Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 9:53PM 
This photo was taken the summer my mother and father met. They met, you see, teaching Vacation Bible School in little towns in the state of Utah. My dad tells me that most of the children in this photo came from Mormon homes.
My mom and dad are the two adults standing behind the children. The summer after this photo was taken, on June 16, 1954, they would be married.
Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 7:44PM 
This is a photo of my dad with his younger brother and sister. He says he was in ninth grade, because that was when he got his trumpet. That dates this photo to about 1940.
Little sister Bertha is holding what looks like a toy pig. No one in my family can identify what it is that little brother Bruce is holding. Does it look like a lens of some sort? A magnifying glass, maybe? What I can say for sure is that his overalls look brand new.
I suspect the toys, the trumpet, and the overalls are Christmas presents, but I’m not sure, because I forgot to ask. There aren’t any leaves on the bush in the foreground, which means it might be winter. They aren’t wearing coats, but Christmas in Kansas doesn’t have to be cold. The Kansas Christmas mentioned in last week’s old photo post included some 65°F days.
My dad says that although he was in his high school band, he never did learn to play his trumpet. He’s never been interested in music—not even a little—so I’m not surprised.
The three are standing in front of the farmhouse that my grandparents still lived in when I visited them as a child. That home now belongs to one of the grandsons—one of my cousins—who lives there with his family.
Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 7:39PM 
I brought some more of my dad’s photos home to scan and now I have new incentive to resurrect the Saturday’s Old Photo posts.
This photo was taken somewhere on a trip from Minnesota to Kansas for Christmas 1974. From left to right is my dad, my mom, my sister, me, and the young man I would later marry.
The van belonged to my future husband. We used it for the trip because it was roomy enough for all of us to ride in comfort. And it would actually have been comfortable if it’d had a better heater. Perhaps the chilly ride is the explanation for my dad’s Russian look.
I am 19 years old, the same age my youngest son is right now. Before Christmas is over, I will be engaged, and the coming June, I will be married.
My kids find that strange. They can’t imagine taking on the responsibility of marriage so young, and while we were still students. I never regretted it, even for a second. Extended adolescence, you know, is overrated.
