Me & Addie/Addie & Me...We're Exactly Alike, As You Can See

I go through periods of being quite consumed with Addie, The Original Pioneer Woman. I want to be her. I want to sell eggs to Indians and pour chicken blood over my asparagus plants. Here she is in a formal portrait.

Yeah, well, I had a formal portrait made once, too. Just like Addie.

Okay, so maybe I'm a little more smiley than she was. A little more toothy? A little more gregarious and sanguine and frivolous. My mom once accused me of being on Ecstasy in college because I looked so manic in all my party pics.

That's Addie in the back row, middle. Gosh, she was rawwwther serious, wasn't she?

Man, her whole family was rawwwther serious. Check out her mama. Dang, woman, I know you've got seven sucklings to wrassle, but let's see a little GRIN from time to time. And check out that little guy on the bottom right. Smile, dude. And the world smiles with you.


Okay, so we don't have the same general picture-posing philosophy. But just like me, Addie had four kids.

And by golly, they're rawwwther serious, too! Except that little turkey in the front there. He shows some promise.



Addie and Fred actually had six children. Two of them died when they were toddlers. I can't even comprehend that level of sadness.


But I do have four kids. They're suckers.



Sigh. Here's Addie again. I think I love her.

Sometimes I wonder things. I wonder if she ever looked at her laundry pile and said "Aw, Shit." I wonder if she ever burped out loud just to make her children laugh. I wonder what she did for cramps? (Sorry, men, but these things cross a fertile woman's mind.)

Addie was known for never turning away a person in need. Hobos, as they were called, used to regularly show up on Addie's doorstep. She cooked them hot, delicious meals: fried chicken, corn pudding, mashed potatoes with cream gravy, sliced tomatoes from her garden. Apparently, Addie's name and a map to her house were scrawled on water tanks all over the area, and hobos knew they could count on her to be fed.

Oh, yeah? Well, one time, a hobo and his girlfriend showed up on my doorstep at 12:30 a.m. They'd been drinking and had had a car accident about a mile from our house. I instinctively grabbed the gun and parked myself near the stairs that led to my children's bedrooms because I was a victim of a violent crime once and I lived in L.A. for five years and pretty much consider everyone a potential axe murderer. My fearless husband, meanwhile, loaded the wayward, schnockered souls into our brand new Suburban and drove them twenty minutes to the nearest town. All the time he was gone, I was certain my love would be knifed or shot and the hobos would turn around and return to my house to spread ketchup on my calves and eat me for dinner.

Fortunately, my grisly fears were never realized and Marlboro Man made it home safe and sound. But not before the hobo's girlfriend peed all over the entire back seat of our Suburban during the ride to town. So much for New Car Smell.

You think Addie ever had to deal with THAT? Who's the Pioneer Woman NOW?

Comments

[Jenni in KS]

I see some family resemblance between your boys and the little boy in the sailor suit. Do you sit and look at old family photos trying to figure out where you or your kids got this or that trait, too? Dh's grandma has an awesome collection of old family photos. When we go to her house, I can just sit there and look at them for hours.

Someone once told me that the reason people looked so serious in those old photographs is because they had to stand perfectly still for a long time while the picture was being taken or it would be ruined. I've heard they used to strap squiggly little kids down to take their pictures. Addy's dad does seem to have a little bit of a smirk, but maybe it's just the mustache. Her mom, though, YIKES! She's a bit scary. I bet her kids obeyed her well.

[Morgie]

Wasn't that T Dog?

[Heidi]

I learned about the seriousness of old photos in college: they did have to hold perfectly still, because if they moved, they'd blur. They can't have been like that all the time! They must have smiled at least once!!

Ree I can totally see you obsession with Addie! All that and she was pretty too!

[cecedon]

great post. I have to ask though, about the pee, who does that? Why on earth wouldn't the girl say, "hey man, I really have to pee, could you pull over so I could pee alongside the car?" What's with people? And for the record I think you are a lot like Addie. Just think in 100 years some pioneer woman is going to hope and pray to be like you! :)

[Lawyerish]

Those photos are so great. People were apparently always pissed off back in the day. Of course, I'd be plenty PO'd, too, if I had to wash everything by hand and bathe in a large bucket and not have access to blogs.

And the peeing in the back seat? The hell?

[Stacie]

I have the answer to Addie's seriousness. Her corsets were too tight. Could you imagine tying one of those things on till your rib cage touched together across your sternum? I'd never smile either. The children upon seeing that look on their mothers face 24/7 never smiled much either...and on the rare occasion she did smile, it frightened those poor kids!

Thank heavens corsets are no longer a part of our everyday society!

WHEW! I'm breathing better just thinking about it! LOL

I love the pics and history lesson...Addie surely was an exceptional woman. I can't imagine haveing a map to my home scrawled on watertowers. I wonder if any of those have survived the years...would be neat to find out.
Stacie

[Alison]

Nobody smiled in photos from that era. It's too bad, because you know they were beautiful. It's just hard to imagine them being light-hearted at all. But they must have been, right? Even though their lives were much harder than ours are? Right?

