Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

June 9, 2012

No Memory

I was over at Sharon's and she had some photo albums in the kitchen, that she was going to bring back down to Diane in Maryland.  I had my camera in the car so I decided to browse through the albums and shoot pictures of the pictures.  

I came across a few that were obviously taken on the same night, at a party my parents had in the coop.  Based upon the furniture and the Christmas stuff on the walls and windows, it had to be from December 1971. Back then, the heat and water were kept turned on in the coop all winter because my mom was a Camp Fire Girls Leader, and our meetings were held in out there, during the school year.  

Left to right:  Uncle Yim & Aunt Glady Wilkowski, my mom in the groovy pantsuit, Aunt Evelyn in the yellow and Irene Edquist.  Glady & Evelyn are sisters; Irene is Aunt Eve's daughter and Sha & Di's mom.   The Edquists and Aunt Glady & Uncle Yimmy always came up from New York, from Christmas through New Years.  

My parents.  I'm still wondering what possessed my mom to buy that pant suit.

Aunt Eve & Uncle Dick.

Irene & Hal Edquist.

Dear friends of the family, Gene & Carol Morrow.

Mom & Dad, Carol & Gene.  See the cigarette in Gene's hand?  It should be noted that of all the adults in these photos, my dad and Hal were the only non-smokers. All of us kids were raised around copious amounts of second hand smoke.

I was surprised to see this one of me, Sharon & Diane as part of the set of pictures from that night.  I have ZERO memory of it.  ZERO.  And clearly it was a night to be remembered, based upon the happy faces depicted in these photos.  I had just turned 7, Sharon was about to turn 9 and Diane was 6-1/2.  

Obviously there was music if Sharon & I were dancing.  How is it that I have no memory of this at all?  And where were the Morrows' kids, Marybeth, Gene & baby John?  Why weren't they here?

Why don't these photos jog my memory?  I wish they did.  :-(

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:04 AM

    My mother has boxes of family photos. I keep thinking we need to sit down and 'identify' them all before it's 'too late'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You really take after your mother.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diane, that would be a very good idea!

    VALERIE BITE YOUR TONGUE!!!! lol Everyone says I look like my dad!

    ReplyDelete
  4. the seventies look is, to put it politely, distinctive - dig the pant suit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's lovely looking at old photos again and thinking back to days of youth.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:17 PM

    I hope the "uncle and aunt" titles for Glady and Yimmy were just for familiarity for a young child since there really are no relation to us...being Aunt Evelyn's relations and she married into the family. To tell you the truth I don't think I ever met them though my parents knew them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cookie, is that you?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love looking through old photos, and my mother took pictures of everything. I don't remember a lot of thing from back then, but it's always fun to check them out.
    Valerie
    Everyday Inspired

    ReplyDelete
  9. Since I can't respond to your comment at my place yesterday with email (hint, hint...) I guess I'll read another post ;-)
    My mom is also a helicopter parent. She never was growing up. Quite the opposite. She left me at gymnastics more times than picking me up at time. Mind you, this was EVERY NIGHT, always done at 8, she was ALWAYS LATE. My poor coach was always late getting home, too. However, it forged a friendship that shaped my life and we kept in touch until I left college.
    However, now she lives 1.8 miles away (I had the first grandchild, they'd always said they'd retire in CO, and of all the gorgeous towns along the Front Range, they chose mine. I'm glad. I do have to be really firm with my boundaries with her or she'd watch every mouthful of food I eat and every morsel I allow to pass my children's lips. She's a nutrition nazi, and that's a new thing in the last 20 years. I kept thinking it would go away. Nope.
    Now, as to pictures triggering memories, I was lucky to have her - papparazzi is her nickname. We have thousands of pictures of us growing up, of our kids growing up, etc. She's a scrapbooker, so I have wonderful, themed spreads she's labored over. So far, the pictures usually trigger a memory, but like you, there are some blanks. I just don't think we have enough storage to remember it all. Or at least not the right search engine, as we age. I'l be 47 this summer...and speaking of summer, you and I are kindred spirits. I'm going to play along with your meme for my post today.

    Tina @ Life is Good

    ReplyDelete