I was looking for a specific photo for today, but for the life of me, I cannot find it. However, while going through pictures, I found one that made me laugh out loud. The photo would have been taken around 2008-2009. At the time I would have still been with my ex.
Our son, Dimitri had wondered off while we were cleaning or cooking or something. You know how it is – when the kids get quiet, you need to go and see what they are up to. When I walked down the hall, I looked in the bathroom and could not believe what I saw.
There was toilet paper all over the place and there he was swimming in the toilet! I laughed like crazy. He was in heaven just playing in the water. I don’t recall if he tried to flush himself! I remember showing my in-laws this picture and they laughed just as hard. They actually had it framed and hung it in their bathroom!
No deep dive into the background of this photo, just posting to give you a laugh.
This week, I began a new feature called The Music of My Life and began featuring music from every year of my life. I began in 1970, and I thought I would stay in 1970 for the Friday Photo Flashback. As a bonus, because I couldn’t decide on one picture, you get two!
The above photo was taken shortly after I came home from the hospital. It is one of my favorite photos of my dad and me. There really isn’t a whole lot happening in the background, but there are some things that really stick out to me.
First, I was a pretty good looking kid! Next, my dad, for as long as I can remember always had a mustache. The fact that he doesn’t have one in this picture makes it a bit more special to me. Then, there are his sideburns. It seems like he always seemed to have those, but they are a bit more prominent here. Dad is also wearing a white t-shirt in this picture. It seems like he would wear those often when he was just walking or working around the house. Finally, we both have hair in this photo! LOL
The above photo is a bit after the one with my dad. I love my mom’s smile in this picture! Despite my brother and I making fun of her about them in later years, I love that she’s wearing the horn-rimmed glasses.
This photo was taken at my grandma’s house. So it makes it a nostalgic trip to remember the lay out of her house. It seems like my grandma had that yellow couch forever! There was a green chair made of the same scratchy fabric that went with it. It is no surprise to see the paneling on the wall behind it. If I could stretch the right side of the picture a bit more, directly above the couch was grandma’s cuckoo clock.
On the left side of the picture is a napkin holder that I vaguely remember her having. Later on, they just used paper towels that they stacked in a Tupperware sort of container. Directly behind my mom was grandma’s fridge, which always had a big block of parmesan cheese that she would grate fresh for spaghetti dinners. The freezer was on top and I remember they’d have Wonder Bread in thick plastic bags in there. I wish I knew what that thing is above the freezer next to that vase. It looks like fake flowers, but I don’t know.
Behind me is the stove, which produced some of the most amazing meals I’ve ever eaten! It looks like there was an analog clock on it to the right. I can see one of grandma’s percolators on the stove, as well as the infamous casserole dish that everyone had in the 70’s! In the middle of the stove top, I can see the glass salt and pepper shakers that my grandma used all her life. They are just like the ones you used to see in restaurants before they were replaced by those plastic ones.
There is actually a space between the stove and that counter top behind me. If I were to stretch that side of the photo to the left, the sink would be against the wall and another cupboard would be on the left side of a window that was above the sink. This was the spot where my father was aggravating my grandma one day and she went to kick him in his behind, but he moved. She fell and he stood there laughing. It was probably not funny for her at the time, but she certainly laughed about it whenever she retold the story.
There was a time when grandma always had a table cloth on the table, but as we got older, she stopped. I’m guessing it is because we stained them with food or drink. She eventually just had placemats. For whatever reason, I remember that there was a wooden bowl in the middle of the table that had fake wax fruit in it. My brother and I always seemed to pluck the plastic grapes off the plastic vines.
I have so many wonderful memories of that house, my grandparents, my mom, and my dad. I am glad to have so many photos to remind me of those days…..
As my birthday approaches this coming week, I thought it would be fun to look at a birthday from the past. These photos will take you back 46 years to my 8th birthday.
The first thing I notice about this photo is the fact that my folks didn’t develop the film for over a year!! I find that hilarious.
The little dude in the awful brown and yellow outfit cutting the cake is yours truly. Look at that mop of hair!! This was probably one of the last birthdays I was sort of skinny.
The lady in red is my beautiful mom who made my birthday cake. At 8 years old, I’m sure I didn’t ask for a train cake, it was probably one of the cake pans she had already in the house. Just looking at this picture makes me miss her even more.
