My Romantic Great Granddad 2014. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24"
Great Grandparents on my father’s side. The patronym. I have Great Grandparents from my grandmothers too, but 5,000 years of male dominance (and control of all written history) believed the ladies didn’t matter much. Actually, I think it was just too complicated for dudes to handle all the name changes in a matriline.
Anyway, in the photo above, Henry Throop (my great Grandfather) holds the straw hat, and Ruby Niles (my Great Grandmother) is the first girl over his left shoulder (to our right). The picture is from 1901—a summer picnic in Lebanon, N.Y. Henry was home from Cornell, and Ruby from Syracuse University. Henry kept a journal and would write in secret code the very private stuff. I cracked the code. He had a crush on the girl directly above him in the photo.
Ah, the pain of unrequited love!
He married Ruby 3 years later.
And here I am!
Henry and Ruby in 1930. I wonder if Ruby also settled:)
Either way, I’m very glad the union happened!