I haven't found the negative for this one to see if I can get a better print, but I'm blogging it anyway because it's a good example of what an office job looked like in 1963. It appears mom was doing some transcription in this action shot, with that dictaphone headset hanging off her ears.
Typewriter, Rolodex, pop-up address book, rotary phone – you just don't see this stuff anymore.
Ironically, according to mom's photo album, this was a "before" shot of her workplace before it was remodeled. The "after" shots still look just as dated, of course.
Looking through mom's old negatives, I found this gem. A historical shot of Wold-Chamberlain Field aka Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, circa 1950.
I don't recall seeing these pictures of my mom before. She does have a pretty puzzled look on her face, so maybe she didn't like the pictures. Luckily, she kept the negatives, so I get to see them anyway.
It wasn't until I had looked at many photos and start putting the pieces together, did I realize that this is my grandmother. Here she's a young mom with my dad's 3 oldest siblings in tow. By the time I knew her, she was an old lady. Circa 1922.
If you've ever heard the song Kodachrome by Paul Simon, you can hum it while looking at this photo. There's really nothing else like Kodachrome.
This is grandma and three of my cousins in 1957. I have Kodacolor prints from this era that are faded reddish-yellow, but Kodachrome looks like the picture was just taken yesterday.
Everybody sing along – Kodachrooooooooome
They give us those nice bright colorsThey give us the greens of summersMakes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeahI got a Nikon cameraI love to take a photographSo mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
This photo isn't especially large. I decided to scan it to see if I recognized any of the faces, but mainly because I was trying to figure out what the chick in the middle was wearing for a bathing suit. I mean, it looks like she's wearing oven mitts for her bikini top. Once I enlarged it, I realized that she was about to have a serious wardrobe malfunction.
This is a pic of Royal Gorge Bridge from my aunt and uncle's wedding trip, according to the back of the photo. That dates this picture at 1947.
If you Google pictures of the bridge today, you will notice that they have really beefed up the suspension cables since this photo was taken. I'm glad, because it honestly looks a little rickety in this picture.
It's the highest suspension bridge in the USA, almost 1000 feet above the gorge.
One of my BFFs returned to town recently and I was showing her the remaining devastation from the riots that took place last year after George Floyd's death. We drove through the parking lot for Hi Lake Shopping Center, which is under construction to repair the riot damage, and drove up the side street by the cemetery to get back to Lake St.
As we were driving by the cemetery, I was surprised to see a deer walking around. I immediately stopped and went to get pictures and video with my phone. (Brief video below, as this deer was a creature of few words.)
I found out after getting home that one or more deer have been living in this cemetery for several years now. Some people call this deer "Fern." It can leave any time it wants, but why would it when people feed it. The Mississippi is only about a mile away. I saw numerous pictures online of two deer that were living there last year. It's quite amazing, considering the epicenter of the riots, the burning of the 3rd Precinct, is only 1400 feet away from this cemetery.
It warms my heart that even though our city is still recovering from the riots, beauty remains.
Still looking through old photos. I don't know if I'm related to this kid or not, but there is some serious cuteness overload going on here. This would make a great ad for kids' overalls.
I've been doing a lot of genealogy stuff lately and tonight I happened to flip through pics from my wedding. I love this one of my brother and me. Can you tell I was having a good day?
I am forever grateful to my friend who took our wedding pictures, Erica Bruggeman.
An adorable picture of two of my aunts as children.
One of the things I love the most about genealogy research is the fact that if you lose a loved one, you can just skip back to when they were a kid and had their whole life ahead of them. My dad's death jump-started my research.
• Pentax K7 Camera • Pentax Optio WG-1 Camera • Pentax Lenses DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 WR lens DA 50-200mm F4.5-5.6 WR lens FA 80-320mm F4.5-5.6 lens (120-480mm digital equivalent) FA 50mm F1.4 lens (75mm digital equivalent)