I cannot be sure, but I am guessing that my aunt is to my mom’s left. It looks like she is sitting on one of these green bar chairs we had. My brother is to my right with a party staple – Towne Club pop!
As I tend to do, I want to see the stuff in the background, but so often the photos are blurry. There are some things of interest here, however. I do not for the life of me remember the olive green corded phone on the wall. I do remember my mom and dad sticking notes with numbers and such above it. It looks like there might be a couple index cards there.
Directly behind my mom, up against the wall, I can make out what is probably a macramé plant holder. If memory serves me right, there were sea shells woven into the plant hanger itself. My mom hand plenty of plants in the house and at one point I had made her a plant hanger at summer camp.
I have to laugh at the classic Mr. Coffee Coffee Pot on the counter. I think every family member had one of those except my grandma who only used a percolator for coffee. It looks like my folks have stacked up stuff on the counter, which was a constant. I remember my dad moving stuff off the coffee pot whenever he had to make coffee.
I really tried to make out what looks like a bookcase, or maybe part of the stereo in the room behind my mom. It looks like it may have photo albums on there, but I can’t be sure. That was usually the spot where the TV was, but it could have been in a different spot at this time.
I had originally only wanted to post the one photo, however, after looking at another one taken the same day, I had to share for one reason – the ugly wallpaper! Get a load of that terrible pattern!
I like this picture a lot more than the other, because I have a cheesy grin and it screams 1970’s! For example, the paneling up half the wall. Paneling seemed to be in every house back then! Then, of course, the Polaroid cameras that every had back then. I’m surprised that these pictures were not taken with one!
If you look at the middle of the table, you will just be able to see a bit of one of mom’s plants. It may have been what she called spider plants. She used to have pieces of those plants in jars, vases, and pots all over the place! And just above my head is the bottom “tail” of one of the many plant hangers mom had.
The weird thing about these photos is that I can tell you without seeing them, who was there to celebrate with us. Both sets of grandparents, my aunt, and my folks. It was never really a big deal, but I loved those little birthday parties.
Oh, to go back 46 years just to see those folks who are no longer here ….
I’m not sure why I stopped doing this feature, but it is time for it to make a return. I was sent a photo from a friend that I had forgotten about. When I opened up the email, I remembered this feature. It is probably something I posted on my Facebook or now defunct MySpace, but I don’t think I have ever posted it on here.
This photo will take us back to 2004 or 2005.
This photo was taken as part of a photo project that a friend was doing for college. The idea was to take 100 photos and then tell a story with only 12 of them. She came to the station during a show and shot some pictures of me on the air, it just so happened that my oldest boy was with me that day. He was probably around 2 years old here.
This was not taken in the main studio. This was taken in one of the production studios where I was probably cutting a commercial or working on sweepers. Dante’ loved to talk into the microphone and I always had him say things for my show. Just like they had to do with the kids who voiced those Charlie Brown specials. I would feed him a line in pieces and then edit them all together.
I had him say things like:
“Not funny, Daddy!”
“Is it time to go home yet?”
“I’m Dante’ and you’re listening to my daddy, Keith Allen, on 94-5 The Moose!”
“Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! Wait, what?” (For play after a bad joke)
I don’t think this was a pose, I truly believe that was meant to be a candid, but I just happened to be looking at the camera.
As I look at behind me in the photo, in the cabinet I can see one of the equalizers. I always wanted to get one for a hone studio (which I never ended up doing). Underneath that is a Mini-Disc player. I loved having one of those. I used it when I DJ’d a lot. It was digital, so you could edit and even loop things on it.
For the older readers, directly below that is a cassette player. When I was on the west side of the state, we would actually get commercials on them for on air play. Needless to say, the quality was NEVER that good. We primarily used it to record commercials to take to the clients so they could see if they liked the way their commercial sounded.
It is not in view, but under that was a CD player. We would dub songs into the automation system that way or rip them in on the computer. Most of our production music was on CD (and you can see some of those sitting directly above the mixer board.
By this time, most of the production was done on the computer (directly in front of my son) or the one to the left of that one. However, one of the coolest things in this picture is the ancient reel to reel machine behind my left shoulder. I believe that is an old Tascam unit. We used to use those to record phone calls at my first couple jobs. If something needed to be edited, you had to mark the tape with a china marker, cut the tape with a razor blade and splice it back together with tape. It was a process, but I remember watching some guys who were masters at editing things in less than a minute to be ready for air.
