Karen called late last night to tell me that she found yet another companion picture to the one I posted on the blog yesterday. I had to laugh because I couldn’t remember it. She said it shows all five of us again, but Gran is holding her. That’s what happens many times with photos. You share two or three with someone else, and at some point you forget those even exist.
Many of the photos I’m scanning for Karen belonged to Grandma Bea. Some were copies I sent her from Oklahoma, while others were taken by someone else and were a complete surprise to me. I don’t know who took this group photo of us or why some people are missing from the photo. I only know that it was taken when Mom and Dad visited us in 1973.
I love looking at these photos, not just because of the people and events, but because of the backgrounds. I know I must have rambled on and on about this before, but some things just jump out at me from photos. Here are some examples:
1. One of the photos shows Karen standing at the sink in the bathroom at our house on Crystal. The house was next to Gran’s and was owned for a few years by a couple with a young daughter who was born with a club foot. I remember pushing her back and forth in her little swing after her foot surgery. I suppose my purpose in taking the photo was so that Mom could see our bathroom because we had painted and tiled it after we bought the house. What immediately came to mind when I saw the photo was that the neighbor’s daughter had locked herself in the bathroom the year before and we put Karen through the window so she could open the door for us! LOL
2. Another photo shows Gran sitting on the lawn with some of the grandchildren. In the background is my old Chevy and hers. I think mine was a ’63 and hers was a ’64. I can barely see the trunk, but it shows a gap because I had been in a wreck and couldn’t afford to have the car fixed. I had the trunk tied shut with a bungee cord! The photo also shows the neighbor’s evaporative cooler on top of his roof and that brought back memories of several men in our family climbing the roof of Gran’s house at one time or another to fix her cooler. It’s a wonder no one ever fell!
3. A picture of Karen next to Gran’s green sofa reminded me of the hours and hours Gran and I spent re-upholstering it in a hideous floral fabric that we loved at the time. I upholstered several pieces after we figured out what we were doing! It was a skill that saved me a lot of money.
4. And who could forget Gran’s perfectly dreadful clock! LOL It appears in several photos. It was a gold carriage pulled by two horses. I have to post this photo because it is really beyond description. Probably worth a fortune on ebay and I have no idea what happed to it! Oh, and now that I see this little section of the photo again, I remember that the figurines on the shelf said "Made in occupied Japan" on the bottoms.
I like the clock! It would be perfect in a little girl's princess room.
I love reading your memories.
My mother has a picture of the three of us kids with I believe your Gran when we all visited California when I was in 4th grade.
Posted by: Megan | January 17, 2010 at 09:00 AM