A photo I took of my little sister Barbara (c. 1969?) -- in the foreground is our dog at the time, Runt. This was taken from our "breezeway" between the house and the garage. Barb was in the garage. My father closed in this space a few years later, adding a fireplace and making it a den/dinning room/workshop.
This is in Black Oak, Arkansas, on the farm of our Aunt Lilly and Uncle Clyde in 1967 (actually, I do not know where this is...).
This is me (black coat -- my fav at the time) and some cousins in our front yard. Funny, I never noticed the basketball post... but I remember that hay trailer.
"Granny's house" (my father's mother) with Dad and me on the porch. The left side was either empty or being "rented out" to "a nice widow-woman" but no "niggras," she would say... It was my duty to help mow that lawn twice a month in the summer. Now that I think of it, it was the one thing that my father and I really shared: our hatred of having to mow that lawn for that old woman.
This was my family at Christmas dinner 1961 (Michael, Kathleen, Dad, Walter, and Pat, with Mom taking the picture) at our home in Livermore, California. I had just been born on Halloween. Notice the Blanchard Traditions: shrimp cocktail with crackers, whole turkey on platter (same platter used to this day), black olives, celery stuffed with peanut butter... It looks like the kids have a glass of wine and Mom and Dad are set to knock down a martini with olives -- ah, the 60s...
Jonesboro, Arkansas, c. 1966? Here I am with a neighborhood friend climbing on a propane tank (they where regularly re-painted silver) with our house in the background. Ah, the memories of swimsuits, watermelons, giggles, and silver bellies.
