the "who are these people?" game


sorabji.com: Who are you?: the "who are these people?" game
By droopy on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 02:22 am:

    i can't believe no one can come up with another thread. so here's a game:

    describe these two people in your own words. use your imagination: what their personalities were like, their lives, anything.


By semillama on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 12:35 pm:

    I believe both were deeply religious. They were the patriarch and matriarch of a large family, raising them on a large farm that had been in the family since the early 1800s.

    The man was proud of his achievements in life, the woman proud of her family. Both appear serious, but always made time for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The man died four years after the photo was taken in the late 1880s, but his wife lived on for another 24 years.

    how's that?


By Dr Pepper on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 12:58 pm:

    droopy, I think these couple are presbyterian. Probably southerner, maybe Kentucky, or Tennessee, or maybe Missouri. possible lived in a country, if I am correct .Droopy?


By platypus on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 01:06 pm:

    She secretly dreamed of raising hippos.


By droopy on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 01:09 pm:

    there is no right or wrong answer at this point, just an exercise of the imagination.

    all will be revealed later.


By Dr Pepper on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 03:29 am:

    droopy, I don't care if i am correct, just guessing. :-)


By Spider on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 09:06 pm:

    They look like siblings to me -- their eyes are similar.

    I'm imagining a Matthew-and-Marilla-Cuthbert situation, two bachelor and bachelorette farmers working that hardscrabble land until they wear out their lives. Or until they adopt a plucky orphan.

    The lady's self-conscious about the calluses on her palms from holding the plow for all these many years.

    The gentleman's secretely proud of his ability to grow a beard.


By agatha on Friday, April 25, 2008 - 11:30 am:

    Plucky orphan- ha! I want to play this game, but I keep looking at this threat in the morning when I don't have any time to write anything of substance.


By Dr Pepper on Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 12:52 am:

    Spider,you might be right, the eye are similar.


By Dr Pepper on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 01:01 am:

    Spider, if you think that they are sibling, you might be right, the glove she wore might indicated that she's a widow and moved to lives with her brother or cousin.


By Dr Pepper on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 01:03 am:

    uck! I don't wanna to eat the food of their times!
    I know there's no Mc Donalds or Burger King or no 7-11 or White Hen in their times.


By droopy on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 01:21 am:

    they are husband and wife. that picture was taken between 1885 and 1890. he died in 1896 and she died in 1898.

    the women had at least 8 children, 6 of which never made it past infancy. of the 3 who survived the oldest - a girl - was probably retarded.

    they were certainly very religious, as much as pretty much everybody else at that time, but were never really part of an established church. the first church in the area of texas they lived in wasn't built until some 40 years after they died. church services in their area were held in schools, under brush arbors, or sometimes somebody's house. the first sunday school was held in a blacksmith shop. there was no resident preacher: services were done by methodist circuit riders, traveling presbyterian or baptist priests. you never knew.


By semillama on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 01:58 pm:

    Boo Yaa! I called the time period of the photo!


By Nate on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 04:23 pm:

    gee, sem, with your background who would have thought.


By droopy on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 09:24 pm:

    dr. pepper - the lived in kentucky for about 20 years before moving to texas.


By Dr Pepper on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 01:32 am:

    droopy, are they presbyterian?


By droopy on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 02:38 am:

    the woman may have come from scots presbyterian ancestors; the man probably came from welsh methodists. but in their own lives they probaby just considered themselves "christian" (in a catch-as-catch-can sort of way) without any further clarification.


By Dr Pepper on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 11:15 am:

    Well I knew it, most of the southern are probably mostly baptist or presbyterian.