Vintage photos are intriguing

Do you have a fascination with photos from times long gone by, before everything was instant gratification when it comes to a camera? I do. I study old photographs with the intensity of a chemist who seeks the answer to an elusive formula, like a botanist who located the rare flora surrounding him that no one knew grew where he now stood. You get the picture, yep, pun intended!!

 I have marveled over the faces of people never met. Often hundreds of years separate their life from my own. I wish their images could speak to me and tell the story of their name, what they did for happiness, where they lived and worked, their talents and interests, things they survived when they felt fearful, and all their successes. What is unknown to us today behind their moment in time that the camera shutter captured their life so that it could be a time-stand-still-for-eternity treasure.
Old photos are artifacts of society. Proof of existing. Endless fascination for me.

 I have been a seamstress since a young age, thanks to my grandma on my mom's side of the family tree teaching me and inspiring the fabric bug to spread its wings inside of my curiosity. She was the queen of mend and make do and save everything that can upcycle into new greater items. She was a creative homemaker before her time and would have been a social media sensation with her reinventing one ready to toss thing into another far better keeper, had she not lived in an orphanage as a child and on a farm as an adult and learned her ways and skills from the trenches of the depression era.

My other grandmother was from more privilege and opportunity and was busy from college age thru retirement birthing babies as a nurse, hundreds of them. She had two of her very own, one of them turned out to be my dad. She did some sewing in her busy life. In fact, I own a childhood photo of my dad and his older brother wearing corduroy fabric suits with knicker pants or knee britches (like what the mystery boy in the pictures below is wearing) and matching jackets. It must have been expensive fabric for the era and I am sure they were not allowed to play and be rough and tumble in the outfits. I am also sure by looking at the photo that the fabric was not easy to sew upon.

 When I look at these photos on this post I study the clothing and the people. I know what it took to make the design details on the dresses. Many of today's fashions have retained the same elements and we incorporate them into our modern day attire. Some sewing techniques are ageless. I find the patches on the girl's dress skirt to be interesting since they look to be not of the mended type patches, but instead a true accent which is unusual for the time period. The footwear, especially high button style shoes, are a source of interest to me as well but I would not want to be struggling in a hurry to get them on to be out the door for an appointment time deadline or other schedule necessity...yes, modern day friends, flip-flops are a person's salvation when in a hurry to 'hit the road'. I doubt people were in such a rush a hundred years ago to join the hamster wheel non-stop days' schedule like we have. Though, life of factory working before child labor laws and working a family farm for your livelihood came with its own pressures and deadlines.

 I'll bet this family was well to do as their clothing seems to give clue. Don't you often think about body language as well, with studying old photos? I do. This woman and young man seem to hold themselves with an air of confidence. The studio photographer was skilled at posing people but the people in front of the camera lens still give us clues as to how they felt being put into poses. Some people seem at ease and others seem out of their element and extremely uncomfortable. That comes through with body language and expressions on faces, whether photo developing was done in black and white, sepia, or color, regardless of the time period from which we observe the people.

 This vintage photo below is very tiny (as the wooden ruler shows for a comparison) and has foreign writing stamped on the backside. I believe it is German, though the writing is cut off a bit. I am not sure what their clothing indicates. Is it a religious order, a regional or cultural standard of dress, teachers, nurses? I am sure the standard uniform type repetition means something, without any doubt.

I continue to find photos that peak my curiosity and make me ponder many aspects of my own life and of theirs in comparing so much about the world and how each of us make a mark upon those around us. I wonder how this digital, password protected era will affect generations ahead of us when it comes to moments of ordinary days in pictures kept and pictures lost.

All of these photos are listed in my Etsy shop and you can visit them by clicking the photo Etsy area in the right margin of this blog.

Life takes me along

I have been so very busy that I find I have been away from the blog for almost a complete month. I needed to stop in and type up some words.

Some days I feel like this....
A stick in a stream being pulled along and trying desperately to avoid the rapids and rocks.

I thought of this example in the car one day when I was being the usual family taxi service, a responsibility I seem to be sentenced to for now. Don't get me wrong, I want to transport my children to the places they need to be and also want them to do some fun things too. I just feel like I am always last on the list of priorities.

