I'm not entirely sure whether the jack-o-lantern or I had fatter cheeks but at least we are both smiling.
After the costume...
My Nana sewed my costume. I think I wore it every year for the next three years. Halloween in Pennsylvania can be either comfortably warmish or freezing cold so it's always a good idea to have a costume you can wear a snowsuit under...or hide an extra huge stash of candy in. This one fits the bill either way.
It's a new year and everyone is looking forward. I'm going to take another trip in the Wayback Machine though. I recently demolished my cell phone. It was dying a slow painful death due to it's inability to hold a charge and one broken hinge on the flip top part of it. I unintentionally euthanized it when I dropped it on the hardwood floor while trying to stealthily sneak into my bedroom at 3:30 am after a middle of the night munchie run with Diana. Yeah, that's a story for another blog post. In fact I had pictures intended for the blog post but they were on the phone that got broken into a couple of pieces. See, I'm even thinking of all of you in the wee hours of the night when I am hungry....but I digress.
In any event, the breaking of the phone got me started on a rant about how things just aren't built to last these days and how my grandparents had this big, heavy black desk phone for about 50 years and the thing worked just fine all that time. If you are of a certain age (which I apparently am since I am writing about this thing) you know what I am talking about, one of those phones you could brain a burglar with and knock him out cold. Try beating a burglar with you iPhone and see what happens. Nothing of value, I tell you. You'll get a broken phone and a burglar who laughs at your feeble attempts to deter him. If for no other reason than as a weapon of self-defense we should all still have those hernia inducing desk phones. Again, I digress.
After pondering the desk phone of old I then mused about my other grandmother's job. She was a switchboard operator for about 30 years or so. How many of you remember switchboards? Ok, so a number of my readers are my age or older and presumably recall these things or at the very least recall Lily Tomlin doing her Ernestine schtick. On occasion my mother would take us to visit Nana at her job. I was always completely amazed by how Nana could have a conversation with us, answer several calls, know where to plug in all those cords, and never miss a beat. I was pretty sure she must be some special kind of genius to be able to keep all that straight. My grandfather always said it was the perfect job for her because (here comes another very dated phrase) she was "vaccinated with a phonograph needle."
So now that I've taken my little trip, tell me, what sorts of technologies or ways of doing things or old phrases which have gone the way of the dodo do you remember?
Back at Thanksgiving I mentioned how there has recently been a bit of resurgence of interest in family interest among my cousins. I have been fortunate enough to inherit the photo albums from both sets of my grandparents. Even so there have been family pictures I never saw before. One of my cousins shared a few she had with my mom who later scanned them to give me copies. One more reason to love technology when it works right. So today I thought I'd share a few of my favorite new findings either because of the picture itself or because of what I learned in the process.
First, allow me to introduce you to my great-great grandfather, Howard. I had never seen a picture of him before. He was a house painter and wall paper hanger. If you recall I have a tremendous aversion to wall paper and have even cursed its inventors. That said, I understand there was a time before latex paint was available when people wanted to be able to change or brighten their decor and wall paper permitted for that far better than oil based paints. Howard sure looks like a serious fellow but I know the family value regarding doing a job well or not doing it at all. I'm sure he was a darned fine paper hanger and painter.
Howard had three sons. I was aware the older two went to work after high school so their younger brother could attend university. What I didn't know was they went to work with their father and carried on the business of painting and paper hanging. The fellow on the left is my great grandfather, John Russel. I have to say this picture makes me grin ear to ear because of the real smiles on their faces. Although I was always taught to do whatever work I had to do as well as I possibly could the family always valued having a bit of fun in the process. I can just imagine these two brothers pranking each other during various jobs and I love the hints of impishness in their eyes. When I found out they had been painters I mentioned to my mom that some of the proud comments the older generation made to me when I spent a summer working as a painter made more sense to me now. I'd like to think great grandpa would be pleased that I know how to cut in a proper line (and take pride in doing so) when I paint a wall.
Here is my great grandmother about whom I have written before. Those memories were of her as an old woman though. It was special to see her as a girl and I really liked that she was smiling in a picture from an era where that was not usually the case. I just thought it made the picture especially charming and lovely. It gave a face to the stories from her own childhood I used to enjoy hearing her tell.
One of the other very few pictures of my great grandmother as a young woman was this one from her wedding day. I tend to remember her as a smiling woman with a good sense of humor but she looks rather serious in this photo. Her body language and the look in her eye seem rather unlike how I think of her as well but perhaps it's just the formality of the particular setting since this was a professional portrait for a momentous day.
