Goodnight Texas Vintage Photos - Peden Home. (original) (raw)

Here is a picture of the abandoned Peden home probably taken in the early 70�s. This house was about half way down what, I think, now is Juliet Road on the right side before you get to the turn off to the cemetery. The story behind this picture was this: - My grandfather and grandmother moved to Fort Worth around 1971. A couple of years later my grandfather�s brother and wife who lived in Lefors, TX saw this picture in the Amarillo paper and recognized it as my grandparent�s house. If I remember correctly, a young lady in high school in Amarillo was participating in a photography contest and took this picture for the contest. Through the paper we were able to contact her and get a copy of the picture. Amazingly, it won the contest and apparently hung in a gallery in Washington, D.C. for a few months. The young lady who took the picture stated that it was a very foggy morning when she took the picture so it appears to have no background.

The Church and The Jones

I think the last time I was through Goodnight was around 1998 and the church that I remember on the corner of the highway and Juliet road and the parsonage was gone by then. Rev. Edwards was the pastor. Across the street was the Jones white house. My grandparents used to talk about how they get great joy out of seeing the �Jones Girls� riding their horses up and down the road. Simple times but good times.

The Garden

One picture shows part of the garden and barn and was east of the house. Many times I would go help grandma pick fresh vegetables and watermelons from the garden. Never any better food. I also helped her make butter from the milk after it was separated. Grandpa had a milk cow named Ginger but at some point he sold her and switched over to goats.

Peden Family

The other pictures are of my mother Helen Peden Kelly in front of the house and my grandparents Annie and Clarence Peden with my Aunt Ruth sometime in the early 40�s. The lilac bushes that lined the front walk that you see on either side of my aunt and grandparents were still there in 1998.

The Window in the Dinner Scene

I don�t know if you want to publish this dinner scene picture but you can see through the window the outhouse that I was told was put in by the WPA. There were many a cold night trips to the outhouse! This was also the same window that we would run to look out to see the passenger train going by in the distance parallel to HWY 287 that was just over the horizon. This would be the same train that you would later see in the movie HUD. This early 1960�s scene shows the back of my grandfathers head, my cousin to the left, my grandmother at the end of the table, my mother, part of me and my Dad.

The WPA I think, also were the ones that put electricity in the house prior to my grandparent owning it. There was only one running water spigot in the house and that was in the kitchen and the well had to be turned on to get the water. We heated water on the stove to get hot water for dishes or bathing. There was a wood burning stove in the living room and outside of the stove in the kitchen that was the only heat there was.

- Nancy Kelly, Academic Counselor, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, September, 2010