The Way We Were Wednesday - Bees

The wood box, with the glass face, was known as an observation hive.  As this one was, they could be closed and moved around, or they could be connected to the outside, I have seen permanent installations that were five times the size of this.  I have written before about my father and grandfather being beekeepers.  I displayed bees one year at the county 4-H fair. Having live bees in the exhibit hall made a few people nervous, but came off without an issue.  I still have the best in class ribbon from that year. 

Have you seen an observation hive? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Inauguration Day In Washington DC

 This is my fourth inauguration day, that I have lived in the Washington DC area.  I moved here, and started a job just around the corner of the White House in late 2008, just before the Obamas moved into a hotel just down the street from my office.  I actually did a seperate blog about the new neighbors.  At that time I posted that happiness is moving vans at the White House, oh how that feeling is amplified today.  

The west front of the Capital is the sight of the swearing in to of the new President and Vice-President.  The stands are built for every election, planned and started before election day.  In recent history the inauguration has been moved indoors once due to foul weather, and Barack Obama took the oath a second time at the White House, as the Chief Justice messed up the words the first time. 

The Reviewing Stands in 2008, in front of the White House, a five minute walk from my desk at the time. 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Christmas Memories

This would have been my second christmas, my sister says the doll was mine.  My father loved the aluminum Christmas free, no lights and no needles.  My mother wanted lights, and electric lights on a metal tree were not recommended.  I have at least one of the ornaments from that tree.  When we were cleaning out Dad's house after he died, I grabbed a little santa figurine out of the glass cabinet in the dining room.  I thought it was something my mother had picked up after they retired to Florida.  Then I scanned this slide, and sitting there on the front corner of the TV, is the santa figurine.  Connections across a lifetime.   
 

The Way We Were Wednesday - My First Christmas

 I was born in August, this would have been when I was less than a year old.  I don't see a cable release, and this was before cameras with self timers, I suspect my Aunt Edith took the picture.  She was good. When my father upgraded to an Argus c3, he gave her his first 35mm camera.  I bet it is still in the house in Florida.  I have vague memories of the sofa with the square arms, there was a green one that followed it.  

Did I grow into the ears? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Middle Brother

 Last week was my oldest brother.  This week my middle brother.  He will be 67 or 68 in December.  He called me recently, he calls a few times a year.  I prepare his tax returns, so I am sure to hear from him every spring.  When he calls, he often wants to talk, needs to talk.  I was surprised when he called.  He was on traveling to attend the wedding that I missed.  I was surprised that he was going to the wedding (I watched the wedding on Facebook.) 

I was really surprised when he announced that he has decided to retire in February, the day after his 43rd anniversary working for the Walt Disney Company.  That is right 43 years with one employer. I can remember when he first started.  He was on the hose and broom crew for a couple of weeks, scrubbing the streets of the Magic Kingdom - he hated it because it was wet and dirty, then he cleaned the windows on the Monorails for a couple of years - he loved that because he was able to touch and crawl all over the monorail cars.  He then worked in the warehouses for a few years, then his fantasy came through, Disney trained him drive trucks.  He has spent the past 30 years driving trucks for Disney.  Well most of the past 30 years, he spent a few months back the warehouse after he drove a 12 foot tall truck under a bridge with 11 feet of clearance.  Eventually he was forgiven and put back on the truck.   

I am very happy for him.  He had been saying for years that he was going to work until he was 70.  His health is not perfect, if he retires now he can enjoy life.  He says he wants to travel, see things he has never seen.   

Do you know anyone who has been 40+ years with one employer? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Dad's Flying Buddies

 How does me in the Dentist's chair recently (actually scheduled for later today, to have a crown rebuilt) connect with Dad's flying buddies.  My father met some really wonderful people at the airport.  Flying being a bit of an expensive hobby, there were a fair number of professionals and successful business people.  Among the professionals were a couple of dentists.  My father's two part logic, if they were good pilots they had to be good dentists, and because he knew them they wouldn't overcharge. I don't know about the overcharging part, though I don't think they cut him a deal, they were much better pilots than dentists. They never crashed their planes or left anyone in pain when they were flying.  I can't say the same for all of their skills.  

My current dentist is very talented.  He is careful, and gentle.  He is calming and reassuring.  I don't know where in the world he is from, but it is not here.  He came to the USA to earn a masters degree in biology, was working as a lab tech.  He was visiting family one weekend when he cracked a tooth.  Someone called a friend who was a dentist, who saw him on a Saturday evening, fixed it, convinced him that it could be done gently.  He applied to dental school, quit his job, and answered his calling.  

He is worth waiting to see.   