That microphone was one of my favorites to use. It was an Electro Voice RE20. I was gifted one of them and it remains one of my treasured pieces of radio memorabilia. Perhaps one day, I will venture into podcasting and find a way to use it again.
It is amazing to think that this picture was taken was about 20 years ago. I am glad that I still have some audio clips of my son from this age. Today, he could sing bass in a choir his voice is so low. He just turned 22!! Time truly flies….
My dad sent a photo to me and my brother this week of my Great Grandma (Grandpa’s mom) that I’d never seen before. That got me to thinking about the last time I saw my Great Grandma. It was at my high school graduation party where today’s photo was taken.
This is a truly amazing photo, as it marked one of the few times all of these family members were together.
In the front row from left to right – me, my Great Grandma, and my brother (sporting the pink Miami Vice jacket). In the back row from left to right – Grandpa P, his sister Marietta, Grandma D, Mom, Dad, Grandma P, and my Great Aunt Rose.
This photo was probably taken close to the end of the part, as my dad and grandpa have their suit jackets off. My grandpa came wearing what we called his Century 21 coat. For those who don’t remember, the real estate agents from century 21 used to always wear these gold colored jackets.
Here is a story about my Great Grandma that still makes me laugh. We used to call her “Light Finger Louie” because she had a very bad habit of swiping things from people and then giving then to my Grandpa. They weren’t necessarily big or expensive things (most of the time), but there were watches, Zippo lighters, cuff links, and such that would miraculously appear in my grandfather’s hands (or pockets) as he was leaving his visits from Great Grandma!
I think the saddest thing about finding old photos like these is the realization that those people are no longer with us physically. The only ones still around in that photo are my brother, my dad, and me.
I get ribbed a lot about all the photos I take of the kids. This week on Facebook, when I posted about my grandpa, I stated that the reason I take so many pictures is “because one day those pictures, and the memories from them, are all we have left.”
It’s been a few weeks since I have done one of these posts. I neglected to write about a pretty big event this week, so let’s go back 21 years ago.
My oldest son, Dante’, was born 21 years ago this week. It is so hard to believe that it has been that long. They say that when you have kids time moves a bit faster. I have four children now and I can tell you that the more kids you have, the faster the time goes!
This photo was taken at the hospital just after he was born. What is special about this picture is that my mom and my grandma are also in it. He was my mom’s first grandchild and my grandma’s first great grandchild.
My mom slept in the waiting room on very uncomfortable chairs waiting the arrival of my son. She refused to leave. We did not know the sex of the baby and mom was really sure it was going to be a girl. It didn’t matter that the baby was a boy, because she was madly in love with him at first glance!
She and my former mother in law were the first to see him. I was pushing him to our room in the rolling bassinette (seen above) accompanied by a nurse. My mom thought she saw me in the hall and the two of them ran to see. Sure enough, they both got a peak at their grandson.
I love the picture above because you can see the awe in my face. You can see the joy and curiosity in my mom’s face and the sheer happiness on my grandma’s face. I also love that my mom’s arm is around my grandma. The two of them didn’t always see eye to eye, but the birth of my son brought them together here.
Both mom and grandma have passed away. The short time that my mom got with my son gave her more strength as she fought those last years of her battle with breast cancer. No matter how much she hurt, no matter how sick she may have felt, she never passed up an opportunity to see him. He gave her a reason to fight harder. They had a very special bond.
All these years later, my son still speaks of her. I don’t think there has been a year that he doesn’t stop at the cemetery near her birthday or the anniversary of her passing. She would be SO proud of him.
I know I am very proud of him. He is officially a MAN now. I worked on his birthday, and I am hoping to be able to get together with him to share an official “toast” to him. I had to laugh because he went to Olive Garden on his birthday and he had his first glass of wine. I asked how he liked it. “Eh, it was ok. It was a bit much.” I told him, “Well, you can’t drink it like you drink milk or water, you have to sip it!” He told me, “Yeah, I found that out the hard way.”
Ella wanted to wish him a happy birthday and so we made sure to video chat with him on his birthday. She said, “You’re gonna be 21!” Dante’ reminded her that he was now 21 and she just repeated herself. She loves her big brothers.
