Family Portraits

My mother recently told me that this is one of her most favorite pictures of her. I was quite surprised as there are some absolutely gorgeous photographs of her taken when she was in high school and a little older. She is a strikingly beautiful woman with a strong nose, defined brow and deep green eyes. She never, ever leaves the house without a bit of makeup, neat hair and presentable clothes. I cannot count the times she has chided me for taking my children out without being spit-shined and photo-ready. As I have gone through all these old photos I know where this comes from.

My grandmother, Margaret Langston, was a seamstress. She made everything from wedding gowns to custom rag dolls. When I was little, she worked in the alterations room for Reinhaeur's department store and later had her own little business at home. Her customers included the wealthy women who shopped the department stores as well as a governor's wife or two. The woman knew her stuff. Her sister, Dolly Thomas, was a milliner among other things. Until their last years, I never saw either of them that they weren't dressed to go out, even if they were staying home. They had a seemingly endless supply of pantsuits and dresses with matching sensible shoes and handbags. Grandmother's purse weighed no less than 15 pounds and I used to cringe when she asked me to go retrieve it for her. Aunt Doll had some mighty fine headpieces as well and most of the photos of her feature them. She had extremely long hair and kept it neatly pinned in an intricate stack on her head, topped with a headpiece...not a hat. My grandfather was also expected to be sartorially resplendent as Margaret would not be seen with a slob. I often wondered where a man who grew up in the woods of Smith Creek acquired such good taste in clothes.

The Langston and Anderson families have been well documented in photos for several generations. Mom described the travelling photographers who used to make their rounds through Leon, Wakulla and Liberty counties, bringing with them a variety of clothes and props and sometimes backdrops. These families were proud and the took advantage of photo opportunities, dressing in their own or borrowed clothes and even included some prized possessions like guns and hunting dogs or furniture. When cameras were developed for public consumption my grandmother and her sisters immediately purchased them. My aunt Grace even had a color one in the early 1940s.

As a parent, I have become aware of the high price of fine portraits. I had my daughter at the department stores every time their "special" ads showed up in the paper and spent a fortune by the time she was 5. My grandmother had some beautiful portraits made of her children. My mother's high school portraits make her look grown and glamorous but they were simply black and white or lightly color-enhanced.

I mentioned to mom how surprising it is that a seamstress with Margaret's meager beginnings could afford such quality things. When she died, Grandma had no less than 5 sets of fine china and most of her furniture was mahogany. Mom explained that Margaret had always had a taste for fine things and would do whatever amount of work necessary to fund it. I remember her always having a stack of alterations to make by her chair or piled up on the sewing machine. Mom thinks it all originated when her Creek ancestors took Christian names and didn't look back. They were minorities and downright unfashionable. While I understand the familial pride, I regret that this part of our heritage is so far in the past. My ancestry search literally dead ends at Margaret's great-grandfather, Tom Anderson, who was supposedly a Creek chief in Alabama. I am still learning about the Dawes Rolls and other methods by which the native Americans were kept track of, but this side is all still a mystery and I am sure this will be a life-long project. Still, it would be nice if I could find some scrap of evidence to light the way.