Saturday's Old Photo

Here we are, more than 20 years ago, all packed up and ready to leave Minnesota to return to Whitehorse after our summer holiday outside.* I miss the old Jimmy, which served us well until the floor rusted through.

That back seat was a little bit crowded for three kids, expecially since the youngest still required a car seat, but they survived. This is one of the road trips mentioned in this post—the one in which we took up chanting “Get me out! Get me, get me out!” in response to youngest daughter’s pleas to get out of her car seat. Two thousand, four hundred and sixty miles one way makes for a long trip, so we needed to find fun wherever we could.

The kids are 7, 5 and 2. I made the wee one’s corderoy overalls. One of the best things about having little girls, you know, is being able to sew for them.

That’s me on the far left. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be in the photo or out of it. Either way, I failed.

It was typical for us to travel with something or other—bikes, trikes, strollers, etc.—tied to the top of the truck. Can you guess what that is tied to the top of the Jimmy in this photo? Two hints: I still have it stored behind the garage; and group of teenagers tried to steal it in the middle of the night, but my husband caught them in the act and prevented the theft.

If no one has guessed correctly by next Tuesday, I’ll clue you all in. This contest is open to everyone except those in the photo and their immediate family members.

[There’s another photo from another family road trip here.]

*Have I mentioned that Yukoners use the term outside to refer to anywhere far enough south of us to be considered civilization?

Update on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 10:13PM by rebecca

Update: I’ve now identified what’s under the tarp here.

Saturday's Old Photo

This photo was taken in the Chicago area, at the zoo, I think, because that’s the only place I can remember riding in a stroller like that. Yes, that’s me in front on the right, and the cute little munchkin on the left is my younger sister.

My mother’s handwriting on the back of this picture identifies the others, from left to right, as Harriet’s friend (she didn’t remember her name), Ron Lewis, my dad, my mom, and Bob Wright. Harriet was my mother’s good friend from Pocatello, Idaho (She must have been the one who took the photo.) and Ron Lewis and Bob Wright were two young men who had come to know Christ in the little church in Bellevue, Idaho while my father was pastoring there. I suppose that Harriet and her friend had driven the two teens back to visit my family while we were living in Wheaton, Illinois.

The reason I wanted to show you this photo is that I mentioned in an old post that three teenaged boys had given my sister and me a set of Lincoln Logs, a set of Tinkertoys, and two home made doll cradles for Christmas. Ron Lewis and Bob Wright are two of those boys. Ron Lewis eventually became a missionary in Papua New Guinea and Bob Wright became a doctor a missionary in Venezuela.

I was six years old in this photo. Do you see that I’m wearing my Buster Brown oxfords? I’d wanted a pair of patent leather Mary Jane style shoes, but my feet were so narrow that only oxfords would fit me. My sister is wearing oxfords, too. Poor girl. She probably could have worn pretty patent leather Mary Janes but was stuck wearing oxfords because I was.

My hair hasn’t changed much over the years. Yes, it’s a darker blonde and I do have gray, but otherwise, except for the bangs, that’s more or less how it looks now.

Saturday's Old Photo

This is a picture of my Grandma Vogt taken in the summer of 1979. You saw a photo of her when she was much younger in the old photo posted two weeks ago.

The occasion is an anniversary celebration for her son (my uncle) Elton and his wife Marty. Those are their gifts in the background. This light peach dress (or maybe you’d call it flesh colored) was the dress she also wore to my sister’s wedding a couple of months earlier.

By now my grandma had been a widow for 3 years. She’d lost her first husband when she was in her twenties, so this would be her second time as a widow. She would pass away less than two years after this photo was taken.

Can you tell she was a quiet and kind woman?