Monday, March 13, 2023

A Look Back to Barb's Past

 Barb had a lot more pictures for me to scroll through than I did, many of them being quite interesting. I was able to look through then through your eyes as I have no personal attachment to them other than the fact that they contain pictures of the love of my life. 

What I found interesting was the contrast in our upbringings. My dad was born 12 years before Barb's dad who was 20 when she was born, my dad was 37. Being the first child, there were many pictures of her. Me, being the 6th was just another mouth to feed. 

Because there were so many pictures of Barb as a baby there are plenty of opportunities to see what her house looked like back in the day. 

Her mom must have really been into tinsel as their trees were just COVERED in tinsel! This first picture is of Barb and her brother Shorty in 1978. The next one was from 1962, before shorty was born. Someone looks like they were spoiled!

Apparently, she was just not spoiled at Christmas as this picture illustrates. Not sure what the occasion was as her birthday is in March. Check out that TV in the background!

I wished I could have met Barb's mom (Carol) but unfortunately, she died at the age of 39. She looks like she would have been a lot of fun to hang out with. 

Her dad (Norm) was into cars, he looks like he could have starred in Grease or American Pie. Just by looking at this picture you can imagine his personality and you would not be wrong.   This first picture is probably around 1943 when he was 5. The other one, we have no idea. Like someone said in our last post, it is hard to age people in older pictures with no context. 25?, 35?, 45? It is really anyone's guess, but I'd bet my last dollar he has a comb in his back pocket!

Here are some of his cars. Oh, how I'd love to have these parked in the garage now!

Look at those car!

Barb did not remember those old cars, but she did remember this old airstream! I wonder if it is still on the road somewhere. She also remembers an old VW bus where she used to ride on top of the engine compartment in the back. 

I shared Barb's first grade picture during her birthday post but I just could not pass up this one from her second grade! Check out the background, the hair styles, the shoes, the expression on the kids' faces. Especially the girl on the right side in the front row! I am sure she grew up and was an expert at giving her husband the look of disappointment. She probably married the kid to her right who has an expression that shows him reflecting on why he ever married her!

As she grew up, her fashion sense did as well which is demonstrated by this awesome hairdo!

Last but not least are a couple of pictures of all of us many years later. This is a picture of us with her dad who was 52ish. That would have put Barb and I at 30 and 26 respectively. Check out those white socks!

Here is one of the few pictures of Barb and her brother Shorty and families. We were in our early 30's. Living so far apart we did not get together as much as we would have liked. He passed away a few years later. 
Barb and I along with Forrest, Jessica,
Norm (Shorty), Kelly and their kids Holly and Heather
That's it for the trip down Barb's memory lane.  I hope you found it as entertaining as we did. It was an emotional journey that brought wonder, smiles and tears. Hopefully years from now our grandkids Lily, Dylan and Kendall will look back at these posts learning a little bit about their ancestry and know they have relatives somewhere out there, probably on the west coast. 

38 comments:

  1. We had trees with more tinsel than that even! Us kids would go wild with it we loved it so much. This was fun. Console TVs and bouffant hairdos and guys in white t-shirts and old cars--wow! Fun to see. :)

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    1. Boy, I have not heard the word 'bouffant' in years! I could not imagine more tinsel than that, you must have had tinsel everywhere!

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  2. What great pictures! I also remember tinsel on the Christmas tree...lots of it! I loved the way it sparkled. Thank you for sharing both of your memories.

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    1. Do you ever wonder why tinsel lost it's glitter over the years and is barely used anymore?

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  3. Hey ... big hair and tinsel were a thing. Our tree was COVERED in tinsel, that we had to meticulously take off every year and save it for NEXT year. Ratting ... it's ratting that makes big hair BIG ... and we did it with toothbrushes. Can you imagine combing THAT out?? Funny how much her family pictures resemble mine.

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    1. I imagine that there was a lot of hair spray involved in those hairdos, You certainly would not want to be smoking a cigarette when spraying it!

