Phone photo 3193

Alligator on the ceiling, Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3167

Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3120

Elma, Washington

Morty Comix # 2680

Morty Comix # 2680 was tacked up at the bulletin board by Lake Inez, Elma, Washington.

Morty Comix # 2679

Morty Comix # 2679 was folded and placed inside a dessert menu at a family diner in Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3080

Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3079

Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3078

Elma, Washington

Lafe

Tintype

Barely legible on verso: Lafe

Charles LaFayette Reeves (Aug. 18, 1862-June 4, 1939) was better known as Lafe. He was the older brother of my great grandmother, Jennie. 

Lafe accompanied his family from Michigan to Centralia, Washington Territory in 1889. He married a woman named Elizabeth (Bessie) in 1903 and they both were Christian Scientist converts. When my grandmother Leona survived the influenza epidemic in 1918 she credited Lafe with her recovery.

Lafe was a barber and I only recently learned worked just 7 miles from my home over in Elma, Washington during the early 1900s. In spite of the expression in this photo, he is remembered as a big, friendly man who was also a ventriloquist. 

Charles and Bessie had no children. We visit their graves every year and the headstones are eroding away down there in Centralia.

OK, now here's a mystery for you research wizards. Between the birth of Sidney A. Reeves (Lafe's youngest sibling) in Michigan, Mar. 28, 1872 and the year 1884 when the family is safely back in the Wolverine State but a bit further north, I cannot account for the whereabouts of the Reeves family. There are some pretty wild stories, all unconfirmed, which include George Armstrong Custer and Little Bighorn. I'll get to it eventually here. It would seem this tintype of Lafe was taken during this lost chunk of time. And he looks worn beyond his tender years. There's a good story somewhere in there.

Phone photo 3003

James Abbott mural detail, Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3002

Detail of James Abbott mural, Elma, Washington

Phone photo 3001

James Abbott mural, Elma, Washington. He played with perspective in this one more than in his other works. It faces east, protecting it from the coastal winds, so this is in a better state of preservation than most.

Phone photo 2980

Elma, Washington

Phone photo 2979

Elma, Washington

Morty Comix # 2657

Morty Comix # 2657 was slid under a tablecloth at a restaurant in Elma, Washington

Phone photo 2859

James Abbott mural, McCleary Washington

I notice here and in Elma, his murals painted on waferboard appear to hold up a little better over time.

Phone photo 2837

Detail of James Abbott mural in Elma, Washington showing the wear of the elements on the paint, plus the cute baby seal that somehow found its way into a logging camp picture.

Morty Comix #2642

Morty Comix # 2642 was placed behind a business whiteboard alerting customers they moved to another location. A quarter century ago or so this place was a locally owned hardware store, but it was cut up and divided into little offices. Elma, Washington.

Phone photo 2761

Restored James Abbott mural, Elma, Washington

Phone photo 2760

James Abbott mural on a tavern front, Elma, Washington. Several of Abbott's works have already vanished or been wrecked by the elements, but this is one of the very few that was freshened up with a restoration effort by other artists in recent years.