"Lucy Wait and her two children Dorothy and Buddy"

In trying to decide which picture to use for Throwback Thursday this week, I found this picture in my grandmother's photo album.

On the back of the picture she wrote this:

I love the fact that they are sitting on an oil drum! I'm not sure where this was taken, probably in Brattleboro, VT as my father was born there.  My family always called my Dad Bud.  I guess it started early on!

I remember when I was young, in my grandmother's bedroom closet, there were a few photo albums. They were the kind with a leatherette cover and black construction paper pages.  The pictures were attached with black photo corners.  One of them was my grandmother's pictures; pictures of when she was young in Chateaugay, NY, near the Canadian border. There were also pictures of my grandfather, Donald Wait, probably when they started dating.

There was a smaller photo album with pictures of my Aunt Dot when she was young with her church friends and work friends.

There was also a larger album, same type, which was more of a family album.

I loved looking through those albums.  I remember my cousin and I looking through them and laughing at the styles of the clothes.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts some time, maybe in the '80's, Dot took all of the pictures out of those albums (sigh...) and put them in magnetic albums and cut the pictures down to show just the main part of the picture.

I remember going through my grandmother's album, maybe at that time - I don't remember, and asking her who was who. Unfortunately, I didn't write anything down, and I have forgotten who a lot of the people are.

How I wish I had been more interested in old pictures when my grandmother was still here and young enough to remember who the pictures were of.

Throwback Thursday - Saturday night dinner with friends

Another table picture! This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.  The year was 1972, probably in June.  I would have been 7 months pregnant with Kristen.

We were having dinner with our good friends, Danny and Joanie at our (second) apartment in Belden Ct in Agawam.  I would love to know what we had for dinner.  I see hot dog rolls, so probably hot dogs and beans, or maybe macaroni and cheese.  That is the bowl I used for macaroni (Kraft out of the box).  I was pretty good at that by that time (we would have been married for almost 2 years), ha ha!

The funny thing, though, was the fact that Joanie and I were in CURLERS!  I know it was Saturday night and the curlers were for church the next day.

I can't imagine going to friends' house in curlers now.  I can't even imagine using curlers now.

Times sure have changed!

March 2016 Scrapbook Pages

These are some older ones; playing catch up.

Throwback Thursday - Me and Ettie

The year on this picture from my Aunt Dot's photo album is 1953.  That means I was 3, and my aunt Esther (Ettie) was 23.  We were supposed to be posing with the "helicopters" from the maple tree on our noses.  Obviously I couldn't resist sneaking a peak at the photographer, most likely my Aunt Dot.  I'm so thankful for these old pictures!

Throwback Thursday - Me at 11 months

I found this picture in one of my Aunt Dot's photo albums.  I remember, as a kid, going through family photo albums.  There were several of them.  One of them was a large, maroon book with black card stock pages.  The photos were attached by corner stickers that the corner of the picture fit into.  I loved that book.  Some time later, my aunt took that photo album apart and cut a lot of the pictures into smaller pictures, with only the people showing, eliminating the backgrounds.  It must have been the thing to do then because Paul remembers his mother doing the same thing to her photo albums.

I take a lot of close-up pictures, but I also like to get the background in pictures too.  It gives the pictures context, and it's nice to remember things and places as they were.

I think this picture was taken in Greenfield, MA, where my grandfather was from and where some of his family still lived when I was young.  I have seen that wall in Greenfield before, I'm sure.

My next quest is to find that wall, and try to figure out where we were in this picture.  So, you see my point about not having all close-up pictures.  If this picture was cropped, I would never know where it was taken. It's not that important, really, but I like knowing the details of pictures.


***Update.  Paul and I went to Greenfield to try to find where the above picture was taken.  I had a feeling that I knew because I know where this wall is.  The area is a little different now.  We talked to the guy who owns an antique shop next door which, by the way, used to be an Assemblies of God church that I had been to as a kid.  He said that next door to him used to be all grass with a little shack business in the back.  Now that business has a big dirt/paved front and just a little grass.  There are also hedges out near the street.  It's the same place though.

Paul took a picture.  It's a silly picture, I know, but it does show the wall.

This is an old picture of the church next door.  Rev. Ralph Jelley used to pastor it.  He and his wife were friends of my family.  It was 1964 and we were there for someone's wedding.  It is my grandmother, my cousin Lynda, my Aunt Ettie, and my Dad.

This is what the church looks like today.  It is an antique shop.