I am my (now adult) special needs daughter's transportation when she cannot utilize the county's para-transport system bus. I hope to someday find a reliable person to take my place in this, if not all the time at least some of the time. It is a real tie down to my schedule and life. Please don't think I do not absolutely love her. Any parent of a special needs child knows what I mean.
Transportation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to responsibilities of managing her day to day life. It all takes dedication of a lot of time to run an organized life of a special needs child, no matter their age or stage of life.

Lots of my so called friends have proved to be "fair weather friends" and have decided they just can't understand what it is like to be in my shoes. I don't ask that. I just ask for them to listen, as I listen to their joys as well as challenges and sorrows with their own children and their own lives too.


Lots has been going on in my own life and in our house too.
I have gone on strike (again) with some household duties--I am only one person, after all-- but most of them seem to be un-noticed anyway.
We have had to do a major home improvement project- not by voluntary choice, I may add, and the timing is pretty bad.
I have been without my job since July 31st, since my boss suddenly died.
I have been without my uncle since he died. He was my boss.
I cared for him 5-7 days per week in his home for 5 years, also including being his driver and companion for all his transportation needs, and doing all his shopping runs by myself, alone.
I will tell you this: It is hard to have a relative as an employer too.
My only other uncle died just 5 weeks after my boss uncle.
I spent some treasured quality time with him in his last few weeks.
I miss them both so much more than I had ever expected.

Now that the frost is covering the neighborhood each morning, I realize that I did not even have time to use my clothesline this summer. Now it's time to stack the firewood closer to the house. The clothesline will be there next summer, waiting.

I find I am not such a fun person these days. I think of all the creative thoughts I had and things I did.
I will get back to all that some day soon.
Just not now.
Life is taking me for a ride down that stream, at a very fast clip.

fashion yikes

Wow. Laughable... and sometimes the 1970s are just plain hard to look at!!
My family [minus one brother for some reason and one nephew added in] Easter Sunday 1975.
I mean, come on! Even 1975 must have thought this was not a good look.
The polyester, the helmet-head hair styles, the... Oh!, it's just to frightening!
Looks like my Dad was mid-sentence probably saying something like, "Don't record this fashion nightmare because 30 some years from now Amy will be Lampooning it on her blog!"
My little nephew is the only one to escape the stigma. Even dressed as 1975 he still comes out being cute!
As I recall, this yellow polyester dress had very scratchy lace at the neckline and cuffs and the LONG zipper up the back must have been sewed in with nasty nylon thread as it irritated my skin.
Real nice.
Of course, my aunt and uncle would recognize this background!
1975 had it's good points. Clothing/hairstyle category was not one of my personal favorites.
I came across this photo and tossed it aside and then thought, "We could all use some comic releif. A good, deep, right out loud, belly laugh!!"

A birthday and a reunion

Yesterday we made a short trek to Michigan to see some people that share the same blood line. Those would be my cousins!

We had a wonderful gathering at the home of one of my cousins. We had blue skies intermittently mixed with quick summer downpours throughout the whole day. We easily adapted to moving as a group of about 30 from his comfortable yard to his cozy house as the weather dictated, back and forth.

Another reason to get together on this particular day was the event of my Uncle's 75th birthday; the father of my party hosting cousin.

He now holds the honor of being the eldest relative on that branch of the family tree; his two sibling's (one being my Mother) are both gone. He is the one we now go to for stories told and questions to be answered.

The above photo is him as a boy with his parents (my Grandparents) and his sister (my Mother). His oldest sister must have been the photographer! I do love the stories, and a few new ones were told yesterday!

My cousins had some old 8mm family movies transferred to DVD and we had a glorious time narrating and laughing as we all sat in the same room to view some of it.

We marveled, as we watched ourselves on film as infants, at how we all survived the seemingly death-trap contraptions of babyhood eras gone by.

The strollers and walkers and cribs and playpens...

Several times throughout the day, my daughter commented that we needed to get together much more frequently as, "I want to learn all the names and get to know these people!"

I have 2 cousins born the same year as I and our conclusion was that, We are becoming the generation that sits and talks and tells stories as the little ones run around and play.

When did that happen?

