Merry Christmas!!!

We bought a new Canon camera a couple of weeks ago and i'm still trying to figure out how to use it. Almost wish i had gotten something more basic or simple.

I do not know how all of the lights turned into stars on this first photo???

The kids are all home for Christmas and acting like kids.

Merry Christmas!!

Just thought I would take the time to bring a smile to your faces. I know the Christmas season can get a little hectic sometimes. Just go to this link and you'll be hysterically roaring with laughter. P.S. hope the link works...

Turkey Day!!!

This year Amy and I decided to make a memory and join Dean and Kurt on the farm for turkey slaughtering day. As you can see there was much excitement to be had. We also gained a greater appreciation for our Thanksgiving turkey dinner, knowing all the hard work that goes into bringing that turkey to the table. We hope to make the turkey slaughtering day a tradition.

Global Warming

I have finally begun my global warming education. I began with Al Gore's: Inconvenient Turth...

It was powerful and persuasive...

Next, I read Bjorn Lomborg's: 'Cool It'...

Mr. Lomborg admits that global warming is a problem and that humanity has contributed to it. However, it is not the catastrophe some would have us believe - there are many bigger problems. "If our goal is to improve the welfare of people and the environment and not just reduce carbon emissions, we have to openly inquire how best to do so. Doing too little about climate change is definitely wrong, but so is doing too much." He was recently on BookTV - you can listen to him here.

Any advice for the next step in my education?

O Canada!

In 1968 the slide frames began to mark the date of development, but, in my opinion, 1968 was not a great year for slides. A lot of them were dark or out of focus. A lot were not what I would consider "memorable". Here's one that, for me, stuck out. I don't know, but I would guess, that this photo was taken because Steve was ready to leave for Canada.

Clever Clue of the Month

Please vote for the best clue for November. The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced Monday night at approximately 9:00 Central. Here are the nominees:

He or I, but not you: Abbr. ......................ELEM
38) With 38-Across, where you might
end up if you don't 38-Across? ...................SING
Master of the double take? .......................NOAH
Butt out? ........................................MOON
Where you might go if you're very sick? ..........BEDPAN
Point of no return? ..............................ACE

I wouldn't be surprised if you need one or two of these explained...

Annual Holiday Gathering in Lakeville

Inquiring minds have wanted to know the date of our annual holiday gathering. Because the only logical date would be the weekend of Alyssa's concert we are going to push it out to January.
In the past we have celebrated with a Swedish theme. But this year I thought it would be fun to celebrate my heritage (hispanic) and do a Mexican theme and hold the gathering on January 5,2008, celebrating 3 Kings Day. I know I am not officially Hispanic but growing up in California with a very large Hispanic family, we embraced many of their traditions. ANYWAY, back to the party. Everyone can gather, who would like to attend, at our house at 5pm, Saturday, 1/5/08.
I will be making a pork chili stew, enchilladas, mexican wedding cakes and snow pudding. (believe it or not a form of snow pudding is in my Mexican Cookbook. RSVP with what you're bringing and we'll have a great time. Sorry no Pinatas, Greg hates them. Have a blessed Christmas and hopefully we'll see you in January!
Love, Denise

Jean In The Water

Paul should now have the scanned slides. It's up to him to further organize and then distribute. But I'll continue to move through what I have with things I find interesting or questions that might help Paul know where to put things. This is an example of the latter. Judging from the frames this would be '65-'67, but other than that any idea where we are? There are a lot of Chub Lake pictures so the likely candidate is Chub.

Thanksgiving week 1961

There is an envelope with 8 negatives in black and white dated 11/20/61. They cost 69 cents. There is also handwriting that says "some pictures taken days before Helen entered the hospital".

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.

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I recognize Grandma Carlson, but is the other woman John's mom?

Circle Tour

Moving on. . .I've posted a few from the Circle Tour of 1961 that were misplaced. Here's one from the circle tour proper that I really liked.

Helen

We're up to the fateful year of 1961. This is from a batch labeled 2-16-61, so I'm assuming this is actually from the previous summer. This is my favorite slide of them all.

1. It is perhaps trite to say it because it is so obvious, but I will nevertheless say it. . .Helen was a beautiful woman.

