Circa 1974, 1975, sometime back before I blogged!

If the timestamp on the photos that TheRedBaron (the other family names are a dead give away, and The Pilot sounds like a book that should be written about the wife of a missing sea captain and set in the 1800's....wait, maybe that's ALREADY a book) sent to me is correct, I would have been two.

I think, though, that I'm just a twinkle at this stage.

Aren't my parents cute?

And dig my dad's pants! Superfly!

As children, we used to sit on the back patio at my grandparent's house (contained in the photo's) and have oyster shucking parties. I won't bore you and tell you why I detest oysters, but it has to do with being made to swallow one nasty snot tasting oyster when very small after begging (momspeak: whining) for one (momspeak: repeatedly and loudly while out to eat, I'm sure). But as a small children, we loved to crack open those shells and run them to the adults to eat. With a beer, and saltines, and tobasco...of course. The shells would go in the big back yard, somewhere out near the bench swing, to eventually become overgrown with ivy.

That was the best house anyone in this family has ever owned. It was just flat out cool. It had a laundry chute that went to the basement (that we small children contemplated sliding down...I mean, it was three stories, and had the unmeasureable allure of the forbidden). The chute itself was near a Monet print of three horses; once, I thought I heard the horses speak and became convinced the hallway was haunted (although in retrospect someone was yelling in the basement and it carried up the chute). The basement itself was dark and spooky. The light, if I remember correctly, was only on the landing, so there was always a spot in your journey that was quite frightening as a child. Grandmom always had windchimes hanging from the light hanging in the open foyer, and the front formal living room always contained the leather chairs and granddaddy's bookcases and birds. The best room was the den off the garage, with it's wall of windows covered with tiny wooden shutters. That room ROCKED.