VERLIE (PRICE) & RALPH THOMPSON

PRICE, THOMPSON, MACHLAN

Posted By: Pat Welch (email)
Date: 12/4/2001 at 21:35:57

Subject:

Old-Time Suppers, etc.

Date:

Sat, 17 Nov 2001 19:10:10 -0600

From:

"pat welch"

To:

iggy29@scican.net

Nancee, I have just subscribed to your
Decatur Co. website &
am thoroughly enjoying it. Thank you! Now &
then I see an
ancestor's name, which is neat, but also it
is even neater
to read of the period of time. There was a
pretty good
sense of humor out there even then!

In reading about the Handkerchief Festival, I
was reminded
of when I asked my grandmother Verlie Price
how she met
grandpa Ralph Thompson. I copy her words as
she wrote them
to me (but feel free to edit it in any way
you need to, or
not use at all):

"Our little country school "Popcorn" gave
a program of
one-act plays - musical numbers, etc, & after
the program we
had a Pie Sale (we thought the old-fashioned
box supper was
a bit "Passe"). So each girl was to bring a
pie to sell.
My girlfrind Edith Lantz & I thought a whole
pie was a bit
too much for one couple, so we decided to
make different
ones. I made a gooseberry & she made a new
recipe which we
had just heard of "Cholocate Pie". We put
half of each on
each plate.

While they were auctioning off the pies,
Ralph's cousin
Ethel Machlan & I were peeping out from
behind the curtain
which we had strung across the stage for the
plays & she
said "I see Uncle Clem's boy Ralph standing
clear back there
in the corner. I could see that tow-headed
boy whom I did
not know (altho I had heard them speak of
their cousins
Ralph & Lester) & after the bidding was over
here he came
with my pie. He had bought a pie brought by
one of the
girls from town but managed to swap for he
had come up there
to try to meet me. I remember we two Country
Bumpkins
having a hard time keeping up a conversation.

We did not really start dating till the
next Fall & then
dated for almost 4 years, but we did not call
it dating. My
girl friends' grandfather said 'Well! I see
young Thompson
is 'waiting on' the little Price girl.
Pretty nice young
couple. Shouldn't wonder if they'd kick up &
get married
one of these days'. We had a big laugh at
his old fashioned
expression. We were about 2 generations too
late for them
to say he was 'sparking me'. We just said we
were keeping
company or just plain going together.

At least it 'took like a good
vaccination' & we settled
down to raise a passel of kids."

Ralph & Verlie were born in 1889 & 1890, &
married in 1912.
Both were from the Van Wert area & not only
did the Price
girls go to school at Popcorn, they (mother
included) taught
school there. I can say in all honesty
"Thank goodness
grandma could type & send me so much of this
information, &
that I was smart enough to hang onto it"!
Such a wealth of
history that went to their graves with our
ancestors.
Pat Thompson Welch