2. From the stories I've heard and the portrait of these slides, it appears that she had an internal beauty to match the outward.

3. All her life Jean has been told how much she looks like Helen. That has been, I'm sure and I know, a mixed blessing.

4. Also in these photos I see images of her grand-daughters. In one I'll think "that looks like Katy" and in another "there's Heidi". They're lucky. It helps to explain why we have so many lovely grand-daughters running around.

5. The external beauty of the three grand-sons is still being debated.

John

Mark noted that John is seldom seen in these photos. So I went back to try and find him. Here's one place where he shows up.

Again, notice how baby Paul dominates all of these photos. What an egotistical twerp!

By the way, I say "John" out of no disrespect but only to distinguish him in my mind from "Helge". There was a time early in their marriage where I swore I would never call him "father". But, thank God, that quickly dissipated. Now, as time has distanced these events, I think of "John" and "Helge" just to keep things straight. They were both, in their time, my Father.

A Not-Duluth Picnic

This picnic is outdoors so I guess we're not in Duluth anymore. Anyone know where this is?

A Duluth Picnic

Hot dogs and root beer. Mark and Greg are so grownup they don't need bibs. Looks like Jean could use a Kleenex.

Christmas

1. Tim hasn't gotten any thinner here. 2. I like that cool computer monitor in the corner.

Two Babies

Nice to see that even Tim was once a little on the chubby side.

In The Beginning

The main problems with '61-'63 are solved. I'm almost done scanning slides and soon they will be off to Paul for final editing. So in the meantime I'm going to start at the beginning, with a box marked 1957-1958 and show some that I think are interesting for some reason or other.

More than one person has told me that poor Paul, being the youngest, didn't have many pictures taken, but that is not true with these slides. Easily a third of this box, for example, is taken up with baby Paul in one form or another.

Popeye and Mink Lake

Just a few more from the "blank slides". Here's a group where Mark is Popeye and Greg just got back from Mink Lake.




You know the drill - who, what, where, when, why.

Always the epitome of good manners Mark takes his hat off while indoors.









I'm pretty sure (judging from the lack of front teeth in the twins) that this photo is from 1961 and prior to the above three. But here Mark has the Mink Lake sweat shirt. Did he outgrow it and Greg inherited it? Or did Greg get his own new one a year or two later?

Who is this?

Very good! The puzzle of the blank slides is coming into focus. Next. . .anybody recognize these people? Where and when did you visit them? There are sheep involved.



And are some of the girls on that farm the same girls at this playground?
















If we assume for sake of argument that Paul doesn't wear the same clothes for months on end then it is highly likely that his birthday was celebrated at the same time as the farm visit.

"Biking Round the Neighborhood"

Dean remembers biking in OshKosh. So would this be evidence of that memory? If so then any photos with any of these kids in them would also be from OshKosh in 1962.

Clever Clue of the Month

Please vote for the best clue for October. The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced Thursday night at approximately 9:00 Central. Here are the nominees:

Secret spot? .....................................ARMPIT
Capital in the center of Czechoslovakia? .........OSLO
Benched players use them .........................PIANOS
Device with a Jackson hole? ......................ATM
Peels backward? ..................................SLEEP
One with flaming pants? ..........................LIAR

For those of you who need these explained...

61, 62, 63

Ok, the main puzzle I'm working on is this.

1. The vast majority of slides were loose and scrambled. I sorted them by film size and identical frames. The largest batch had white frames with no markings.

2. It soon became apparent that the vast majority of the blank batch were from the period after Ruth met John and were no earlier than '65 and no later than '67. All at East 5th St.

3. But there are about a dozen loose slides from that batch which just don't seem to fit the time frame. e.g. the one with the kids and Helen about to go on vacation.

3. Besides the loose slides there are four groups of slides in their original boxes and all before Lindstroms came on the scene. The boxes are labeled 1957, 1958, 2/16/1961, and 1963.

4. The first three boxes contain slides with a different frame than the 1965-1967 batch. Also they are all carefully numbered with pencil in a gentle delicate script that I assume is Helen's handwriting. So none from the loose batch can belong with them.