[sasha]

OO! I want a jacket like Addie's in her second picture...bosomy!

Keep the back story coming!

[James Cooper]

The photos are gorgeous, though certainly they would've been made better by a less doom and gloom atmosphere. As neat as the old photographs may be I still prefer your shots in all their candid glory. Ride on, Pioneer Woman!

[claudia]

Wow Ree, that is really amazing!! And like Jenni in KS said, I do believe that yes, they had to be very still for the pics to come out back then.

This is so wonderful to read! Your great-grandmother on the other side was also an Addie. A preacher's wife with five children, she could make something out of nothing and did...a fabulous cook and seamstress (never again will I taste such a sublime dinner roll). She was also of necessity pretty serious and focused. The preacher's family would receive "missionary boxes" out of which she selected the best fabrics and buttons, took the clothing apart and totally remade into wonderful garments for her children. She continued to tailor high-fashion suits for her four daughters into their adulthood.
But Ree, though they are exceptional role models, neither of these Addies has anything on you! I'm with James: Ride On, Pioneer Woman!

[momto3cubs]

I can't get over the family picture where she has the tiny, tiny waist. But she may have still been a teen then?

I wonder how old she is the picture of her with her four children. 30?

[Pam]

You can see a blur in the third photo. The little boy, center, his left hand is a blur. Those of your readers who responded that photos from that era required subjects to remain perfectly still, is absolutely correct. Subjects sometimes had frames that forced them to stand still and a section that came up behind the base of the skull to keep them from moving. The photographer literally pulled the cap off the lens and when he thought enough time had gone by, put the cap back on the lens. That's why there are no 'candid' shots. How 'candid' can you be when you have to freeze for 30 seconds or more. Also, their teeth were atrocious. And Stacie is correct too, that they were wearing corsets. Who could breathe, much less smile, wearing one of those things?
And Momto3cubs...her waist wasn't all that tiny...but a corset helped as did the vertical and the juxtaposing horizontal strips on her skirt and jacket.
Watch The 1900's House on DVD or video, Ree. You can usually get it out of the library. Or purchase it from PBS. Excellent. You WILL love it.
♥Pam

[SQT]

Man, where can I get a corset that'll give me a waist like Addie's? Of course, that's probably why she's not smiling, she too busy trying to breathe.

Shouldn't the kids be the one's to christen the backseat? Yuck!

[Pam]

Also, photos were very expensive and I'm sure the father or mother impressed on the children that they couldn't move. I'd like to say something smart and say 'back in the day when children actually listened to their parents' but...I know that's not true.
♥Pam

[Jill]

Your kids are adorable. Loved the photos.

[Teetotaled]

If Addie only knew that she would one day be made famous on this website...
You are very much a modern day Addie, calf nuts and shotguns and whatnot. Addie would be proud I think! :-)

[Nan]

ROFLOL (about the pee in the new Suburban! HA!!) Okay and I can explain the solemn looks. They probaby had to sit for like a solid two or three minutes to have that portrait taken via pinhole camera! Imagine holding a chipper perky little smile for that long? Imagine your kids remaining happy for that long?
;^P

[Brian]

You are the one and only Pioneer Woman Ree. I can't top anything you do. :)

Love the family history, thanks for sharing all the pics.

[Rachel in VA]

So I am new here and I would just like to say...

I LOVE YOU ALREADY!

Let's see if you can keep up with this weird chain. One of my best friends from when I lived in Arkansas now lives in Oklahoma and works with your step mother. At least I think that's how it goes. She told me to check out your site and I wasn't disappointed. I wasted many work hours yesterday reading old posts and laughing my butt off. And the pictures...wow! I have now added you to my favorites and must read everyday. And if I get fired, I'm totally blaming it on you!

[Tonya]

great photos and writing :) You are too cute.. and the kids are adorable!

[PAMELA]

There is no smiling in any of my old tin types either. I wondered if it was because there were NO TEETH or Missing teeth.

I love Addy's collar in the first picture, and her waistline in photo of her parents and siblings.

My favorite character, however, is her little guy in the glasses. I have an antique pair similiar to that - made with a rosy tint.

[Karmyn R]

She Pee'd in your seat?

Okay, wonderful post, again - but then at the end, that is all I can think about. Dang - you live in the country, all she had to do was ask MM to pull over and she could have peed in a bush.

[Nancy]

I have a cousin Addie, and I was (very briefly) a Pioneer Girl. Does that count?

[Eileen]

I just found your blog today (followed your link from ILP) and I'm already hooked. I'll definitely be coming back for more doses of laughter...it is the best medicine after all. Ok...peeing the back seat???? I thought that only happened in cop cars!!