A note about this photo: I have used this photo before on my blog and have previously commented on how I like this photo...it is funny- the fact that only my Uncle and the dog appear happy. Maybe they know something??!

10 memories of springtime from my childhood

(Me among spring bulb flowers in 1965 and then 10 years later in 1975. The first one at home, the second at the park.)

1. Watching the spring bulb flowers emerge from the cold ground and burst into color and fragrance. My very favorites are Hyacinths. (I have been known to detour from my rushed, planned out route inside the grocery store just to swing through the floral dept and breathe in a big fragrant dose of potted brightly colored Hyacinths!)

2. Being able to run outside to play without having to first bundle up in 5 layers of clothing and coats, mittens, hats etc.

3. Seeing adorable baby bunnies and chicks, and other birds. I always wished we could raise baby chicks. Mom said absolutely not-They grow much too quickly. (Now that I'm a Mom, I have allowed my E. to breed her bunnies several years in the spring.)

4. Being able to wear white shoes again. Who can resist a new pair of white patent leather shoes? I think I may have even tried to sneak wearing mine to bed when I got a new pair. I didn't want to take them off. I'm sure they stayed next to the bed so I could open my eyes and see them first thing in the morning!

5. Taking my bike out for a spin up and down the street after it being banished to the garage all winter.

(1970-Me with my oldest nephew at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Michigan for Easter. He seemed like a little brother since only 6 years divided us. By the way, I loved those t-strap suede Hush Puppy shoes!! Big yarn tied in my hair!)

6. Going to Aunt B's and Uncle J's house and Grandma and Grandpa's house each Easter Sunday. They lived on the same street, which was pretty convenient. As a kid it seemed like a long ride in the back seat to get to their town in Michigan from our house in Ohio. The Easter Bunny would include a new stuffed animal in my candy basket and leave it by my bed so I would find it first thing when I woke up. The new animal usually went in the car with me that day. (In the photo above you can see me holding a rabbit. I still have her. Touching the pink velvet inside her ears still reminds me of that Easter's car ride.)

I had fun playing with my cousins and eating too much candy. We had to save room in our tummies because there were always plenty of good things to eat for dinner. Chairs were gathered from all around the house and pressed into service as we squeezed around the huge table .

( my ink and water color paint art)

7. The arrival of the first fat Robin birds in the yard and watching them take things from the dormant garden to fashion their nests.

8. Springtime break from school meant that when we returned to school it would be a more tolerable amount of time until the school year ended!!

9. Warm rain showers and the smell of the dirt after a quick down pour. The air feels so invigorating!! Jumping in puddles up and down the street and searching for the biggest and deepest puddle.

10. I had a great friend named Joan who lived next door. We would sit on the split rail fence that divided our two yards and play hand clapping rhyme games..."Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack..." and others. We even made up lots of them. When it was springtime, there was a Pussy Willow bush by the fence and we would pick off the soft, fuzzy buds in between hand clapping games-- and then get yelled at by her Mom or mine without fail! Here is where you insert an all-knowing Mom voice = "Are you girls picking at that bush??!" It was too tempting. We couldn't help ourselves.
(I just saw a bush for sale in the garden section of the store the other day when my kids were in tow. I shared this story with them and they thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Mommy getting yelled at for acting mischievously!!!!)

Flash Back- kindergarten delinquent

(me at age 5, 1968)

