The second in a four part birthday series. This one is from April of 1975.
An ice storm hit central Iowa that spring and we begin with a tragic shot... a Mustang that had a tree limb fall on it. Looks like the car didn't suffer too much damage, though. Power lines were down and in our little town of Huxley, we had no electricity. So, we moved in with Grandma Fry for a little bit.
The beagle is our dog Boots. I'm sure she was confused by the new surroundings. These new surroundings are a small apartment building in Ankeny Iowa, over on Cherry Street. My Grandma Fry and Aunt Marlene lived in the building. Lots of fond memories there, except the time my brother chased a ball down the street when a tornado was coming. I don't remember that. And that is an inside joke that no one will get except my brother and I doubt he'll ever read this... so why did I bother?
And there are the Cookie Monster and Oscar puppets again (they were in the previous episode). The baby my mom is holding is my cousin Steve. The reason I keep holding my hand over my eyes is due to the light on the camera. It was BRIGHT!!! The lady in the blue and white uniform sitting in the chair covered with a yellow cloth is my Aunt Patty, Steve's mom.
The woman with the white top and beige pants is Aunt Marlene. She was always very good to us when we were kids, almost like a second mom. She never married or had kids of her own, she lived with my Grandma until grandma passed away a couple of years ago.
The ham looks good. Grandma was a great cook. The greatest, in fact.
Dar and I are watching the Wizard of Oz. It was on around Easter time every year back then, I believe on CBS. The pillows we have are called Bunny (mine) and Ducky (his). I believe my Aunt Madonna made the original pillows and we loved them so much that every time they wore out, mom would make some more. Yes, my childhood was really this squeaky clean and innocent. Most of the time. I still have the last Bunny pillow mom made for me - I think.
Well, okay! At 1:27 my grandma finally makes an appearance in her birthday movie. Hi Grandma!
That shot of her on the chair looking at her birthday gifts: this is why I am so glad to have these movies. My memory holds no recollection of her ever being able to sit like that, nor do I remember her hair being so dark. Interesting note: if you look to the left hand side of this shot, you can see the old movie projector dad used to show these films on back in the day when computers and YouTube weren't in our homes. See how nice modern technology is? If it wasn't for YouTube, I would have to drag that projector into each and every one of your homes to show you these films.
Nice pants, dad. Not.
Notice my grandma and aunt are both smoking. This is how it used to be, kids. People smoked and the non-smokers just sat there and took it. I am sure I started smoking partly because grandma and Aunt Marlene did it. I have many fond memories, years later, of sitting on their back porch with them late into the night, telling stories and jokes and just smoking ourselves to death. But, that's kind of why I quit, too. Smoking is part of what killed Grandma. And it wasn't sudden at all. I don't want to die a long, long drawn out death like she did.
Anyway.
The man in the blue shirt with the sideburns is Uncle Clyde, my dad's younger brother, father of Steve. Is this all coming together for you, now?
Thanks so much to my parents and my brother, without whom I would not be able to share these treasured films with you.
The music used is "Porch Swing Days" by Kevin MacLeod.
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