Month: January 2015

Trotting At Ollie Trout’s Trailer Park

Miami, FL 1938 "This Fabulous Century" Time Life
Miami, FL 1938

Slow dancing, swaying to the music at a pre-war Sunshine State trailer park sounds Grrrrr-REAT to me right about now. This January weather does not suit me.

Cold + windy = evil

The bystanders look bored to tears, or just plain miffed. Maybe they ran out of rum?

MiamiFlorida1938006

Secrets Of A Parson, Part III

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And the last secret is: Just do it.

Even after “a long and busy Monday,” just do it. Because Emory Harner won’t turn 94 again. In fact, Harner passed away the year after this article was published, in 1942. And everyone needs to feel special.

http://www.findagrave.com/
http://www.findagrave.com/

Secrets Of A Parson, Part II

LifeFeb41Window-058Never catch a sister unawares: the first ministerial lesson to be learned. Perhaps most brothers were at office jobs while Dr. Briggs made his daily round of pastoral visits to (mostly female) parishioners. To prevent a surprise visit, he would park his sweet 1930s ride in front of each home and faux tinker with the car to give housekeepers time to tidy up. That’s a thoughtful, if not exhausted, parson. It’s the little things that make a difference.

And on a purely aesthetic note, isn’t this a gem of a literal window inside the life of a person in 1941? So warm and serene in the home, so placid and white with snow outside. How comforting it must have been to know someone thought enough of you to drive to see you each day. Even a kind word from a milk man or mailman must have made the day of someone confined to his home. I have read that as you age, you begin to feel invisible, and just a gesture of conversation could serve to validate your existence. I raise my coffee mug to each of you today, validating your worth and purpose in existence!

 

Reasons To Join Spanish Club, Part Dos

Hononegah68-011These are the four Spanish Club officers, who would probably not be happy that Conquistadores was misspelled in the yearbook.

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However, their agenda confirmed the divertido that they were having. Mucho divertido!

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Supporting The Shot

Hononegah68-004These strapping lads (okay, these two strapping lads and Kenny) display the most useful part of their shot put competition. I myself have never cast stones, but I imagine it takes a strong back to do so. These Illinois boys of ’68 would surely not chance it now.

 

We’ve Been Having Fun All Summer Long

Swim006

Is it me or does the guy on the right look as if he could be the great-grand-kin of Ron Swanson? So manly, standing like Moses parting the Red Sea, except in his unblemished white skivvies. And the prissy guy on the far left has his hands clasped at his knees like a modest young woman, his polar opposite.

The grimacing fellow in the middle reminds me of all of those old west outlaw pics. Perhaps it’s because he’s in frisk position, he’s donning stripes, and his hands look cuffed. It was the mid 80s (1880s that is), too early to be Clyde Barrow, though I thought of him. Quick fact about the idiot from the infamous Bonnie and Clyde: when Clyde was serving time in Eastham Prison Farm, he severed his left big toe and a portion of a second toe with an axe, in the hopes of forcing a transfer to a less harsh facility. Good thinkin’, Clyde.

And did you know Bonnie died, still wearing her wedding ring to her husband, Roy Thornton, not Clyde The Toe Amputee? Yep. Per www.history.com,  she had a tattoo on the inside of her right thigh with two interconnected hearts labeled “Bonnie” and “Roy.” No Clyde on that dead 23-year-old thigh. Ew.

Here’s the other half of the picture from The Newport Historical Society.

Swim004I know; the dude airing out his bloomers could be some hipster character from Portlandia. Au contraire. Turns out he’s Horatio B. Wood, a member of the Sons of Temperance, an amateur photographer, and a church organist. At least, that’s what my book American Album, says. The internet says he doesn’t exist. Conspiracy? Oh, well. At least you are seeing him in all his vested, bespectacled glory. Both women have closed their eyes,unable to behold all of the glory. Do you blame them?