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Note: s that the numerological values were better.
Throughout her long life, she was a very social person, always ready to organize a family or neighborhood event. Her diaries kept as a young woman record a round of picnics, skating parties, musical evenings, amateur theatricals and the like. She thought nothing of corralling a few friends and hopping a train to the next county to root for the local baseball team. Married life settled her down a little, but she was active in bridge clubs, book clubs, and later garden clubs and the Grange. She became a member of The Order of the Eastern Star and was proud of her Masonic connections, both by birth and by marriage. (She remarked that she was the daughter and granddaughter of Masons, the wife of a Mason and the mother of two Masons.)
Long before Winnebago sold its first recreational vehicle Blossom was a pioneer in car camping. She was an expert in packing supplies for an afternoon picnic at the park or a month in the mountains into (or on top of) whatever vehicle she had at the time, usually a large sedan. She made several trips around the country, camera in hand, visiting national parks and other attractions, such as the Chicago World's Fair.
In 1952, just after the death of her second husband, Frank Yerkes, when she was preparing to move from Denver to Southern California, she broke her leg. Undaunted, she drove alone, with her leg in a cast, the thousand miles across the Rocky Mountains and the deserts of the Southwest to Escondido where her elder son and his family lived. She was 67.
One of her first paying jobs was with a printer in Sapulpa, taking orders and helping out with the composition and printing. After her divorce from Lucien, she worked in Joplin and Kansas City as a bookkeeper at the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company. Her outgoing nature led her to work in sales. She had a real estate license and also sold the World Book Encyclopedia.
Music An accomplished keyboard player, she was in demand for social occasions and religious services. As a young woman, she was the organist for several churches of which she was not a member. Although she had a large collection of sheet music, she could play by ear, and pick up a new tune quickly. One of her favorite possessions was a small reed organ with a beautiful, rich tone, which she played almost very day.
She also had a talent for verse; and she could create parodies of popular songs and light verse for birthdays and other gatherings.
A fashion of the time of her youth was putting together scrapbooks for special occasions and trips.
Crafts - rafts of ribbons won at the San Diego County fair for minature flower arrangements
taste - greater enthusiasm than refinement
An indifferent housekeeper, she had more important things to occupy her time than fussing over dust bunnies. Her sister-in-law, Bea Lowe, used to tease her by writing (rather mild) obscenities on dusty tabletops and shelves.
MEMENTO: Diaries; letters; photos, etc.
1930:
Blossom L Bristow 43 1886 Kansas Head White Denver, Denver, CO
Julius L Bristow 22 1907 Son Denver, Denver, CO
Oxley J Bristow 20 1909 Son Denver, Denver, CO
Note: !Although christened Iva Dell, she adopted the name of Blossom as a young woman on the ground
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