You've heard, "Everything I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten"?
When I was in kindergarten I was so excited about the prospect of learning how to cut with scissors with precision [ a skill that would lead me to cutting paper snowflakes to be used for a photo shoot at St. Jude's Hospital 40 years later].
I learned how to share toys willingly with everyone [ I was the baby by 8 years and only girl in my family so my toys were usually MY TOYS!].
And how to pay attention when someone was speaking [ I am my Uncle's helper and I now wait very patiently while he sometimes struggles to get a complete sentence out in a hurry].
There was one day in kindergarten that I learned a lesson that engraved a memory into my brain that remains as fresh today as it was in 1968!!
Near the end of a school day, we were all gathered sitting on the floor, my classmates and I, near the upright piano that was probably out of tune. Miss Payment was playing a song- I don't remember the song- and singing along. We were supposed to be singing along. No doubt it was an educational song. Duh! Of course it wouldn't be a Beatles' song for goodness sake!! Anyway, I was not singing along. Nope. Not I. I was socializing. Or as Miss Payment probably stated= not following directions or interfering with my classmates education or being a kindergarten delinquent!!! Surely if this was not nipped in the bud I would follow aimlessly down a path of destruction in my educational career!!
I was taken out of the mix of vocalizing song birds and marched over to the corner. The CORNER! The DREADED CORNER! Yep. I had seen others marched over to the CORNER. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be a child of 5 years so badly behaved that I would be marched over to the CORNER!!
There I was to remain in solitary confinement for the rest of the class time which was no doubt maybe 15 minutes tops. At least this form of cruel and unusual punishment was lessened with the facts that I was allowed a chair and had already eaten my snack at snack time. But oh the humiliation! The stigma of being labeled " a corner sitter"! The agony and stress of those minutes slowly ticking away as I imagined Miss Payment forgetting ME when it came time to line up all my classmates to walk from our detached kindergarten building to where the buses all sat waiting to take home the kindergarten students and all the big students in the main building. I was sure I would have to stay there on the chair in the CORNER all night alone. I would starve! I would not be able to go potty! I would not see my Mom! But Miss Payment would be sorry when she came in the next morning and found me there suffering!! Wouldn't she??
After much angst I was gratefully given a parole. I was allowed to line up with my classmates and go home on the bus. As I obediently stood in line, red faced and teary eyed I was handed my construction paper art project done that day. A giant toothbrush. The bristles were cut in fringy strips with rounded nose scissors. The conditions of my parole= I was not to socialize during song time again.
"Yes Miss Payment, I promise!!"
I know I never did socialize again during song time. Thank goodness the only teacher that ever had a piano in the classroom in any grade was Miss Payment. That would have proved a hard commitment had all my other teachers done educational sing-a-longs on out of tune pianos!!

But then again there was of course Mrs. Hoover the music teacher. She was about 99 years old and had flab under her arms that would swing to and fro when she would clap the rhythmic patterns to teach us music note timing. She always seemed to wear sleeveless dresses - the kind that have a skinny belt made of the same gaudy fabric as the dress. Maybe her girdle was so tight it forced the fat to squeeze up to her arms!...She had a piano...but that's a story for another time!

me and cousins

1964- I am the baby in front holding the Raggedy Ann. It was my first birthday! My cousin B., the baby in the blue shorts, was just a birthday boy again this month!! The rest of the people are my uncle, aunts, cousins and my grandparents (Dad's parents). My Mom was the photographer.
I still have the doll. She was well loved!!

1967- That's me in the red bubble suit in the front. To my left, wearing red shorts, is my cousin B. The rest are cousins and second cousins. I think this is a great photo because of the twisted shorts on the boys!!!! Obviously they "pull to the right" when pulling up their pants. Too FUNNY!

See the nuns in the background? This was taken at one of the many picnic reunions we attended each summer at the orphanage where my Grandma Bubbles and her siblings grew up. The building location changed through the years but it was always run by the same division of nuns.

take time to color

I have a million things to do before tomorrow night's dinner.

I am ready for as few as 8 and as many as 13. No one seems to be able to pin down an RSVP to me this year. That's ok. I will still cook the same amount of food- a lot- because that's the only way I know to cook. I love to cook. Hate to bake. Know what? That's alright too. There are always plenty of bakers among our gang of friends and neighbors. Everyone has their own interests and talents to share.

The million things on the to-do list I have yet to do includes striving to create the magic of the Christmases I remember fondly from my youth. Oh yeah!...and cleaning the house. My favorite saying is "Trying to keep a house clean while the kids are still living at home is like trying to staple Jell-O to a tree!" I wholeheartedly agree. As I often say...my house is clean but rarely tidy. This week it looks like a winter tornado has gone through, what with the boots dripping melting snow and ice in big puddles, the wet mittens hats and scarves strewn along the hearth drying before the fire (FYI N., for the umpteenth time, gloves do not dry when you pull them off inside out with the fingers all bunched up!! Ugh!), coats that no one seems to know how to hang up...and do not even get me started on the toys everywhere. Wanna know a secret? I am actually giving N. a box of toys he hasn't seen for months since I packed them away and put them in "Time OUT" for not picking them up. I have wrapped the box up in Christmas paper. He keeps asking what is in that big box. "Must be something really cool" , he keeps saying!

