Friday Photo Flashback

Ok, the last two weeks were flashbacks of a serious nature, so I thought I would find a picture I could pick apart a bit. I know Max over at the PowerPop blog loves these photos.

According to the date stamp, this was developed in 1988 (the year I graduated from high school). That being said, we never seemed to develop film right away, so this could have been taken in 1987. Welcome to a little corner of my brother’s room.

The first thing that hits me are two 70’s/80’s decorative staples – Paneling and wallpaper! I can still remember when my folks hung that astronaut wallpaper. I cannot remember if this was my room first or my brother’s. At some point, maybe before they hung the wallpaper, we switched rooms. Mine had globes and maps on the wall.

While my brother and I are very different, we are also very similar. Case in point: we both had shelves in our rooms for photos and display pieces. My shelves had Three Stooges dolls, a couple autographed pictures, ceramic pieces that my mother had made, and little collectibles. This bookcase/shelving unit was were my brother displayed many of his favorite things and photos.

Before I look at the shelves, I want to point out that in 1987 our band went to Disney in Florida and marched in a parade there. The Goofy hat on the wall was something that I believe both my brother and I had. I have no idea what that red thing is hanging in the upper left of this picture. He may remember.

I have blogged in the past about mom’s ceramics hobby and this photo features some of her work. You can read about that hobby here:

Another Mom Memory

We were obviously into Star Wars back then. Starting at the left on the top shelf is the first Star Wars piece mom made, R2-D2. She may have asked the two of us what pieces we’d like for her to make for us. I seem to remember asking for Chewbacca, who is next on the shelf. The R2-D2 was fairly simple. The detail was good and it had a shine to it. I remember my mom did something different with Chewbacca. For the life of me, I can’t remember what she called it, but it had more of a dirt/flat look to it. You really can’t tell, but in front of Chewbacca is the controls to the Millennium Falcon. I remember thinking how professional the thing looked and thinking, “My mom made this!”

In front of Chewbacca is a small ceramic cat that mom made for my brother. It is much like the little pieces that I mentioned in the blog link above. I have to chuckle at the that coconut next to Chewbacca. We both had one, I think one was just a single person, while it looks like Chris’s may have been two. I think those were banks, but I could be wrong. Did we get those at Disney, too? I think so, but I cannot recall.

Next to that coconut is one of the best pieces my mom ever did – Yoda. This was the final Star Wars piece she worked on and it was fantastic. She was always trying new things and for Yoda’s coat, she used some kind of sandy stucco stuff that really made it look cool. The detail on this piece was just amazing.

Before moving to the last piece on the top shelf, I have to point out that the US and Italian Flags on that shelf were something that we both got while in Epcot, a trip that (for me) was cut short because of an ambulance ride to the hospital (it was nothing).

The last piece on that shelf may be the piece that started it all for my brother’s Wonder Woman collection. He has always loved the show, the comics, and everything about her. At one point he had enough Wonder Woman stuff to fill that entire book case. Today he has a Wonder Woman ROOM!

As you move down a shelf, there are a load of pictures that I know just by looking at them. Even though they are blurry in this photo, I know exactly what they are. The first is a photo of my folks, my brother, and my grandma in Florida. It was one of those “old time” photos. I was off with my friends when they had it taken. Then there are photos of my Aunt Jodi and my grandma. I’m not sure where the cross came from, but it looks like maybe there is a rosary hanging from it. (We were raised Catholic, but no longer practice that). Then there is a photo of my other grandparents, my cheesy senior picture, my brother’s favorite photo of him and my grandpa, a Polaroid of a lot of us on squeezed on the couch with my other grandpa and our dad, and finally another old time photo of Chris and my dad in some Civil War get up.

I have to admit that the dog on the shelf below the photo shelf looked familiar. I kept thinking it was something like Teddy Ruxpin and I wasn’t far off. Long before they produced Webkinz, Ganz made Wrinkles Talking Dogs. When I looked it up, it said it was a puppet.

Each one of those dogs had a tag with a number on it, making each one unique. Ebay had one for sale – for $400!! Yikes.

Back to the photo…I remember Garfield being a big deal around this time. All of the school book sales had Garfield books, the book stores always had a big display of them, and it was always on the front page of the Sunday comics page. Not to mention the TV show and movies… I don’t remember my brother being into Garfield, but there he is with Odie. Another picture of grandma and Jodi in on that shelf, too.

Here’s where it get’s sketchy, but I can make out most of the rest of the photo. Below Garfield are Disney’s Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy (that’s a tiny bit of his hat you can see). My brother has always loved Disney and goes there almost annually. If I had $5 for every Disney Character he has taken a photo with, I could maybe fund a trip to Disney!

Just a couple more observations. Next to the Disney stuffies, you can make out the top of an old time radio. I think, and I may be wrong, my brother and I both had one of these. You could listen to AM/FM radio on it and on the side was a spot you slid a cassette tape in to listen to it. We had MANY old radio shows on cassette and listened to them often.