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  4. Who wears short shorts? Tinsel was the thing back then. Our tree was covered in it so much that the large bulbs would melt it when ever and where ever it touched. Luckily we all survived the fire hazards to live another day. If Barb ever wants another shampoo set, Lisa and I can do it for her. Love the blog.

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    1. Apparently me! And to think those were not even my short ones. Oh my, if I could go back in time and change things.

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  5. tinsel was big back then. we always had big clumps on the tree because it was the kids job to put the tinsel on and we were to lazy to do it piece by piece. barbs father looks like james garner!!

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    1. I suppose it was only on the bottom 1/2 of the tree as well? Barb's dad was pretty handsome back in the day wasn't he!

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  6. Ah, the tinsel! Crazy hair and oh, those white socks! Great pictures!

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    1. I am guessing you have very similar pictures hidden away somewhere. I double dog dare you to post some!

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  7. Love Barb's hairdo. I used to have my long hair put up in "petals" - we used to think we looked so good, but now the kids just laugh :)

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  8. The hair brings back a lot of memories! So does tinsel. A friend of ours took days to add the tinsel to the tree, meticulously, one by one on each branch. Her trees were a work of art. Great walk down memory lane. Years from now, your grandkids will love it.

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    1. That would be an interesting tree to see! Can one even buy tinsel anymore? I would guess so but sales are probably a fraction of what they were a few decades ago.

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  9. Gotta love those old cars. And that toy box wouldn't fly today with that "Gay Time" sticker on it....things sure have changed.

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    1. I saw that sticker and thought the same thing. Oh, how times have changed!

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  10. Oh my! The photo of the presents in '62 looks like some of the things I asked Santa for! The dollhouse is still a popular vintage find. Love her hairdo....all teased and perfect! And the classroom photo is perfect. Sure is fun to have lots of photos to look back on. This was FUN!

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    1. Don't you wish you had some of those toys from back then? Or not, what on the earth would you do with them and where would you keep them?!?!?

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  11. Ditto on the tinsel. We used to carefully remove it and save it for the next year…a job I hated doing. Had the shorts too but not those socks. Great family pics and memories Barb…Cheers!

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    1. I bet by the end of the holiday season the last thing you wanted to do was carefully take down tinsel instead of playing with whatever toys you got for Christmas!

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  12. Yes, tinsel was a big deal in our house. It had to be put on one strand at a time so it looked neat. Looks like Barb's tree was done "the right way." Oh, boy, that is some hairdo! I forgot to mention in the post with your memories that I appreciated your sharing a dog photo from your past. Congratulations to Zoey on being the new most popular dog breed!

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    1. We used to string popcorn in addition to tinsel. Another tradition that seemed to die along the years.

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  13. That’s a great trip down memory lane right there! Any of those old cars would be amazing to own now. Would love to have the truck and airstream combo too. Beauty! As for the sock….just add 2 purple stripes with a yellow one in the middle to them and white adidas shorts. Oh yeah buddy 😜

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    1. Having that truck now would be incredible. I should search more pictures and see if I can see the serial number on that Airstream. There has to be a registry showing if that unit is still in service.

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  14. Sorry forgot it’s Dave & Leslie last comment.

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  15. Great photos! The older I get the more treasured they become. These must bring back all kinds of wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing them.

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    1. Same here. I guess we are getting sentimental in our old age!

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  16. These are great! They sure look familiar. Thanks for visiting my blog!

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    1. Always fun to read new blogs. Especially when they have deer in them!

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  17. Love all these pictures and history! I grew up with the more tinsel the better! After a few years of marriage and 3 littles, I gave it up LOL. My mom still did it every year though. Thanks for sharing with us :)

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    1. I think that is the way of tinsel across the country. Way too time consuming!

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  18. Barb's early pictures are so similar to mine. We had trees with tinsel galore, and my brother and I did the same poses. Cars and RV's were not though, my folks had tents and our cars were more sedans.

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    1. We are children of that generation, aren't we? Barb and her brother were best buds back in the day, it is fun looking back at those pictures.

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  19. Wow just wow😍 Could have been our home at Christmas. I don’t even know what happened to our family photos. Contessa

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