{ my art}

Then there is all the stuff that came out of A's room months ago so we could repaint and redo her bedroom. The goal was to have it done and back together before Thanksgiving. I told her I would help her if she helped me. Well, when you are a few breaths away from 13 and active in EVERYTHING at school you just do not have time for silly things like doing something you promised your Mother!! So, here it is, past Thanksgiving and a breath away from Christmas and the things are still sitting (all over) in the family room, and on the glassed porch...

Honestly I am tempted to just leave the mess and let the guests (family and friends) see how we really live every day and not just how the house looks when Mom shoves everything in her bedroom at the last minute and declares that room off limits to guests! I told the kids my idea today and they just looked blankly at me and their brain gears were thinking, "Mom wouldn't really do THAT!"- I know because I am good at reading their minds, it's one of those instinctive Mom skills you acquire when they are each born.

{N's art -which I think is much better than mine!}

So what does all this have to do with my title to this post?

Well, in the midst of all my mental preparing to stage the house and make it look right for impending guests, N. asked me if I would color with colored pencils with him. I can not resist the call of my colored pencils

no matter how untidy the house may be.

So what did I do? What could I do?

I colored!

{The inside of N's card. Don't you love his "font"?}

We scanned N's art and made it into a card for my Uncle. This was what he did inside the card. I am Uncle's weekly and year 'round personal shopper. N. tagged along this time since he was off school for winter break. So, added to everything else, which was tugging at my time and hovering deadline, was doing Uncle's regular household shopping. Driving in the holiday traffic on icy roads in single digit temperatures and waiting in check out lines so long you wonder if you've aged while standing still for so long.

Hey wait!, that reminds me. I still have my own shopping to finish for tomorrow night's dinner!

Well, the coloring was fun, anyway!!

We have to seize these opportunities to make magical Christmas memories when ever we can.

wedding

I recently went to a family wedding at Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo. Many of my relatives have been married there, all the way back to the 1940's.

i

It is absolutely breathtaking and each and every time I have been inside it, throughout my life, I am still awe struck. It has so much history and trivia attached to the building- inside and out.

My aunt-in-law was the sacristan there for many years and I always intended to have her give my kids a tour through her eyes and tell all the unknown secrets too. Sadly, she now has Alzheimer's and does not even recognize her 15 kids (yes! 15!!). We waited too long. Do not wait to do things- even simple things- if you know anyone with Alzheimer's!

Everywhere you look inside and out there are wonders to discover!! Imagine all the hours of labor lovingly done by hand. Old buildings are truly the best. New construction is sometimes (in my amateur opinion) done quickly, often devoid of detail and not meant to last.

See the skull up there? I was always told that it was there to keep evil spirits from entering. I do not know if that is true. It could also mean that life is fleeting or it could represent Golgotha- "the place of a skull".

Even if you aren't Catholic this church is a one of those buildings that makes you want to see more and find new details around each corner.

You can take a tour by clicking here and following the directions to see many breathtaking features of the Cathedral.

There is also a blog that shows many, many great photos of the Cathedral. Get yourself something to drink, place it on a coaster next to your key board and settle in for some beauty and history.

This is the beautiful bride and her handsome groom. It was such a memorable day. There were many people attending the celebration.

This wedding cake was beautiful, very unique!!

chairs are fun

Recently I visited my cousin while he was house sitting while my Uncle (his Dad) was out of state. We shared lots of stories about growing up.

I told him about a little red chair I remembered. At our Grandma "Bubbles" house (down the street from my Uncle's house) I used to sit in a little chair-- as a small girl wearing my fancy cute dresses and crinoline slips and patent leather shoes and curled blonde hair.
( It is now naturally curly strangely enough. Maybe an effect of all those torturous years of sleeping in sponge curlers or rolled socks!).

Grandma had a room at the front of the house with lots of windows and, I think, shelves under the windows. Not sure about the configuration of the shelves, but I know that was where she kept her scrap book albums.

