Nostalgia Avalanche

One of the things I’ve noticed as I creep into my elder years is the omnipresence of nostalgia. The pandemic has certainly fanned those flames as we all yearn for days past when a face mask wasn’t required garb to simply visit a grocery store. I often think back to my younger years growing up in Keene and remember the people and places from those simpler times. I was safely ensconced in the Man Cave last night selecting the next movie to fall to my voracious appetite for same when I happened upon a disk of home movies. A few years ago I converted some 16mm home movies my parents had from my youngest years.

The Most Famous Scene - My Dad Pantsing Great Aunt
After She Painted her Entire Body With White House Paint

I popped the disk in and spent the next two hours reliving some of those times. I noted that my parents were really poor camera operators. I started taking screen shots and have included many of them here. I want my granddaughters to see these very important people in their family although some of them probably qualify as genuine ancestors by now. I'll use the captions to introduce them. It’s kind of eerie to think some of the people in these movies (including my grandparents) were born in the 1800s. I think my mother was the camera operator most of the time because there were very few shots of her which is typical because she hated having her picture taken. Nearly all of the scenes were shot between 1955 and 1960 as my youngest sister appeared only briefly. It was a lot of fun – nostalgia can be therapeutic and God knows we need that nowadays.

My Mom and Great Aunt

Great Aunt at Lake George

Myself at Same Place - Where I learned to Swim

Great Aunt Being Culturally Insensitive and I

My Dad and I at Benson's Wild Animal Farm

My Parents, Great Aunt and my Younger Sister
Who's No Longer With Us

My Grandmother
Maker of Unparalleled Spice Cakes

Myself at a Much Younger Age

Great Aunt (l) with Two Cousins at Grandparents' Keene House

My Parents, Grandparents & Two Sisters
At Aunt Margret's House in Palmer

My Dad (foreground) & his Parents
and His Magnificent Brothers and Sisters
Truly Greatest Generation

The Spouses with my Grandparents
Equally Great

A Collection of Cousins

Grandparents in Keene

My Dad - Impossibly Young

Great Aunt (with cat) and I

Keene High School Band on Main Street late 1950s

Great Aunt and I

My Grandpa Pat and I
Both My Favorite Son and I Carry his Names

Grandpa Pat in front of Trailer I loved to Visit
Because he was There

My Youngest Sister

My Dad

He Was Gone Before I go to Know him as an Adult

Marching in a Keene parade as a Cub Scout Leader

I also received these pictures from the FBR (actually her parents). Just a while ago the coloring within the lines drill was a foreign concept to her. Now she’s better at it than I ever was. I was impressed for a four-year-old to achieve this kind of precision. After my trip down memory lane I also knocked off the next in my Besson watch – with Point of No Return and was left wondering whatever happened to Bridget Fonda. 

The Artiste at Work

Impressive Precision

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn