You Never Know What You Are Going to Find

I've been trying to make inroads on one of my goals for February today.
Specifically the one about scanning and digitizing an old scrapbook of photos into my computer.

The book is massive(or seems so)and it encompasses the years from 1973-1984.
I've gotten about up to 1980 so far in the scanning and I've downloaded 138 photos and have begun to crop and digitize them.

What's also hindering my progress is that those 1970's years have many negative memories for me.  My family life was a mess during those years, so I am reliving some unpleasant stuff.  But in the long run, this is good for me psychologically as I am facing feelings I've never worked through.

Making the work go even slowly is the fact that my mother has mislabeled many of the photos during the 1973-1978 years.....mislabeled not once but twice!  Years are written and scratched through and written again and some scratched through again!  It's a mess.
I know why this happened and it's quite understandable why once you know all the facts, but that's a post for another time.  I mention it to just explain why this thing on my To-Do List seems to be slogging on and on and on.

I do want to show you all a funny photo I found today.
My parents made a trip in 1973 to the Kentucky Derby with some of my father's business partners and their wives.   They stayed at only the best hotels, ate out at the grand restaurants and generally partied bigtime like 40 year old married couples did back in the day.  There were reception parties in the hotel suites and the alcohol flowed freely.
I remember when my mother got her photos developed upon her return home, she showed me the shots she had taken and when she got to this one, I just said, "WTH?!"

My mother said she had gone to someone's suite for a reception the night before the Derby and had struck up a conversation with the tall black man on the left in the photo and then had taken this picture before she left.
Mom had no clue who either of these gentlemen where and we still don't know the name of the guy wearing his wife's Derby Bonnet.  Evidently someone had told my mother that the tall man was a famous basketball player and that is why she took the picture.
Even knowing his name, she still really didn't know who he was.  But she made sure she wrote down in the scrapbook his name for posterity.

You might know him better from this photo taken quite a few years later and the nickname "A Train".....

Yes, my mother went partying with #53 Artis Gilmore in 1973 when he was in the ABA and a member of the Kentucky Colonels team.

The thought of it just makes me want to giggle......

Go check out Artis' website HERE.

Sluggy

12-ish Years of Sluggy as Spring Fashion Diva

I've got 1 album scanned now. I do need to go back as a few photos didn't come out well the first time. But basically I have all the 1960-1973 years done, along with just a couple of the 1959 photos done since they are in another album.
Looking through them I don't see nearly the number of photos that I always had assumed my mother took.
I use to think we had massive amounts of photos but in reality, we don't.  She seemed to have only taken photos at most Easters, all the Christmases, and some at special events like Graduations, Birthday parties, a couple of vacation pictures and a few family portraits.  There are also all those dreadful School Photos which I'll get to some day.

Here's a Trip Down Memory Lane told in Easter photos. Let's see what a Fashion Plate I was from an early age.

From 1959....with my brothers.  I am the 3 month old peeing, pooing and drooling blob in the middle.
**You will notice the headgear began early.

From 1960.....after the posed picture with the brothers I grabbed my rabbit and took off fleeing....in a color coordinated hat of course.....

From 1961.....with brothers and my "old" mother who was all of 26 in that photo.  I look like I had a pie plate full of whipped cream with ribbons dangling from it on my head.  All I know is that it was held on by a small annoying length of elastic under my chin.  Guess who had sensory issues with elastic and other things on her body as a young child?  And why do I have a purse?  Did I even know what a purse was for at 2+ years old?
I guess my parents had bought one of those newfangled Polaroid Instant Cameras  that year so that is why this photo is black and white.....

From 1962.....This wasn't Easter but Sept. and my brother's 1st Communion.  I couldn't find an Easter photo for this year but I am sure I wore this fashionable ensemble at Easter as well.  I am with my Granny(father's mother).  At least she is wearing a hat too so I don't feel so alone in my head wear fetish.