It’s been quite a journey for him and he has come so far in his 21 years. He will continue to grow and mature. He is going to do great things. He is one of the kindest and loving people I know. He is funny and loves to laugh. I see a lot of me in him. Sometimes, when I hear him talking to me, I actually can see myself talking to my dad. It’s crazy.
It has been a few weeks since I’ve done one of these. I’m not sure why it has been so long. Anyway, with this being a holiday, I found one that I wanted to re-share.
Today, I was going through Facebook Memories and I saw this photo from last year:
We snapped this on Andrew’s first St. Patrick’s Day. It’s really amazing to see how much these two have grown. They are almost the same weight and size now!
There really isn’t much more to say about the picture. It is one of my favorites of the two of them.
Welcome to another edition of the Friday Photo Flashback feature! This time around we go back to 1988 (and 1999).
In the past it has been fun for me to find a picture and examine the things in the background. The picture I have chosen really doesn’t allow me to do that, because there’s not really anything more than some of my favorite people.
In going through photos, I came across one from my graduation party and it made me smile and sad at the same time.
The photo above features from left to right: Papa Joe, my Uncle Tom, my dad, my grandpa, and Mr, Kanne.
What I love about this picture is the connection to another picture, which connects some friendships. Look at the photo below, which I may have posted on here in the past. It was taken at my first wedding in 1999:
I think it is extremely cool that the two photos are almost identical in that Papa Joe is on the left in the top picture and his son, Joe, is on the left in the bottom photo. Mr. Kanne is on the right in the top picture and his son, Steve, is on the right in the bottom picture. My dad is in the center in the top picture and I’m in the center (center-left) in the bottom picture.
(In the wedding photo: Joe, my brother Chris, Me, Steve, Jeff, and Steve)
Sadly, in the top picture, my grandpa, my uncle and Mr. Kanne have all passed away. My uncle and Mr. Kanne are buried in the same cemetery as my mom and are not that far from each other. I often stop at all three graves when I am there.
Collectively in those photos are 10 men who all played (and continue to play) important roles in my life.
On a humorous note, I can’t help but think that both photos look like a police line up …
Welcome to the first Friday Photo Flashback of 2023. Every once in a while I will be looking for a particular picture and stumble on another. That is the case with today’s featured picture. I came across it while I was searching for a picture from yesterday’s blog.
I truly do not know a lot about this picture. If I had to guess, I would say I am 3 or 4 years old here.
I know that this was taken in Grandma and Grandpa D’s back yard. Whoever took the photo is standing directly in front of the sliding patio door. Directly behind me would be my grandparent’s house. Right up against it was an ugly green metal rocker/couch. It had metal holes in it shaped like squares and you’d get up with the imprints of them on the back of your legs.
To my left in the photo and on the other side of the picnic table, I can see the popular lawn furniture of the era! Remember those aluminum chairs with the straps?
Everyone had these and they were the chairs of choice before the fold up ones everyone uses today. Someone is sitting in the chair in front of the picnic table in the photo. I wish I knew who it was. If I had to guess, it is probably my grandma. Of course, it could be my mom or even my great grandma.
The table is obviously made up for some sort of outdoor dinner or lunch. It looks like 8 plates are set. Grilled burgers or hot dogs, perhaps? I only say that because it looks like a bottle of ketchup on the table next to some red and white napkins.
The bowl at the end of the table looks like a Tupperware bowl. It is anyone’s guess as to what is in the bowl, but I would say that if was the turquoise colored Pyrex bowl, it would have been grandma’s marshmallow fruit salad. I always seem to remember it being in that bowl.
The picnic table was there as long as I can remember. I also remember that wooden half privacy fence. In later years, when I would go to cut grandma’s grass, I remember it starting to fall apart.
It looks like there might be a pack of cigarettes at the end of the table. I may be wrong. I thought it might be Marlboro, but upon looking at the packaging, there are not two red areas on the pack.
Then I thought about how much my grandma loved playing Gin. She may have even played bridge. Maybe they played pinochle. I don’t know, but it could very well be a deck of cards on the table.
