Cards for MRS. LAWTON

Here are a couple more handmade cards that were given to schoolteacher Montez Lawton who taught in the San Francisco Bay Area. No indication as to when these were made.

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And the interior of the above card.

And here's the other handmade card Montez Lawton kept in her scrapbook.

MRS. MONTEZ LAWTON with friends

This is the only photo I have of schoolteacher Mrs. Montez Lawton (she is on the right). This is pasted in her scrapbook. No indication what the event was or when it was held. But there she sits in her fine hat smiling with Lois Raffetti and Rock LaFleche. Seriously? Rock LaFleche? That names a keeper. Has to be used in a story.

Just another image from Mrs. Montez Lawton's scrapbook. More odd and interesting things to come.

Young mister RICHARD JACOBSON, son of ELMER

Another little clipping from Mrs. Lawton's scrapbook. I'm guessing this was one of her students from Marin School in the late 1940s to early '50s.

The machinist shop in Richmond is the shipbuilding area where many of the ships for World War II were built. So it is also possible this little clipping was published during war time.

"NEEDLE IN HEART FATAL TO BABY"

This newspaper clipping is actually pasted in Mrs. Lawton's scrapbook. No explanation. It's just another odd clipping that must have meant something to her. I'm guessing this occurred in the late '40s to early '50s. Very strange and very sad.

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A HANDMADE GREETING CARD for Mrs. Lawton

Mrs. Lawton was well loved by her grade school students. Here's proof that one child took the time to create a special handmade card for their teacher.

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Notice the writing on the back which is clearly an attempt to make the card look official, done by a company; the RR company with apparently 113332 cards produced before this one.

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How would this child, now an adult, feel about having their artwork shared on this scale? Certainly it would thrill them to think that Mrs. Lawton cared enough to keep the very best.

The TEACHER and the ROBBER

My friend Bert gave me an old scrapbook put together by a woman who was a teacher. The book's pages crumble beneath your fingers. In fact you hold your breath when looking at it because even a slight movement makes it crumble even more.

Inside there are birth announcements, school programs, greeting cards, and all wonders of ephemera that at one point were important to this woman. So I really can't explain why the following were floating freely stuck between two pages. What was Mrs. Lawton's connection to Donald R. Hainey? I doubt we'll ever know.