The Saga Of The Little Whitehouse ~ Archive
This page is devoted to images and notes related to the "Saga of the Little Whitehouse".
Sundays, ballgames, summer family picnics, Grandpa's birthday, and other special family occasions
invariably included music, especially group sings, with a heavy patriotic flair.
Their Irish-American tastes meant
George M. Cohan was a favorite...
My family "made ourselves useful" through good days and bad, for a century in Fairfield, CT ...
We're hardy and we were proud to serve again, and grateful to be empowered for it.
These pages have given me an opportunity to restore myself and refresh the concepts
that motivated me to "all topstuff" to begin with.
I know I have plenty of company in the need to refresh and restore the best inner drivers, and I hope you find my work here an easy and entertaining help....elle
Grandpa "Big Jim" Smith
was cast in the classic mold...by the time I knew him,
he was the Norman Rockwell Grandpa...complete with snowy hair that "went shock-white" from
a heartbreak when he was in early twenties...before he met and married Grandma...and sweeping handlbar mustache...
The funnycigar-box at the bottom of the bottom drawer, way in the back, contained the collection of scissors he used to groom those mustachios over the years, and was found
by Grandma and self when clearing his belongings after his death at age 90.
Each year after reaching age 60, he would say at Birthday speechtime, "Drink up, boys! I
won't be here to "tip a good glass of cheer" with you next year!"
For thirty years,
he predicted his death and we loved him and we would lament, and when his time actually
came, the funeral cortege stretched for a mile or more .
His annual death prediction
would be followed, as a rule, by his big bass voice, lifted in song, like those listed below,
and never a day without a song and a "sass" to share the gift of lively love.
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Jim and Else's crew, late '60's, at a family event.
All those fine sons for my 4'10" Grandmother!
...she never stopped that wonderful
roundish sort-of warm, quiet elderly lady giggle, to our delight!
And two are absent from the photo. Joe, one more of her sons, died of Lukemia at age thirty, a young husband and father. And there was one more son, still,
in Tom, from Grandpa Smith's first marriage...his firstborn, if he is alive, he is over a hundred.
Visits to Uncle Tom's in the Hills were lovely...his wife and children loving,
hospitable and great fun!....except for Cousin Tommy's violin.....eightyearold awful! :-)
Mysteries to have fun chasing down on an afternoon!
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 | Happy postwar activity:
Six Smith Brothers
being sworn in as
new members of the
American Legion.
- 1953
l-r:Hank, Charlie,Jim,
Bob, Bill and Al.
per Commander A.Laska
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"You're A Grand Old Flag"
You're A Grand Old Flag,
You're a high fly-ing flag,
And for-ev-er, in peace, may you wave.
You're the em-blem of the land I love,
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev-'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where ther's nev-er a boast or brag,
But, should auld ac-quaint-ance be for-got,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
Words and Music by George M. Cohan
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 Three generations of Smiths served proudly under this logo, as well. Grandpa James Smith helped build the DuPont Coated Fabrics Plant in Fairfield; one of his sons, Richard Charles,"Charlie", followed as Millwright, fashioning the gold foil for NASA's Lunar Landing Module with his hands; and his son, in turn, an administrator with the plant, till subsidization in the late 1980's.
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One of many old
Irish Blessings & wishes,
"...and
may ye be in Heaven
half and hour before
the devil knows yer gone!"
Available as reprint, artistically,
with the shamrock, below alongside.
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Richard Charles Smith shown in 1944
as Army Air Corps Flight Mechanic
b.October 9,1923 -
d.May 10, 1999
"Once again, His Spirit soars!"
"Army Air Corps Song"
Off we go
into the wild blue yonder ~
climbing high
into the sun!
Here they come,
zooming to meet our thunder ~
at 'em, boys!
giv 'er the gun!
Down we dive,
spouting our flame
from under ~
off with one
helluva roar!
We live
in fame!
or go down
in flame!
Nothing 'll stop the
Army Air Corps!
 On the side of the plane was Betty Boop, and Hearst Publications Official Site might entertain her fans. An individual fan site,Katy's Obsession with Betty Boopmight be as much fun!
I felt so blessed to grow up as his daughter,
though his crusty moments in old age
made his last years difficult for all, sometimes,
especially himself.
"But it's the laughter that we remember..."
once the grieving's done.
In his case, may none of us fail to do so.
In our formative years, he was at least good,
And often great...science, education, laughter, beauty, music, and infinite warmth and hugs...as one who has travelled sociologically, I must praise him...his lights instilled in us the will to live in dark places later on...a gift not to be overlooked.
Some called him "Charlie", and my Mother said it like Katherine Hepburn's Rosie to Humphrey Bogart, as another special
Charlie, in the film,"African Queen".
So, in turn, I would laugh, saying it like Charlie Chan's daughter ...
"Hiya, Pop! number one daughter , here!...what's up?"..but not too often...his tastes in entertainment were alert.
In a world full of sophistications many of them great, but many so cold...I treasure
the climate in which I was raised...and hope not to fail to express my love and gratitude.
I wish I had been able to write this before he died...I did tell him, and show him ...
he would have loved this page!
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Scarlett and Rhett,
icons of their day,
however imperfect their
personalities and motives!
Only the Civil War
could have made them appear
"sweet-by-comparison"!
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