I love this old blue truck on the green grass, with old cotton gin behind. This was taken at the Shack Up Inn, in Mississippi 4 years ago. Old sharecropper's houses were turned into rental cabins. The cotton gin had hotel rooms. In the evening you could enjoy live Blues in the old Commissary. It was a great place, with a blue truck that I adore. Truck Memories: My sister's green '54 Chevy... An orange "highway service" truck that my dad used for work one summer. We kids played in the truck bed ... Riding in the back of a truck pulling a trailer of canoes, on bumpy gravel roads in the Missouri Ozarks... Don's '73 Chevy truck that picked me up for our first date...
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Today is our 37th anniversary! This wasn't exactly our engagement photo. It was a photo taken by a friend who wanted to paint a portrait of us for a wedding gift... another story. I love the photo because it's a reminder of how dang young (and lucky) we were. I was 21 and Don 24 when we became engaged. We had dated 4 months and were married 6 months later. Yep, we were in love, but there was some good luck on our side! Some of those Early Dates: January date to go lap swimming... getting together to build a newspaper kite (which failed).... Trout fishing with overall waders... Cross-country skiing and a winter picnic... Second date was during a blizzard to the only restaurant open and I had to drive the truck while Don pushed us out of a small snowbank!
Today is our 37th anniversary! That's something to cheer about. Here's the photo of us walking down the aisle at Washington University's, Graham Chapel in 1979. The photo always makes me laugh, because our expressions make us look like a couple, that would be lucky to stay married a year. I look slyly proud that I got my man. Don looks like he's being dragged. I was aware of Don's serious expression as we walked, and I whispered. "You need to smile..." When we walked out through those beautiful doors into the sun, Don broke into a giddy grin. I laughed, "You're smiling now! Didn't you hear me?" "Oh," He answered. "I thought you were telling me to hurry up!" Other Funny Things in Photo: My open toe shoes... Don's big bow tie... The white bow on the pew, reminding me that my mom, sibs & I were decorating the church that morning... No one in photo is looking at us or taking cell phone photos!
Gotta love pictures of kids and kisses. I like this one, because I happen to like this father and son team. Don and Scott recently spent some time together in Lake Tahoe and that makes me pretty happy. Scott had to head back to New Orleans Monday, but now I will take his place... as was the plan 6 months ago. My window between treatments, miraculously allows for this! I'll be there later today and our anniversary is tomorrow. I'll kiss to that! Kid Kisses: Butterfly kisses with eye lashes on cheeks... Little ones learning how to blow kisses... Slobbery, but sweet baby kisses... "Eskimo kisses" we used to do with our noses... Innocent babies kissing each other!
This photo was taken in fall of 2003. It was my first time seeing Central Park since I was 6. I had fond memories of the climbing on the Alice in Wonderland statue and playing with a toy sailboat in the pond. It was fun having my own kids enjoying the very same park, so many years later. City Parks I LIke: Forest Park in St. Louis, where the 1904 World's Fair was held... Woodward Park in Tulsa when azaleas are blooming... Balboa Park in San Diego with Spanish Colonial Revival Buildings... Boston's Public Park with the iconic swam boats...
My foot is covering the glasses, but we did have some kind of beverage as we sat on the porch of our rental trailer. 3 years ago, Don and I were the least hip of all the hipsters, staying at El Cosmico in Marfa, TX. We had a mighty fine time, sitting and watching other "campers" moving into teepees and trailers nearby. Evening chats with a snack and drink are a treat anywhere. Happy Hours: In Tulsa, in the backyard with neighbors and kids... Hacienda Restaurant in St. Louis in the 1980's... "Mari de Villa" where my grandma Daw lived and drinks were served with a little piano entertainment... On cold evenings, at home on the couch with a fire...
This was taken last fall at Glacier National Park. It was just after sunrise and we were lucky to have a clear day. The staff at the lodge complained about a summer of wildfires and bad air quality. At sunset the night before, servers and staff joined guests outside, snapping sunset photos. All were equally enjoying the reflections in the lake. Good Reflections: When kids discover their faces, reflected in a spoon... Those rare moments in a dressing room when the mirror reveals something good... I love spotting people eyeing themselves in window glass reflections... Seeing still water reflections, suddenly distorted by a tossed rock... More than once I've been sure someone was staring at me, only to realize the stranger was my reflection in a nearby, store mirror. I love sharing that relief and laugh with my mirror image!
I think of hammocks as relaxing, calming, lazy and peaceful. I know a few people who are scared of them. At least Heidi and Scott didn't have to worry if this one broke, since they were practically touching the ground. But I love the photo and how it reminds me of lazy, summer days when the kids were home... and Molly still got her soft ears stroked. It's 90 degrees today. Too hot for the hammock! Hammock Times: Sleeping in a hammock in my sister's apartment in 1975... Two year old Heidi, taking her nap on an island, in a hammock stretched between 2 palms... Laying back in the hammock pictured above, at night watching stars and even fireworks... Messing and failing with hammocks on camping trips...
This little shed selling fresh eggs, woven baskets and jam was so much more than just a roadside stand. It was an opportunity to engage with the Amish culture... just a little bit. It was in upstate New York a few summers ago and I was totally thrilled to tell the 2 young sisters that it had been my dream as a child to live with an Amish family. They giggled and I left with many homemade goodies! Roadside Memories: Buying a basket from a sweet woman in the Missouri Ozarks. She fell in love with Baby Heidi and gave her a rag doll... My sister and I stopped along the road in Arkansas and bought a jar of honey from a man in overalls... Also in Arkansas, Don and I stopped with our kids to watch a man at work with a chainsaw and ended up buying a chainsaw bear... Another Amish experience, but this one in the snow. I chatted with the bearded man and his horse and bought cookies and bread...
I look like I'm taming a wild one in this photo. But all our family boxers were sweeties...from Mac to Ted. My sister and I mostly tended to cats in our growing up years. Our dogs were family pets, with my younger brother always becoming the most attached. Growing up with animals was an empowering thing. It felt good to feel some control in their care... even though most of our pets had minds of their own. Pets I Tended: Astro Bunny, who nursed off our mama cat. She was the only pet that was all mine... I took Casey to doggie school as a preteen and was mortified to be in charge of the most ill-behaved beast in the class... Jenni and I took turns cleaning the cat box and cleaning the endless cat accidents... Tending to numerous kitten births, back when "fixing pets' wasn't thought of... and I owned a turtle for a day, but left him on the swing set...
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