Rosetta Decoration June 1927

This is a letter in rhyme that Edra Beasley and Gladys Warren wrote to Edra's sister Mildred when she was living in Washington state in 1927. The names and events are true. They probably had as much fun writing it as Mildred did reading it.

Come all you people young and old, and listen to a story that has never been told.
It first began on a Sunday morn, the sun was high and the dew was on the corn.

The creek was up and the moon was low but to the decoration we was bound to go.
A jolly gang that was numbered nine, we mounted our horses just feeling fine.

Upon Old Joe was a lass and a lad, upon old Rhoda was Bertie and her dad.
Upon old Blue rode Annabelle, and Susie happily rode old Nell.

Poor old Jonah with his ragged old saddle, carried two girls riding a straddle.
We scampered away in a pace and a trot, the faster we went the further we got.

We sat in the saddle with a steady nerve, and we blowed the horn at every curve.
Our motors got hot and almost boiled dry, but we just stepped on the gas and made it in high.

We started up the mountain going very slow, and Edra tore her stocking from the top to the toe.
We stopped at Mrs. Baucoms - she was doing fine, and has named her baby Ryntha Catherine.

We out out there about 11:15, and began seeings sights we had never before seen.
Olzetta had a fellow - T. was her pride and joy, someone said he was a Boen boy.

There was Pearlie Hughes, in a dress way below her knees,
And the shoulder seams were long enough for sleeves.

Her dress was brown, trimmed in blue and was big enough for two.
They sat the dinner on the ground - then the people gathered round.

There was ham and there was steak and Belle Warren had a candy cake.
There was pie and cake -- thin and fat -- and Herman Warren wore a jellybean hat.

Rosette Pierce and three daughters all dressed alike - in dresses so big they would never draw tight. The baby was short, wide and fat and like it's mother, it wore a hat.

There was Oliver Boen - a big tall man - he brought their dinner in a blue lard stand
With an oil tablecloth, rolled up in a roll, long and slim like a fishing pole.

There was two recitations, a song or two.
A talk by Rufus Warren and the decoration was through.