**************

Breaking news, with an update.  I have now experienced my first root canal.  It took two hours, it was described as calcified and twisted. Not painful, but long, and some very unique sounds and vibrations. Leave it to me, to have the complicated mess that the laser scanner and half-million dollar machine can't make a crown for, I am back in two or three weeks to have the permanent crown glued in place.      

The Way We Were Wednesday - School Photos

 When coming back from my morning wander in the swamp, I often drive up the along the river in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.  If I go to the troll park*, I pass a Catholic School.  On a recent morning this was happening on the front lawn. 

Socially distanced, school photos in the open air, on the front lawn.  Very different from the dark hallways that our school photographer preferred to set up in.  I remember the corduroy shirt with the rawhide lacing.  It was soft and warm and I chewed on the ties.  As I recall, much my mother's horror I wore it for school photos two years in a row.  

Do you have any good school photos? 

* The troll park is under a bridge, not a place I go to troll. 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Running

 I ran for about a decade, starting in my late 20's.  There was a nice running series in central Florida.  I ran 4 or 5 mornings a week, and about 20 Saturdays a year, I would go off to a race.  This was taken at a 10K in downtown Orlando.  There are good reasons why I stopped running, but I have to admit I do miss it.  I miss the time alone, without interruptions.  I miss seeing the landscape at 4 or 5 miles per hour, with nothing between me and the wind.  I miss the magic of movement.  I am glad I ran before everyone seemed to be plugged into headsets.  

I am getting some of that back with my morning walks along the river.  Time alone, with just my thoughts, seeing the world one on one.  But the magic of movement isn't the same. 

Are you a runner or former runner? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - London 1990 - How Can it be 30 years already

 My first international trip was in late May early June, a week in London.  It is hard to believe it has been 30 years, and somehow I missed this milestone on my blog.  This is at the end of Downing Street, I didn't have an appointment to see Maggie and she was busy. I was near my running peak at that time, a 32 in waist. We stayed in a hotel in Hammersmith, I have fond memories of running along the Themes in the early morning. The camera is a Cannon AE1 program, with a power winder.  Most likely it had my favorite 24mm lens on it.  This photo was taken with a compact 35mm - a door prize at a Christmas party.  

What was your first big adventure? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - The Elf on My Shelf

 I have had this elf since the early 1960's.  I thought he was long lost, and stumbled across him recently when sorting through a box of flotsam from years ago.  It has history.

Richard proposed to my Aunt Edith at Christmas of about 1962 or 1963.  A friend of his mother took an egg carton and filled the cells in it with Christmas decorations, including this little elf, and a diamond ring.  I was ring bearer in their wedding the following spring.  The following Christmas she gave me one of this elf.  I treasured it, brought it out every Christmas for years.  Now it resides in the glass fronted bookcase in my bedroom.  

Isn't he sweet? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Picnic Time

 This one is from before my time.  On the left is my paternal grandmother.  The taller woman on the right is my mother.  On the end in the hat is my paternal grandfather.  I recognize the enameled metal cake carrier it was my grandmother's.  There is a jar of French's mustard.  No idea what the event was.  A glimpse into the early to mid 1950's.   

The Way We Were Wednesday - Simple Wood Boat

 This is my oldest brother, in my grandfather's boat. A classic wood boat.  The boat was gone before I came along, there were later small metal boats.  Most likely this was a small lake in Michigan.  Both of my grandfathers liked to fish.  My paternal grandfather thought boats were cumbersome and expensive, my maternal grandfather owned several small simple boats.  He wanted to get out on the water where there was no one around.  

Any early boat memories for you? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Playgrounds

 I have no idea who the child in the swing is, my father took this one before I was born.  I love the shade, the color, the tone, the moment captured in time.  Those wood box swings, can you imagine the scream about safety.  

I have simple memories of playgrounds as a child.  Swings, slides, walking slowly, looking at the place and time.  

Any idea who she grew up to be? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - To The Moon

I remember the Apollo launches, the first landing on the moon, Neil Armstrong's words as he first stepped onto the moon.  I was across the river from the space center for the first shuttle launch.  I watched with great interest two months ago the SpaceX launch of astronauts from the USA for the first time since the shuttle stopped flying.  

The Way We Were Wednesday - The Future is Changed by the Past

My grandfathers had lots of brothers, this is one my father's father's brothers, a great uncle of mine.  He was born early enough to have survived two World Wars, the 1919 flu epidemic, and the great depression.  It changed him.  My father described how he would turn a tea cup around and drink out of the spot by the handle, because no one else drank from there.  Thinking about living through what he had lived through, that was not such strange behaviour, it was an attempt at self preservation in the era that he was a young man.  