Finally, in the bottom right corner of the photo is a TV. I laughed out loud when I saw the dials to change the channels on it! My first thought was that the box on top of it was a cable box, but it is too early for that. I’m pretty sure that was my brother’s alarm clock. That TV was the one we played Atari and Nintendo on back in the day. We may even have had a Betamax video player in there. Those were the days!!

I’ll have to find a photo of the shelves in my room to share one day. If I do, I will warn you, my room was always a disaster!

Another Mom Memory

Friday before work, my son Andrew was asking me about something that we had put in the basement. I took him downstairs to look for whatever it was and I stumbled on a wooden chest which was in a box of things I have been meaning to go through. I opened it up and was surprised to find a few things my mom had made for me.

My mom, for those who may not know, was a big crafter. One of the earliest hobbies she had was ceramics. I don’t recall if she took a class or not, but she enjoyed it and made a lot of things for people. I have blogged about her ceramics hobby before and so that you are up to speed, here is that blog from 2020:

Mom Memory – Ceramics

Did you read it? Ok, I can continue.

In the blog I mention that I still had a few pieces she made for me somewhere. Well, “somewhere” was that wooden chest. In it were 3 of 4 pieces that she made me. They aren’t in the best shape, and all of them are covered in dust from years on a shelf. The Frog had an eye busted off of it and is probably not something that can be repaired. However, there were other pieces.

First, she made my brother and I baseball mitts. These may or may not have been made before she really got into ceramics. Mine is kind of beat up, and there are some chips on it, but it always meant a lot that she made it for me.

All of these pieces are about the size of the palm of my hand. I make a mess painting a wall, so how she was able to get some of the detail on these baffles me. I did find the snail mentioned in the previous blog.

Despite the dust, you can still see some of the shine on this. From what I remember, by the time she got to making some of these pieces, she’d paint them and then they put them in an oven or something to dry and make them shine. I’m clueless of the process, but you can see the difference between the mitt and the snail.

Probably my favorite piece she made for me was a begging puppy. I’m not sure why, but it always made me smile. It was the first piece that I saw in the wooden chest.

I love how she painted my name on it.

In the previous blog there was a picture of the “Kissing Clauses” that mom made for Christmas. Over Easter, my brother sent me yet another piece of holiday décor my mom made. I remember she made these for both my grandparents, my aunt, and for us. My brother still has these Easter Eggs and it was so nice to see them again.

I’m almost positive that there were “grandma” and “grandpa” eggs that she did for the grandparents. I’m glad my brother has these, I’m not sure they’d still be around if I had them.

It is amazing how something so small and so trivial can mean so much to a person. As I opened the chest, I experienced surprise, happiness, and sadness all in about 5 seconds. I’m so grateful to still have these gifts from my mom.

Bells Are Ringing and Clowns Are … Laughing?

My grandma was no Clark Griswold in the outdoor Christmas Decorations Department. Inside, though, she used to really go all out. Well, at least she did before she moved to her condo.

She had a large mantle along the fireplace that she decorated every year. She had Christmas trees, reindeer, a Santa sleigh, angels, and more. On both sides of the fireplace, there were cement “pads” (really the only way I can think to describe them). She usually placed a small Christmas tree on each side and surrounded them with more trinkets. I know I had pictures of just the mantle somewhere, but can’t seem to find it. However, you get the basic idea from this cheesy photo of my brother and me.

One of the trinkets was a plastic mouse that had hair on the head. The hair made it look like one of those toy trolls. It never made sense to me as to why she always had that in there. I asked her one year and she explained that she had been sick or in the hospital one time and my folks sent her some flowers or a plant or something … from me. The mouse was part of the bouquet and she kept it. Sadly, it is one of the things that have disappeared and no one knows where it went.

As years went by, many of the same decorations were there. Note the Mrs. Santa Clause to the right of the Millennium Falcon box below. It always seemed to be out. This particular year, there was a set of shelves next to the TV. On top of it was her manger scene (behind my brother on the left). The silver star lit up above the baby Jesus. This may have been the manger set my mom made in ceramics, I can’t be sure.

For as long as grandma was in her house on Huntington, every Christmas she would hang these melted plastic decorations up on the wall. These were very popular in the 1970’s I guess. She had Santa in a sleigh being pulled by 9 reindeer….all Rudolph because that was all they made.

Those plastic decorations were something we had at our house, too. I remember the snowman, the Christmas tree, waving Santa, and the wreath. I did a search online and found that there were quite a bit of them. There were even some made for Thanksgiving and Easter.

In her front room, there was usually her big tree (eventually it was the ceramic one my mom made for her) right in the center of the front window and some garland around pictures. There might have been a wreath on the door, too. We didn’t go in this room much. It was the “fancy” room. Most of the breakable stuff was in there. Here are my grandparents in there around 1967-1968.

Bells and Clowns

I’m not sure what made me remember this particular decoration, but it was one of two very annoying things that grandma brought out every year. It was a simple, clear, red plastic bell that played music. It didn’t look anything like the bell in the video below.