Everything changes.  Sigh.....

February 2016 Scrapbook Pages

On the blank spot on the bottom I am going to add his baseball card picture.

Prims "Ruls"

I think this is so cute!

Last night in Prims (girls club at my church), some of the girls that got there before me decided to write the "Ruls" out on the board.

1.  Do not stand on chaise (of course they were standing on chairs writing this, LOL).

2.  Do no tack your shoes of with out sox.

3.  Do not throw your Bible.

4.  Do not be jeales.

5.  Do not push.

6.  Do not fight.

7.  No going on the stacked chers.  (We keep the overflow of chairs stacked 2-3 high).

8.  Do not areguw.

9.  Do not climb on toys.

10.  Be good.

11.  Be quiet when the teacher is talking.

These girls are 1st and 2nd graders.  I think they did a great job.  Love these girls!

January 2016 Scrapbook Pages

More Scrapbook pages

My Five (So Far) Phases of Christmas

When I was much younger, I would notice that every year around Christmas time, my mother-in-law Priscilla would get, not quite melancholy, but pensive. When I would ask her about it she would just say that she was thinking about Christmases past. I never really understood it then, but I think I do now.

I was thinking, today, about all of the different Christmas seasons that I have had in my lifetime.

I think it started because we got a new, smaller tree this year. I have to transfer all of my ornaments onto this tree and I am thinking that I will not be able to fit all of them. We have some ornaments that go way back to Paul's grandparents' ornaments, ornaments that Paul bought at Rocky's (where he worked while he was in college) our first married Christmas, ornaments that the kids made for us and gave us over the years, some that I made in my craft years (that didn't last long), and now ornaments that we exchange every year with the family by picking names. In 1996 we went from a big tree to a table top tree. I tried to pick our favorite ornaments of every different type. We also have boxes of Christmas ornaments and decorations that we don't use anymore. It seems each year I put up less and less.

It came to me that I have had five phases of Christmas, so far.

Phase One is Christmases of my childhood. Most years it was at our house with everyone coming for the day, and my cousins coming for a few days. Sometimes we would go to wherever my Uncle Bob was pastoring.


1956

1957

1958

1965

1966

Phase Two was when I started dating Paul and our first couple of years together without children. Christmas was very romantic at that time. We were starting to gather our own Christmas decorations and traditions.



1967

1970 - Paul and my first married Christmas tree

1971

Phase Three was when we had little children. This was an exciting time - dressing them up and bringing them to church festivities and having them excited about Santa. We were still going to our families' houses for Christmas, and also traveling to Paul's aunts and uncles' homes, and also his Grandmother's family in the Boston area.



1974

1975

1976

Phase Four was when we started having Christmas at our house (I'm not positive but some time in the late 70's) and all that that entails - getting the house decorated, Christmas shopping for the kids for ourselves and also our families (they never knew what to buy the kids; it was just easier for me to do it), having dinner at our house, and then still visiting relatives on different days. It was a busy time, but I loved it. This phase also included having married children and grandchildren. Everyone still came for dinner; the house was still fully decorated even though we went to a smaller tree.



1979

1987

1992 Our $5 cut tree from someone's front yard

1992 What the tree looked like decorated - it was huge!

1994 Another $5 cut tree from the same yard

2004

2005

2005

2005

2007

2010

2011

Now, I feel like I am in Phase Five. Most of the older generation is gone, except for Paul's dad, and my aunt Dot. Mark and Janelle have taken over the holidays, for which I am grateful. They bought a house in the beginning of November 2012. I had Thanksgiving at my house that year, but then my Dad died in December, and they had Christmas at their house. Janelle's parents had been joining us for Christmas for quite a few years, and Stacia and I do a lot of the cooking but I don't have the meal and the opening of presents at my house anymore.



2012

Mark and Janelle's tree

2013

2014 Holiday Brunch at Dot's nursing home

This is my cousin Lynda and her husband Ray at their home in Delaware

2015

I haven't decorated my smaller tree yet this year, so I don't have any pictures.

This is the first year that I haven't had my aunt Dot over for the holidays. It is just too confusing for her (and truth be told, for us too). This Thanksgiving we had her over the next Sunday with the family, and this seemed to work out really well. I plan to do that for Christmas too.

A lot of these phases have overlapped at certain times, but I see a pattern here. I totally understand now what my mother-in-law was feeling. Christmas is still wonderful no matter what phase you are in, just different. The key is to remember past Christmases but still enjoy the present one.