It has been 22 years since the belle, daughter #2, was born (almost three weeks early!) on Holy Saturday. Happy Birthday, darling girl (one day early)!
Here’s hoping we can meet at Ted Drewe’s for a birthday mini mocha!
We are very excited that daughter #2 will be a doctoral student in English at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD in the fall.
Although through the years daughter #2 has been the “best” student in the family, effortlessly acquiring straight A’s, scoring high on the PSAT and SAT tests, garnering 5’s on her AP exams, learning to speak a foreign language fluently (unheard of in this family), and ultimately graduating third in her high school class, she has been the brunt of much teasing from the rest of her family for being a “good test-taker”. Much of this teasing resulted from her not being particularly interested in history, which is, of course, akin to sacrilege in this family. And truth be told, for many years she was more interested in pop culture than in her studies.
But she was just a late bloomer. When she went to college, and especially after transferring to Washington University and discovering the Norton Anthology of American Literature, she really blossomed. (I might note parenthetically that she discovered that a knowledge of history is important in order to put all that great literature into context. Ahem.) And, then, reading Moby Dick changed her life.
We couldn’t be prouder of her. She is a beautiful young lady, inside and out.
What should I bring?
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
Daughter #1 is just coming home for the weekend, but travel is travel…Can’t wait to see her!
The other day I blogged about Old Sarum and New Sarum. Here is a picture of the boy at New Sarum (Salisbury Cathedral) in 1989, trying to climb up the grill, apparantly desperate to get into the church. Quelle monkey! He was 2 1/2 and wearing his engineer overalls and red Keds. A fashion plate even then.
The boy was in England for his aunt’s wedding. Here he is with daughter #1. And here they are at the wedding.
The wedding was not at Salisbury, but in the little local church in Titchfield. Lovely.
“I lay in bed for a few minutes, wanting to get up but unable to exert the necessary energy. From the girls’ room, small voices rose in song, and I listened happily, thinking how pleasant it was to hear a brother and two sisters playing affectionately together; then, suddenly, the words of the song penetrated into my hot mind, and I was out of bed in one leap and racing down the hall. “Baby ate a spider, Baby ate a spider,” was what they were singing.”
–Shirley Jackson, Life Among the Savages
As parents we have all had those moments Shirley Jackson is talking about. This photo makes me think of the realization our mother might have come to at just the moment when she hears the boy saying, "Go ahead, Katie, pet the doggie! Go ahead!" And our mother launches out of the chair to save her baby.
This picture really needs a follow-up photo. The one where little Katie (barely a year old and unsteady on her feet) has been pushed into the Great Pyrenees by her laughing older brother. Unfortunately that photo does not exist. Only this one:
Something has happened! The big dog is up; Katie is restrained (or being helped to her feet). She looks a bit discombobulated–maybe she did fall into the dog! But the boy is still smiling (i.e. he has not been balled out). It’s a mystery!
[I think this picture was taken at the Coughlin’s house. They were our grandparents very good friends.]
Here is a little dual personality circa 1959 trimming the tree. I’m sure my mother (the aforementioned perfectionist) re-distributed all the balls that I had put at my level on the lower branches of the tree after I went to bed, but that’s okay. I was oblivious.
Here we are trimming our tree today. Things haven’t changed much (even my hairdo!). Some of the decorations are even the same.
Here is daughter #2 with a handful of tinsel, flaunting the Bunker Cameron rule of one strand of tinsel per branch, which our mother stuck to religiously as well. We laughed about it, but still…
And here is the tree!
Beautiful! And I’m so glad it’s done!
First aired on December 6, 1964 when I was a 3rd grader, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was an instant classic! The story of misfits among misfits aired again last night for almost the 50th time. What would Christmas be without Hermey, Rudolph, Clarise, Sam the Snowman, Santa, and, of course, Yukon Cornelius?
Yukon Cornelius: We’ll have to outwit the fiend with our superior intelligence.
Rudolph: How?
Yukon Cornelius: Douse your nose and run like crazy!
My hero!
Yesterday the boy turned 25. A quarter century. I gave him this:
…because ever since he was a little guy he has taken his attire very seriously. When he was three he wore a Batman cape (a kerchief tied around his shoulders) every day to preschool.
Here he is dressed up as a fireman–and it wasn’t Halloween.
His favorite Christmas present when he was in first grade was a double breasted blue blazer. And for awhile he wore a beret to church, because, well, it was really cool. And, of course, he was the only 8th grader to wear a kilt to graduation.
In high school he was a bit too cool for his clothes. (He could rock those shades like Gregory Peck.)
These days it’s all about gingham shirts.
Well, you may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but everybody does love a sharp dressed man, right?
Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don’t know where I am goin’ to
Silk suit, black tie
I don’t need a reason why–ZZ Top
Mrs. Doubtfire, D’Artagnan and a Power Ranger (c. 1994). Clearly a lot of effort went into those costumes (and makeup!) But this was the Halloween when 4-year-old daughter #2 famously asked if next year she could have a “real” costume. In other words, one bought in a store. Somehow Halloween lost its luster after that. (See the Homemade Power Ranger vs. the “real” Power Ranger below right.)
I think she was a witch (wearing her sister’s oft-worn, hand-me-down costume) the next year.
P.S. Check out that store-bought Lion King!
Mary and Fredbird c. 1990
Tonight our daughter #1 will be watching the first game of the World Series with East Coast baseball fans. They are decidedly NOT Cardinal fans. But she knows from whence she hails and who her friends are (see above).
(Please note her shoes. Patent leather flats–suitable for any occasion!)
dual personalities 