The experiences of this year, will change us, 100 years from now our descendants will  talk about how strange we were, unless they understand the experiences that we have lived through.   

The Way We Were Wednesday - Great Aunt Edith

This was my great-aunt Edith.  She was my paternal, maternal-grandmother's, father's sister.  Her first job, as a child really, was in a woolen or cotton mill, then she worked as a maid, and housekeeper in grand English homes, think Downton Manner. She immigrated to the USA, she was housekeeper for part of the Firestone family in the 1930's when my aunt was born (my father spent a month living with her and playing with the Firestone kids, to get him out of the house when his sister was born.)  After the War, she moved to Miami, lived there until late in life, then lived with a Niece in northern Indiana for the rest of her life.  She was a sweetie, never married, kind of makes me wonder after all of these years.    

She is standing by one of my grandfather's all time favorite Mercury's. From the time new cars became available after World War II, until he quit driving in the 1970's he bought a new Mercury every other year.  He had two of them, this white one and blue on that had the "breezeway" back window. The rear window, went down behind the seats. The only "power windows" he ever owned.  He was greatly disappointed when Ford stopped offering that option.  

The Way We Were Wednesday - The Farm

In the middle of World War II, my grandfather bought a farm, about 60 miles due north of Detroit. He needed to move the bees out of the city, and he was a farm boy at heart.  In the early 1950's after my two older brothers had been born, my parents packed in life in the city and moved out to the farm. The redhead on the left is my oldest brother, I am not sure who the other kid is.  They are sitting on the cover for an old well, that was filled in by the time I was their age, though the concrete wall remained, my grandmother planted it with flowers every summer.  The barn is still there.  My father traded away that pick-up truck in 1965, the dealer gave him $50 in trade for it.  

After a year or two in the old farm house, this picture was taken in the back yard of the farm house, my parents built a small house around the corner, actually about 500 feet behind the barn, that is where they were living when my sister and I were born, where I grew up.  

The Way We Were Wednesday - Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?

The year I finished high school and left home, my father bought his first new Buick.  The first of many.  He had driven used cars for decades, some nice, some functional, all of them affordable.  The Buick was the first time he went out and bought what he wanted, done the way he wanted it.  As I recall he paid an astonishing $7,000 for it.  This picture was taken a couple of years later, my parents had moved around the corner to the old farm house.  The Dodge pick-up truck in the background, was fun, it had a massive V-8 in it, put your foot to the floor and it would spin the rear tires for about 500 feet.  

Back to the Buicks.  My father's mother moved into assisted living late in her life when she decided it was time to give up driving.  One morning she was not feeling well, and my father went to take her to the doctor in what was probably a 3 or 4 year old Buick (it was his third or forth one.) She remarked, "you've had this one a long time, why don't you take some of my money and buy a new one."  She died three weeks later, a month after that he bought another new Buick, not the last one, he bought his last new car about 5 times. 

He enjoyed cars, it was good to see him finally buying what he wanted, instead of what he needed. Well there is the story of the Lincoln that he lusted over and came close to owning.  Another day, 

Any family car stories? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - John and George

My guess is this was taken at first John's wedding, he was my grandmother's much younger brother, standing there with his father, my paternal-maternal great-grandfather George.   My great grandfathers on my fathers' side died around the time I was born, I know them only through pictures.  

John was my grandmother's favorite sibling, she had an older brother, and much younger sister (Floss) and brother (John).  John I met several times, he was a very dignified gentleman. The marriage didn't last for reasons I never knew, nor did his second marriage (her alcoholism and his temper ended that one.)  He had three children, a daughter who the last I knew was in California, and twin boys about the age of my oldest brother.  The last I knew the twins were in Michigan. 

John was a manager for an international firm. Back in the 1970's they were building a truck assembly line in Poland.  Things were not going well, and they sent him over to check on things.  When he returned to New York, he said, "we will never get this thing finished unless we pay bribes to the suppliers.  His colleagues were aghast and a couple of them were on a plane to Poland the next week to prove him wrong.  Two weeks later they returned to New York, withdrew $200,000 in cash, packed it in briefcase and sent John back to Poland for two months to finish the job.  Apparently US dollars made the ideal "gift" to delivery drivers in Poland.  

He had a a lifetime of stories like that.  I wish I had more opportunities to listen to them.  

He should have written a book. 

What would the opening chapter of your book be about?  

The Way We Wednesday - Mom and my brothers

This was taken in the middle 1950's after my parents moved out to the farm and before my sister and I were born.  My middle brother in the black, looks happy and relaxed.  My older brother is shading his eyes, or trying to hide.  Mom has that questioning look on her face, a look we all came to know well.