Oh my!

Hope Bonny sees this - and let's us know the context!  Looks like she's at the shop - or some shop - I don't remember our garage ever having quite that much paint on its shelves.

I think it's from her college years - but it could be after she was married.

Lots of the slides have back stories that I don't know about.

But we have time and blogs and Facebook to use to our advantage!!

The first clue - I think Harry F. took the photo.

Harry the Missionary and Barbara the French etudiante!!

This is our dapper Dan all set for a day of missionary work in Lima, Peru in 1966!  Harry had the trench coat for many years.  Still has the beret I think!!

And this is the French lassie - all dolled up in her tweed trench coat and plaid babushka - walking to her classes at l'Univesite de Grenoble in 1966.

You had no idea we were both so continental!!

What will I wear?

There are not a lot of photographs from the very early years of our marriage.  A number of them have emerged among the digitized slides.  But I seem to be wearing the same striped tee shirt in quite a few of them.  I'm wondering if they were all taken on the same day?  Or was that the only shirt I owned?  Or was it just a fave I wore a lot?

I suspect it's a little of all three, but there was a time when I - and many others - owned a lot fewer clothes than people own now!  I distinctly remember my mom having two maternity outfits - one for every day and one for Sunday - and doctor visits!!

I purge my closets and drawers on a regular basis, and I don't think of myself as a clothes horse, but the items seem to pile up.  It truly has not always been this way - not sure what decade it was when "excess clothing" came into being.  

But I remember after Bonny was born, not going to church until something fit me - we just didn't have the resources to go get new clothes - and I refused to wear maternity clothes when I wasn't pregnant!

And when I went home for Christmas with my one pair of shoes, my mom took pity on me and bought me a new pair of Sunday shoes!!  And I was thrilled.

I also sewed for Bonny and used remnants my mom gave me.  She didn't have lots of clothes, but I had fun constructing her little wardrobe!  On the other hand, after Phoebe was born, I have distinct memories of shopping often for her and indulging all my little girl fashion fantasies!!

Someone has written a dissertation on this phenomenon, I am sure.  And the book The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion addresses the issue very well.  

I just think about it now and then.  And I do believe that most women wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time.

Wedding Bells!!

Somehow among the 1,000 slides were the nearly sum total of wedding photos that we have.  You've seen some of them before.  And some not.

 

The quality is uneven, but they capture the event!

 

  You know, I still have that green Tupperware lettuce keeper!

The man in the foreground is a very young Joe Jensen!!

 

Maybe Mom or Donna or Joan recognizes some of these folks.  Jim is hugging their Aunt Marjorie!!

 

The "Wedding Party!!"

 

The story was not told to me for many years - but apparently at the reception, Charlie went around with a jar, collecting for the newlyweds.  My dad confiscated it from them - they were planning on it for themselves!!  They only got about $15 though - maybe that helped defray the costs!!

As candid as you can get here!!

 

I think that's Frances in the cream suit.

 

Remember the Merrills??

 

Ah, pretty in pink!!

 

Back in the "cake and punch" days!!

 

This could be a pretty cool shot if it wasn't blurry.

Oh well, the years have treated us well, even if we didn't have glossy, professional photos!!

Beloved!!

The second summer after we were married, we moved to Campus Plaza, 2 bedroom apartments that usually housed 4 girls at a time.  We shoved the single beds together and created one that was 3 single beds wide - it was pretty hilarious when we tried to concoct sheets and a bedspread for it!!

Harry was teaching at the Language Training Mission - the forerunner to the MTC - and the group of elders he was teaching adopted a kitten that had been abandoned.  He was named "Amado" or "beloved" in Spanish.  Cats were not allowed at the LTM - but these elders were pretty resourceful and successfully kept him the whole time they were there.

However, Amado needed a home after they left - and we got elected!!  Campus Plaza didn't allow cats either - but somehow we managed to keep him there undetected for the remainder of our stay.

He got seriously ill however, and the vet wasn't very encouraging.  He suggested we force feed him with baby food - which we did - and he survived!!

Our friend Ronnie Horton kept him for the remainder of the summer when we went to California, and when we moved to Salt Lake City, Amado became a member of the family.  You have probably seen the famous photo of Harry with a paper bag on his head playing on the floor with a cat.  That cat was Amado.

He was with us through several moves.  Once he disappeared and we ran an ad and he got returned!  But then he disappeared again, and we never found him.  We were sad.  He had a bad habit of getting into parked cars with rolled down windows - we suspect that was what happened.

We hoped he had a long happy life after he left us!!  He was, after all, Amado!!

Blurry but significant!

While Dad was on his mission, Pres. Kimball, who was an apostle at the time, came and visited their mission.  And he interviewed Dad.  He has often shared that experience and how special it was.  These shots are blurry, but since they represent a treasured event, they are still important.

 

Because the shots are blurry, I'm not sure who is who.  This seems to me to be President Kimball.

 

The suit here seems to be a different color, so I'm thinking it's someone else.

At any rate, it was a great day for the Andes Mission!!

More Random Photos From the Thousand!!

There would be a theme here except I included one much older shot.  Here is Eliza with Noah in St. George in 1987.

 

And Dad with Noah - probably the same "photo shoot!"

 The Stoddards and the Terrills in 1971.

 I'm pretty sure this is Eliza with Noah.  Eliza and Hannah really look nothing alike, but some old photos from this vintage can be confusing.

 

When it's a photo of them together, you can of course tell them apart.

 

This was a little side trip to Zion's.  Love Harry's "Nicolas Nickleby" shirt!!

We definitely need to sort the photos into albums now - in tiny form I can't always tell what they are!!

I loved St. George vacations!!  Can I just say that??

1,000 slides!!

 Dad and I sorted through over 1,000 slides this summer - and whittled the number down to 1,004!  And then we sent them off to be digitized.  They actually arrived on Thursday - right after Dad left for Portland.  But I didn't recognize the return address and thought they were a box tools or drawer pulls for some job!  So I left them unopened all weekend - that is kind of amazing for those who know and understand my somewhat impatient nature!

I thought of posting them on FB, and I will do some there.  But a lot of them are really just interesting to Harry, Barb, and family, so let the posting begin!!  The above is Harry and Barb in Provo in the summer of 1968!!  Kind of shy and cute aren't we??

I love this shot of Dad - I haven't seen it in many years - but it may become my new fave photo!!

 

This iconic shot of Bonny brought smiles to our collective faces!!  This was in our bedroom - we had that bedspread for many years.  And the wicker suitcase always sat on a bench in our room.  And Bonny in her undershirt and "bubba" pants!!

 

Another shot full of cultural markers - the old record player, the stereo covered with South American flour sacks, Bonny and bib and "bubba pants" and her baby!!

 

Ah, Bonny - always ahead of the style scene!!  And our yellow VW - with the McGovern sticker on the back!!

 

And me - on the leaning tower of Pisa - with Lynn Stieffel and Pattie Nieman!!

Watch for more to come - Dad and I were in "hog heaven" laughing and smiling and reminiscing.  Does this mean we are getting old??

Don't answer tha!