“We borrow from the past to invite the future” – Rinpoche
• #3 in a series: The 12 Sayings of Christmas, aka One Liners I Have Learned From…
The fleet of Cole Farm Dairy milk trucks lined up for a publicity shot in 1949. Only a small portion of the Cottage where my Uncle Robert and Aunt Dorothy lived with their four children is visible in the upper left.
1948 snapshot by Aunt Dorothy captures her daughters Margie and Lib, as well as myself enjoying an idyllic summer snack under the big maple in the front yard, with the Cottage behind us.
Another snapshot by Dorothy from the early 30s of the Cottage as seen from the west, with its original inhabitant, great-grand-mother Mary Weymouth Cole, standing on the back porch. The three workers who are paused to say ‘cheese’ for the camera are my grandfather Harris Cole, Uncle Robert Cole Sr., and my dad Richard Cole standing in the wagon. Exactly what they were doing is unknown, but I’d say that they were doing what all successful farmers become expert at – ground work.
1930: The Photographer Photographed. Dorothy Tenney photographed most likely by Robert Cole, either shortly before or after they were married in 1930, from a similar vantage point to the photo above.
An even earlier snapshot, by Gertrude Sherman Cole of her nieces Virginia and Priscilla Cole, plus her nephew Richard Cole, taken ca. 1919, on the lawn in front of the cottage, a few years before the new farmhouse was built.
1917: Another Photographer Photographed. This earliest snapshot captures Gertrude Sherman Cole with her nephews Joe and Richard Cole and daughter Helen standing on the lawn.
Fast forward a few years to 1947: an intimate snapshot by Aunt Dorothy of her younger daughter Margie enjoying lunch (or is she painting?) in the delightful garden Dorothy created behind the Cottage.
The view looking west from Margie’s tiny room at the southwest corner of the Cottage. In the distance the expanse of fields fades into mist. In the middle ground a cat contemplates his next move. The time of year is presumably early spring from the look of the lawns plus the empty garden-pot sitting just a few feet away, which was seasonally filled with crocuses, daffodils and tulips, delightful harbingers of spring each year.
1932: Snapshot by Dorothy of someone perched on scaffolding working on the Cottage’s front wall, whom I surmise to be none other than my father Richard Cole in his early 20s, a year or two before he married.
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