I admit I had to take a minute to think about my grandparent’s back yard. What else do I remember? My aunt had a swing set back there. I’d have to ask my aunt if she remembers more, because I could be wrong. I want to say that it looked like this:
For some reason, I can’t recall if it had the bench swing (on the right) or the two seater thingy (on the left) or both. For some reason I remember a tree being close to the swing set, maybe up against one of the ends.
I also remember a rose bush up against the back of the house which often yielded pink or white roses. It may have been right up against the chimney. I know there were also rose bushes on the side of the house.
The one thing I remember most about my grandma’s back yard was that there was a huge fence along the back. There was a swinging gate that opened and closed which led to a cemetery! We didn’t go in there much, but there were times we did. I think my aunt used to tell my brother and I spooky stories about going back there. All I know if I was never out back when it was dark! Even when I was older, I made sure to be there early enough to mow before it got dark!!
This is one of those instances where I wish I could take the picture and “uncrop” it! I would love to see more of the back yard and I would love to see who is sitting there with me.
It’s time for another Friday Photo Flashback. As we get closer to the Christmas holiday, I picked another Christmas photo to look at. It is from 1974.
I found this on a hard drive. I am guessing that it is a scan that my brother did of some of the photos from my aunt. My Aunt Jodi and I are 4 years apart. This photo was taken on Christmas Day in 1974. My aunt and I are featured in the picture.
There are a few reasons I chose to feature this particular picture. First of all, I do not remember it. As I said, it had to be one my grandmother took. I don’t recall seeing it in an albums at my house, or in any batch of digital scans from my dad.
Next, it takes me right back to my grandma’s living room. Where the Christmas tree is, my grandpa’s rocking chair was usually there. Next to it, or on the wall next to it (which was a half wall as I recall) was where my grandpa kept his cabinet phonograph.
Those things were awesome! He had many big band albums, and one with Harry Belafonte singing in concert. He always played the song about a hole in the bucket or something.
The fireplace was a real fireplace as I remember. I may have only witnessed one real fire in it growing up. I recognize the red candle that is behind me and to my right in the picture. Grandma had that for at least a few years. I am four in this picture, but it is in the same spot in another Christmas picture from their house when I was 2.
I love the mess of open boxes and wrapping paper all over the place in the picture. It is a bit too blurry to tell what some of the toys in boxes are, but that army jeep was probably my gift. This may have been the year I got a GI Joe Doll. The GI Joe came with a small hand grenade. This must have been years before anyone worried about kids choking on things, because it was quite small. It was so small that my brother stuck it in his nose and it got stuck! I know that required a trip to the ER to have it removed! The more I think about it, he may have stuck it in his ear, I don’t know.
UPDATE: My brother was able to zoom in a bit on the picture and told me that the box behind me is actually a Weebles set! Sure enough, here is the box!
I’m not a fan of the buzz cut that I am sporting, but it was a favorite haircut of my folks. I had them often. I also don’t know what to make of the outfit I am wearing. Wow! The 70’s sure had some crazy patterns on pants! Even my aunt’s pants look like something you’d see on an old golfer.
I really have no idea what my aunt is handing me. Of course, the way we fought as kids, she might be taking whatever that thing is away from me. Is it a snake? Is it a dinosaur? Is it a fish? I really cannot say. I don’t remember that thing at all! I’m smiling, so I must have thought it was cool.
The crocheted shawl my aunt is wearing has GOT to be something my mom made. If I were to make a wager, it very well may have been her Christmas gift from my mom. Mom loved to crochet and made a lot of things for family. She made me some sort of sweater vest one year. When she was into ceramics, she made something for every one. When she was making fabric painted sweatshirts, everyone got one. Because the pattern, I would certainly think that the shawl is my mom’s handiwork.
You will also notice that on the tree, right behind my aunt is a crocheted diamond ornament. My mom made hundreds of those ornaments. One year our tree was full of them! Want proof?
The other thing I notice in the picture with my aunt and me is the garland. It seems like garland was a necessity for Christmas for my mom and grandma. It is wrapped around the tree, which is where you’d expect it, I suppose. But you see the lone strand hanging down along the wall by the fire place? Right there between the tree and the melted plastic Santa? I can almost bet that it is strung along the top of the fire place.
I stopped writing and went to my hard drive to see if I could find a picture of the garland. Sure enough, a couple years earlier, here is my aunt and I in front of the same fireplace. There along the wall – is the garland!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 