I tried to search for it online and I found something similar to the one grandma had, but it isn’t THE one. Grandma’s was just a bell with a Christmas light inside of it that lit up in synch with the electronic music that was playing. I found this clip on YouTube which is almost the exact same music.

The missing holiday favorite from the clip is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Grandma’s bell played it and when it did the Christmas light inside blinked like it was a strobe light. It always made my grandma laugh. It made us laugh, too, the first couple times we heard it. After that it got annoying. She would turn it on and you’d have to listen to the first 7 or 8 carols before Rudolph played. When it did, she’d crack up. It was obnoxiously annoying.

The second annoying “decoration” she had was this scary looking clown doll. Now, what this clown had to do with Christmas I will never know. It wasn’t even dressed in Christmas colors.

This ugly thing would sit somewhere near the fire place among the rest of the decorations. Throughout each of our visits, grandma would walk over, pick it up and press the belly. Inside the clown was a “laugh box.” It would laugh for 20-30 seconds and it would crack my grandma up.

You can see the pure joy on her face in the above picture. To a degree, the laugh kind of reminded me of how my grandpa laughed, so maybe that is why she loved it so much. Every video I found on YouTube of the clown laughing, it sounds speeded up. I did, however find a video of just the laugh box and it plays at the speed my grandma’s clown laughed.

Imagine hearing that 4-5 times during an hour visit! I was always glad when that clown finally got put away!

As annoying as they were, I’d give anything to be able to go back to the days of that clown and that bell! So many Christmas memories involved my grandparents. Whether it was my mom’s folks …

… or my dad’s folks ….

I’d put up with those annoying sounds for however long I had to – just to have a few more minutes with them again!

Mom Memory – Ceramics

My brother was decorating for Christmas today and sent me a picture. That picture is the inspiration for this blog. I don’t recall blogging about this specific topic, but if I have, please forgive me.

My mom had many hobbies. I know I have mentioned them in the past. I can always remember her crocheting things as a kid. She made blankets, vests, and yes, even Christmas ornaments. She also was on a fabric paint kick for a while. She made sweatshirts for everyone in our family and friends, too.

Aside from quilting, I believe the longest hobby she did was ceramics. The work she did was amazing. I recall she had a table set up in the basement where she worked. She had one of those desk lamps with the swing arm on them to help her see. I remember it was a bright yellow lamp.

I remember two pieces she did for my grandma. One was a ceramic “praying hands” and another was a bust of Jesus. She did both of these in a “Mother of Pearl” paint and they came out white and shiny. I have no idea what became of them, but its a good bet that one of my aunts have them.

Somewhere I still have a few of the pieces she made for me. I have a snail and frog that sat on a shelf in my room for years. She made mugs, statues, busts, an Easter village, Halloween village and trick or treat bowl for candy, and Christmas ornaments. One year, our tree was loaded with so many of her ceramic ornaments, we had to tie the tree to the wall so it wouldn’t fall over!! My brother and I joked that it was because of the “angel band” ornaments. She must have had 40 ornaments with angels all playing a different instrument (they were hideous!).

She made ornaments for every family. Each one had their last name on it. My brother still has the one that was on our tree. I’m not sure if I lost when I moved in with Sam, but my mom made an ornament with a dog sleeping by the chimney. She painted it to look like our beagle, Daisy. I didn’t see it when I unpacked the ornaments this year, so I am not sure if still have it. I hope so.

One of the things my mom made (and I wish I still had) were ceramic Christmas trees. From what everyone tells me now, these are very popular and the older ones are worth some money. They had a light in the bottom that lit up the lights that were glued into the tree.

My grandma loved these little trees so much, she had my mom make her a large one. It was two pieces. My mom did the tree in the “Mother of Pearl” paint that she used for the pieces she made for my other grandma, and I remember it was just beautiful. My grandma used to put it up in her front window.

If you look closely, you can see where the base and top come together on the tree above. It probably was 3-4 feet tall.

I write all of the above to get to the picture my brother sent me today. I had all but forgotten about these pieces, which came to be symbolic of our Christmas decorations. I don’t recall them having a specific spot among the decorations. As a matter of fact, I believe they moved around from year to year. Sometimes they were on the table in the front room, other times they were on the mantle. Sometimes they were among the buildings of the Christmas village, other times they were in the front window. Mr. & Mrs. Claus were always there.

I don’t know if they were my mom’s favorite pieces, but she always made sure they were displayed prominently somewhere each Christmas. My mom told me that Santa was kissing Mrs. Claus goodbye before heading out to deliver all of his toys.

To be honest, I probably knew my brother had these, but I forgot. Every Christmas, I miss my mom a bit more than the rest of the year. Maybe it is because of the ornaments. Maybe I miss her singing along with Johnny Mathis. Maybe I just miss her smile and laughter. I’m grateful that a bit of mom still shows up at Christmas.