My Aunt Florence

Have been thinking about my Aunt while doing the reading for all the Mexican Silver etc. 
The oldest of 4 girls, she lived in their family home after the younger 3 got married, until a few years after their father died in 1941.  She wanted to go to California earlier but the family convinced her this is not what young ladies did so she stayed home and worked…she did make a trip to Sweden for her Mom’s sake in 1935 to see the relatives.  Then who knows why but she was off for an adventure before the mid 40s (?) to go live in Mexico City, She learned Spanish and set up an American  restaurant in downtown Mexico city..taught the help to peel the tomatoes and bake pies and cakes in the altitude.  She also met the American man, Austin, she married there in 1949.    Of course Mom and her twin sister  were happy to go visit (none of them would have been that independent themselves and the youngest never did visit)… and I have fond memories of at least 5 visits to her apartment in the city…once with just my cousin John for the whole summer after 8th grade.  `1954 .  Very fun.  I can still smell the fresh air in the concrete stairway going up…she lived on the 4th floor with a roof patio and an Irish setter!  We always made trips to many places and usually at least once to nearby Taxco, the silver mining hill town.   She gave up the restaurant after a few years, (not sure why) and they forever struggled economically…Austin was an inventor but no businessman, and patents seemed to be illusive for him.  I think they moved back to the states in the early 60s, first to Pasadena, Ca and then to Scottsdale Az, where they convinced my parents to retire to in 1969.  My Mom always said she had the best taste for art and “fine things” of the whole family, and should have had an easier life to take advantage….could have been very different... but, I dunno, I always admired her spirit to do her own thing.   There were many typed letters describing Mexican arts and crafts and “stuff” to buy.    Wish I could ask her a thing or 2...They had no children so I was the closest to her, seeing them whenever I visited my parents  in AZ and I’m sure some of the silver isn my drawer was hers…as well as other treasures like “Pepe”   (can't find the link...will look in my books..)   Will do another blip about silver and what happened to the Spratling who started it all…he tried to do the same to promote folk art and provide the means to a livelihood for the natives in Alaska! in 1945. !!  less successful.


So the blip is Florence and Austin in Taxco in 1954 from the slides that I digitized...in 1945 there were 400 silversmiths working in Taxco. …)  and the  extra is 1948 , a bit blurry, but Florence with my Mom (in Green) and her Twin and a cousin and a friend, and you can guess who that spindly one is.   Added that lovely dog, Pepper, with Forence and me on her roof patio, the 1954 trip, just for fun. (we later had our own irish setter!)