5. But the fourth box which I thought was labeled 1963, upon looking closer is actually labeled 1961, 1962, 1963 and all the slides within are identical to the '65-'67 batch.

6. There's another label on that particular box in a different ink color that says"Circle Tour, OshKosh and Wells".

7. So I'm assuming 1961 is identical with "Circle Tour" and would include the loose slides I found with Helen and Niagra Falls and small kids in a trailer.

8. But am I also correct in equating 1962 with "Osh Kosh" and 1963 with "Wells"?

9. And then is it possible that the Travailles spent some time in Osh Kosh such that '61 was the circle tour, '62 was a visit to the Travailles in Osh Kosh and '63 was a visit to the Watkins in Wells?

10. If this is correct then I should be able to unscramble the remainder of this blank batch by assigning them to 61-Circle Tour, 62-Travailles, and 63-Wells. Right?

Pleasant Thoughts

I remember a poem where Wordsworth tries to describe a certain mood where "pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind". This slide is from a small batch which puzzles me. I'll let you enjoy this one and ask my questions when I post a few more from the batch.

Greg's Soap Box

This slide is not well focused but I am still drawn to it, though I'm not sure where to focus.


1. There is Greg's helmet (so cool and suave).


2. There is Greg's belt buckle (aren't his pants cinched a bit high?).


3. And then, it goes without saying, we have on display brother Mark's sexy legs (but you'd think those shorts would be uncomfortably tight).

The Story

We can't hardly control our excitement up here in Northern Minnesota as we await the story of Jaden...

Happy Birthday

What year and month is this picture? By the way I'm confusing myself. . .was Mark 15 the summer of '65 or '66?

Upward and Onward!

Okay, enough levity. Back to the batch I'm finishing up. It's looking like it's clearly from 1966 to 1967. One last thing to clear up. There are a lot of vacation photos and I frankly have few recollections of them. Where did we go? Was there one long vacation from the black hills to yellowstone to pike's peak etc. or were these separate vacations taken over two or more summers? And then there are a few scattered photos, which I think are out of order, from a magnificent falls (Niagra?) which I'm positive I have never visited. My one recollection, and it doesn't enhance my reputation, is sitting in the back of a station wagon, facing backwards, and having a great time driving Jean crazy for hours on end.

Groovy Baby

The photo's I'm currently posting are an unmarked batch that's looking like it's from '66-'67. I have a few more posts from there with questions. But I just had to post this one from later on. There's an orphan slide with a group standing round a motor cycle that I'll post later with some questions. But for now. . .there's one character in the group that could be right out of an Austin Powers movie.

Pigs

I put a bunch of straw in their little pig house when it gets colder and they burrow in.















I went to get a higher vantage point, but they decided to get up.

Aaaaah the good old days!

Paul is begging for more. Here's another from the same batch. It doesn't get any better than this.

The Best Present Ever!

In the comment below Paul said this bike was the best present he ever got. Judging from this photo (which I just scanned) I'm thinking he wasn't exaggerating.

Whose bike is this?

Hmmmmm. Looks like I can post photos but it's hit and miss. This is another photo from some unmarked slides and I have some questions: 1. Any idea when this photo was taken (month and year) 2. Looks like a new bike. I'm assuming it's a birthday present, but whose birthday is this? It looks like a boys bike so I'm assuming Dean or Paul. Is Paul hogging the photo when it's really Dean's bike? Or is it vice versa?

I'm Back In The Saddle

I've been scanning old slides for a few weeks now. I suppose I should start posting some of them. This is from a large batch of 24 mm slides where the frames have no markings whatsoever. It's slow going as I have to do them individually and each one needs its own particular tweeking. Any comments you have may help in naming and filing organization.

My birthday weekend

For the last few years I haven't had the opportunity to share my birthday with my parents and sisters. This year instead of just celebrating the day, the party lasted all weekend. It included first a dinner at home on my actual birthday (Thursday 9/13). Then on Friday we decided to go for a more exotic experience and found ourselves on Snelling Ave. in St. Paul enjoying a delicious Ethiopian meal. Following that we came together once again on Saturday for the grand finale at our favorite apple orchard. A 24th birthday to remember!