Yep and double yep!==Grandma was a woman before her time with the scrapbooking. She would save all the hand written letters I wrote to her- terrible grade school misspellings and all- and every drawn and colored art creation and coloring book page signed and dedicated especially to her that I had ever tossed her way! No need to wonder... I come from a long line of savers!
I remember feeling really proud as I looked at the way she had immortalized my efforts at being a good granddaughter. Incidentally, I have that scrapbook stuff from Grandma's house even now. The stuff I would look at while siting in the little chair at every visit.

Here's where the story gets even better==
I told this story to my cousin and he listened to my ramblings (much like my blog ramblings!). He finally had the chance to get a word in edgewise and seized the opportunity.

"That was probably my Dad's little red chair from when he was a little boy. He told me he used to sit in it to listen to the radio!!
[or listen to radio as it was back then, just as we now say watch TV as opposed to saying watching the TV]
He still has it. It is here in the house. "

I was shocked. Then he said, before I started my rantings again, "Would you like to see it?"

Well, would I like to breath some air is just about the same question in my opinion!!!!!!
I was sooooo excited as he went to the closet and pulled it out. I had to take a picture of it. Had to!!
I only wish there were a photo somewhere of Uncle J. as a little boy sitting in this little red chair listening to radio!!!!!!

Then he showed me some boxes of OLD books that have been in the family for 100 years stacked in another of my Uncle's closets but we did not open any of them. It was like looking into King Tut's tomb in my opinion!!! What treasure undiscovered!!! That's another story for another time...

Speaking of chairs...


Some time ago I bought this cute child size vintage chair (or chairs, depending on how you approach it all) in my travels, and now I am trying to decide what to do. I collect old Raggedy Ann dolls and I can picture them sitting in this.
What do you think?
Keep? Sell? Oh the drama of life! Anyone with any thoughts??
Just one more funny thing to share while on the subject of chairs. I was on the way to taking E. to the Rescue Horse Barn where she volunteers and we passed a huge Edison electrical repair truck. Tucked inside and up on top were two stacked wicker chairs (where they had absolutely NO business being!!!!) as if the guys had found them along the road in some one's trash and couldn't leave the opportunity behind. I wonder what their boss would say about this mode of transport? And hey! I thought I was the only one silly enough to drag home chairs!!

Back to reality

Well, I'm back... and the time sand is running through the hour glass so quickly as I find myself right back into the old routine of sick kids (2 of them!), groceries to buy, laundry to do, homework to keep check of, bills to pay, phone calls to return, a senior citizen who demands to monopolize my time (since the apparent perception is I have nothing else in my life that needs my time), and..................on and on and on.

The best thing is, I can't wait to tell you all about my trip and all about what's new with me.

Meanwhile, my vacation pictures are being held hostage inside my dead battery camera. I am hoping to buy a new battery today while I am out dragging one of the sick kids around with me to do shopping for said senior citizen and maybe sneak in a teensie bit of my own shopping at the same time.

This morning within the first 24 hours of being home everything had settled back into seeming like I had never even left! *sigh*

I have my memories of my time away to escape to in my mind when the stress builds again.

Let me tell you, I am beginning that hike up the stress mountain already!

Hopefully I will be back today to show and tell about my California adventures!! I met someone very fun!!!!!!!!!

The Club Girls

 Don't let the title to this post fool you, these three women were not "night club girls"...
nope, they were three very strict Catholic women. They were also very loving and fun!

They were all part of the same pinochle card club since the 1950's.

This photo was taken at a family wedding reception in the 1980's. 
(Don't the style of eyeglasses just scream 1980s??!)

Left to right:

B's mom.....my mom.....B's mom's sister (she had 15 kids!)

I wrote more about this trio in my post dated June, 6, 2007 titled "My Home Sewn Wedding".

My mother-in law died from cancer 5 months into our marriage. Lots of people complain about their mother-in-law, but I really loved and truly liked mine.

B's dad died from complications of cancer surgery about 3 years into our marriage.

My mom died of cancer about 4 years into our marriage.

I wish they were all still here to see the 3 kids grow up.

There are many times I wish they were here so I could ask advice.