From 1963....with my brothers, my Granny(r)and my Grandma-mother's mom(l).  Standing in front of our house(which had been my mom's parents' house).  The window behind us is to my bedroom.  What's this?....no hat!  The hair is all curled and fussed with though. The brothers look none too pleased to be here....

From 1964......with my brothers again, standing in front of my Granny's duplex apartment door.
Can it Be??? I don't have a hat on?!?!  But it looks like my hair has been teased and tortured within an inch of it's life.....

I couldn't find a 1965 Easter Photo.  I wonder what happened that year?  It might have been the year my mom had surgery.  I started school that year and we moved that year so that could be why the photo snapping dropped off.  I don't blame her if she just didn't bother that year.  It's not like my father was any help at home....

From 1966.......I'm 7 and this is the last year of my idyllic childhood.  The year before lots of things changed in my life.
I'm with the brothers in front of my Granny's house....she's at the door.  Most years getting a "good" photo with everyone looking at the camera and smiling was a chore.  My older brother was a "cut-up" and he was always trying to get my oldest brother to laugh.  You will notice that oldest(r) is laughing and older(l)is looking away trying to do the innocent "but I did't say anything!", while my mother is probably yelling at him.   I bet after this was snapped older went tearing off with oldest close on his heels muttering that he was going to kill him.
Me?....I just stood there in the middle waiting for them to stop horsing around so we can get this picture done and I can TAKE THAT BLASTED HAT OFF!!

From 1967.....I'm 8 and we moved into a huge old house built around 1912.
With the brothers again, who are looking tickled pink to be there!, and another hat!  And my parents are still lugging around that Polaroid Instant Camera with the tubes of developer and waving pictures in the air.  It would be nice to have some color again, dontcha think?  I remember this lovely ensemble was navy and white.

From 1968....thankfully the Polaroid Camera died before this Easter and we got a new color model.
No, my brothers are still around, just too busy or too cool now being teenagers to pose for a photo with the kid sister.  I'm a vision in a Jackie O. inspired classic pink suit and pill box hat.  If the hat isn't enough I now sport a flower corsage.......if that doesn't shout GEEK to my friends, I don't know what does!
Too bad I didn't have Mark around to accessorize for me because that black patent leather handbag just does nothing for the look!

From 1969....oh, I spoke too soon.....the brothers are back.  Oldest is looking rather glum about it all and Older is smiling.  I bet he's trying to think up something to get Oldest in trouble....
I am the 1969 Fashion Plate.....my mother made the dress and the cape I remember.  The cape was navy and plaid and way cool.  Totally accessorized correctly with the ever present hat(of course), a white patent leather handbag(with cool mod chain strap), white tights and white gloves.
White gloves??  Oh no....overkill again and tres unfashionable for 1969....

From 1970....I know I said the cape was cool but making me fit into it a second year when it's obvious I have outgrown it is so wrong.  And my dress is even shorter than the cape and has no definition.  And that looks like the same hat too!!  You could put a nurse's cap on my head and I'd look all set to make rounds....
Love the knee socks!lol
At least this year Easter came later and the camellia bushes and the daffodils are blooming.

From 1971....another early Easter.....check out the dead grass.lol
The brothers are back.  Oldest is in college now and being 19, couldn't be talked into wearing a suit.
Both are growing their hair long so I know there was tension in the house this year.  I am starting to "fill out" as the hormones have kicked in, so they made me kneel down so I didn't blot out the sun....er, block the brothers from being seen in the photo.  Notice my mom's dog, Annie the poodle, also gets to be in the photo now.  Annie feels the same way about anything on her head that I do.  After coming home from the groomer's with bows clipped to her head, she goes berserk until she can claw them off.  I can relate Annie, oh how I can relate.....

And that is where the Easter portraits end, in 1971 when I am 12.
And more importantly that is where the headgear torture ends.
At least you can see that I did grow into my head eventually.

Sluggy