Tuesday, August 01, 2017

40 Years Ago Today - August 1977

I was a gold medal winner! Well, at least it looks like I was a winner of something. I can't quite tell what the medal is for, nor do I remember that far back. But I'm pretty sure the photo was taken at my grandparents house on Mockingbird Lane in Oxnard, CA. The flowers and brickwork in the background look vaguely familiar from their house there.


The photo of me playing on the kitchen floor I'm going to guess is at the house on Foxglove Place in Oxnard, CA. I'm basing that guess completely by the presence of the kitchen table, which as far as I know came from my father's childhood home in Nebraska and has lived with him since. Plus my dad is sitting at the same table at Christmas during 1976 and it was clearly taken at the same house. Plus, the second picture shows me playing on the floor in the same outfit but on that nasty peanut butter puke brown shag carpet. Which we already know was at the Foxglove house.

Speaking of that second photo, there's more in that that I remember growing up as a child. The odd book shelf made from large dowels and planks was around the house when I was a kid but I always remember it being very shaky. Shaky enough I didn't really want to touch it because I was afraid I would knock it over. So seeing it with that many things on it was surprising. Seeing National Geographic is not surprising. They were always around the house when I was growing up too. The cloth book I'm reading and the small toy next to me are vaguely familiar and we may even have them stored somewhere. And yes, that's the same playpen that was in the van from a few months ago in May of 1977.

A couple of side notes. First, I have no idea what's on the hat. At first glance it looks like an Indian but I'm not sure. Second, that kitchen table played a central role in my childhood and is something I never want to lose.



2 comments:

Gayle said...

Picture 1 is definitely backyard of Mockingbird Lane.
Note the rash on your cheeks. You were allergic to all kinds of things.

Picture 2 is in the kitchen on Foxglove. High chair in front of sliding door to patio. Kitchen table from Nebraska. Dark cabinets with stupid molding at bottom instead of a little place under for your toes. You can also see the side of a water bottle (the 5 gal kind) holder right behind you.

Picture 3 shows peanut butter and jelly carpet, and the bookshelves Dad made. He had the plans in some magazine. He spent months planning them, making them, staining them. I bet you will find them somewhere in his house. He liked that they were easy to dismantle and put back together again.

Later in your life...in MD, you gashed your head or face on those shelves when you fell right next to it. Another trip to a Dr! Maybe it was you chin. Ask Dad.


Neil Richard said...

The story I remember about falling was that I was running, hit the corner of a shelf, and nearly ripped off my left earlobe. Not sure where or when it happened, just that I was little.