Another Round

Since I have been posting from the vaults, please permit me another round. For all I know, I have posted some of these previously, but since they were more or less ready to go, and I'm in a bit of a rush, here they are. I really just want to post something today because I won't likely be able to for several days. They are all from 1976 0r 1977 as near as I can determine and are presented in possible sequential order.



↑↑ Thesha with our dog. Other than Susie, we've been a cat family. Thesha was reading in our sunporch, which had to be closed off in the cold weather. The couch in the background was a wedding gift from my parents seven or eight years before the picture was taken.

↓↓ Thesha with her grandmother, apparently near Mom's in May of 1976.




↑↑ My dad, the girls' grampa, possibly also taken on grandma's birthday weekend.

↓↓ Grandma reading Thesha a story. I think that same book is on the shelf behind me right now. Sometimes, I read it to Nikki Dee.




↑↑ We went to Centre Island in Toronto with some relatives. Thesha was quite intent on her driving.

↓↓ A horseback ride on that same day. Her cousin is on the next horse.

Another Oldie from the Vaults ...

... or The Floor rather

We had a split-second power outage last night, which fried my surge protector. As I was unplugging it this morning, I found this slide on the floor, so I decided to scan it on the spot. It's of Thesha with my mother in 1973 at Centennial Park in Sarnia when she was about a half year old. It always stops me short to realize that mom was younger then than I am now. And she seemed so old at the time.

Fixing the Past

I haven't done too much photo restoration lately, and, in point of fact, I have never done enough to become proficient, but here is a recent scan of Cuppa sitting on Santa's lap in the early fifties.



And here's my attempt at restoration.



I did this for her birthday, just last week. I had greater ambitions, perhaps a collage, but when push came to shove, this is the only photo that I got scanned and fixed.

Keepsakes from 1972

When I found these two photos in my treasure trove, I was happy because it saved me taking two more photos. For every now and then my glance rests on these two mementos that we still keep from the days of Thesha's birth, and I had been planning to mention them anyway.

The flowers that I purchased for new mom Cuppa were those second from the right (above). That rather feminine vase was the cheap vase that they came in, but it has adorned my bureau top ever since — for thirty-six years now.

Below: I bought my new baby a pink teddy bear, and that has remained with us too although it hasn't received a place of honour. In the photo, from left to right, is Thesha's maternal line: grandfather, grandmother, mother, teddy bear, and great grandfather, who fought at Vimy Ridge in WWI and lived to be 105.



They're just objects (the vase and teddy bear, I mean), but when I notice them, my memory banks flicker on, and I briefly revel in the nostalgia.

Foto Friday

It's becoming more and more redundant to call today Foto Friday because just about every day is photo day here at Raindrops. Yesiree! Photos all day, every day. Step right up and ... well, nevermind.

Since Sare had her baby and Thesha is getting close, I was pleased to stumble on these snapshots of newborn AG from 1978. Among other things, it was a kinder and gentler time. I don't about where you live, but around here, women and babies are generally sent home on the very next day. Contrast that with Cuppa who was in for five to seven days with her two deliveries, and there were no complications, at least of a serious nature. It's not always better now, eh?




Woohoo. Since I pre-posted the above, I found a few of baby Thesha. Equal treatment and all that. FYI, Althegal (above) was born in the late seventies, and Thesha (below) early in the decade.





I almost want to caption the next and final caption as "Poor Kid." because her father looks like a wild hippie. Well, it was 1972 after all.

Then and Now

I was about thirty years old when we lived in a big, old house. It was a full two storey place with a full, walk-up attic. So it was pretty high at the top and needed painting, but I didn't then and still now don't love ladders. Fortunately, neither did my neighbour, but he was an old hand who knew enough to order scaffolding rather than use a ladder to paint his place. When he was done, I continued to rent the stuff for mine. Although I didn't exactly love the scaffolding either, I could tolerate it ... and could even pretend for the benefit of the camera that I was confident and happy up on the roof, and I was actually doing okay to be honest. On the other side of the house, I even managed to replace the eavestroughing (gutters) all by my little, old self, and for those who know me that's a remarkable feat.


As I contemplate these old pictures, I am struck by the fact that I am a different person in them. I think that as we, or at least I, go through life, we think of ourselves as the same person now as we were then, only modified slightly. However, seeing the scaffolding and me on the roof and also looking pretty darn young in some of the old photos that I've been sorting through, I am now thinking that it's more than that. Perhaps, we're not simply modifications of our former selves but somewhat different beings, the one evolving, or perhaps mutating from the other, of course. I don't know if that's quite what I mean to say or how I mean to say it, but I imagine that you friends understand what I'm driving at.

Another Piggyback

The other day I remembered a certain picture that I would like to use in a blog and asked Cuppa in what album I might find it. She pointed me not towards an album but towards the big box of unlabelled slides. I soon gave it up then but have decided that if I plod bit by bit, I can better organize the box. So, I grabbed a set or two yesterday and looked through them and was hooked enough to stop and scan a pic or two. Since I have recently posted photos of Nikki Dee and Thesha on my shoulders, I was pleasantly surprised to find this one of Althegal or AG.



AG was never fond of the rough and tumble like Thesha and now Nikki Dee. But here at around the age of five, she sits on my shoulders with some sort of strange hat on her head.

Somehow it pleases me to find this particular, long forgotten photo. We were very close during her childhood years.

A Little Lesson

Sometimes, something is much, much better than nothing. This frame was one of my Christmas gifts last year; at least I think it was for Christmas.



It seemed like a fitting gift for someone who likes to dabbles with photographs, especially if working with older photos is part of the hobby.

But it sat in my cupboard until last night when for some reason I decided that I should stay up until midnight after a busy weekend and do something useful with it. So, I grabbed six photos, mostly of my grandparents.

It wasn't what I intended while I was letting the frame sit empty in my cupboard for eleven months. I had intended to extend back to great grandparents and onward to grandchildren. But one can only do so much with only six spots to fill, and I wanted to do something, so here it is (again).



That's my paternal grandmother with my father in the top left and with me bottom centre. My paternal grandfather is top left and also top center with me and my dad. Bottom left: with my one and only uncle (Dad was an only child and Mom just had one brother who didn't marry). Bottom right: with my maternal grandfather and his dog, Skippy. My maternal grandmother didn't make it into this mix; she died when I was two years old. Photos do exist, but I haven't scanned any yet; I simply used some that I had already processed.

As I said, it's not what I had intended, but it's a whole lot better than hiding empty in my cupboard. I guess there's a lesson there (I'm still learning them). Sometimes, something is better than nothing; you can't always wait on perfection because you might be waiting for an awful long time.