahn & Myra Bresky

Muriel Sugarman & Peggy Wolf

Natalie Pincus (does anyone know where this is?)

Dorothy Friedlander

Helene on Chief

Granny’s 12th birthday party, 1922

Ruth Eckstien
Uploaded by Daniel Greene

Again, if you know any of the people in these photos, I would love to hear from you. Larger resolution copies are available if you click on the photos to view them on Flickr. I know that these photos could use restoration, but that is not my area of expertise. I simply scanned them, straightened them as much as I could, cropped them, adjusted exposure and contrast a bit, and notated them with the names my grandmother wrote in her photo album. If anyone is interested in restoring these photos, I would be happy to see the finished version.