Spatter

Flashback Friday - The Alps

In anticipation of my trip to the Grand Tetons next week, I dug out this old picture of the Swiss Alps taken when I was backpacking through Europe in 1972.  The picture was so deteriorated by the time I scanned it that I had to apply an artistic filter to it.  Sadly, I have only a few photos from that trip...picture taking back then just wasn't a priority for me.  Dummy! 

Flashback Friday - Sears Tower

Back in 2004 I was sent to Chicago to attend the annual American Correctional Association Conference and...as the Department's Accreditation Manager...to attend the accreditation hearings for two of our facilities.  It was my first trip to the Windy City.  It just didn't hold any appeal for me.  But after this trip, I hope to go back...I loved it. 

One of the required sights to see is the city from atop the Sears Tower.  It's now called the Willis Tower, but I don't think I'll ever call it that sort of like how I'll always refer to sports teams by the name I came to know them as: Los Angeles Rams, not the St. Louis Rams...the St. Louis Cardinals, not the Arizona Cardinals.  You get the idea.

One view from up top below...pretty poor quality, but I wasn't doing anything but snapshots back then.

Here I am with a co-worker...taken either immediately before or after the shot above.

It was my first visit to a tall building since 9/11.  Did it cross my mind?  You bet.  But not enough to deter my going up.  Later in the week I also went up the John Hancock Building.  You can see it there in the background.  It's not as high as Sears, but still quite breathtaking.  While the Sears observation deck is simply a tourist attraction,  John Hancock's view is taken in while eating and/or drinking.


 

Flashback Friday - Saying My Prayers

This is me saying the nightly prayer of my childhood:  "now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep...if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."  I always got down on my knees to do it. 

It was a common children's prayer in those days.  But it seems to me now that it's a bit austere.  I wonder if it's been replaced or if it's still in use.  Anyone out there know?

Flashback Friday - Ready For Some Football

It  didn't take much for my brother and I to ham it up for the camera.  My brother seems to be taking this all seriously, but I seem to be getting a kick out of it.  I love our stances...classic football card poses.  They're quite dated...the pros now days don't look like that in real life or on cards.  And look at that old helmet my brother has on.  I guess I didn't have one of my own. I did have some western styled gloves. You probably can't tell on this old, poor quality and doctored photo, but I have them on.  Perhaps I was playing for the Dallas Cowboys. Shudder the thought! 



Post Note
There were no Dallas Cowboys in those days.  They didn't come into existence until 1960 and this picture was taken in 1956.

Flashback Friday - A Walk In The Woods

While backpacking through Europe...many years ago now...I came upon a trail going through a wooded area.  For the life of me, I'm not sure how I found it or where I was going, but I followed it in.  Much to my delight, every so often there would be a statue.  It made the walk all the more pleasurable. 

I recently had asked Carin about where I might have been, but have since discovered my documentation better than first thought.  These woods were...in Bunnick, Holland.  I'm wondering if they still exist today.

Flashback Friday - Amy

I just found out that my dad's second wife Amy passed away recently.  She had been sick for quite a while.  We had lost touch after my dad died.  There just wasn't enough to keep us connected without him.  She was a good woman.  She saved my dad's life...quite literally...and for that alone, I'll always be grateful. 

This is the only picture I have of her...dancing to some dixieland in their apartment as she fixed dinner.  It was my visit with my dad since my parents divorced...my first attempt at a reconciliation.  It went well...and she helped make it so.

Flashback Friday - Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was my birthday...number 57.  Lordy!  I had a lovely day...working with the earth and a nice lunch at a local cantina.  Quite a different sort of day than the birthday I had when turning 50.  It seems like only yesterday that I was celebrating with golfing buddies:

It's almost odd looking at this.  One woman has since passed away and another is in advance stages of cancer.  While we mostly keep in touch, we're no longer the tight-knit group presented here.  Ages and stages.  I recently read a quote I thought was worth remembering:  don't be upset because something good has ended...instead...be glad that it happened. 

Flashback Friday - Bare Bottomed

Who among us don't have at least one picture of a compromising nature?  I happen to have several thanks to a father who seemed to get a kick out of taking them.  Here's one of them...a bit doctored up in Photoshop:

 

I thought it a fitting choice given my colonoscopy this week :-)

Flashback Friday - Going Home

My summer in Europe (1972) had come to an end when this picture was taken outside the Luxenburg airport.  Thanks to my adventures, I was wiser than when I had arrived...and...certainly thinner too!  I guess having only $200 to spend over two months contributed to both facts.  I was never the same again...both my mind and my body!

Flashback Friday - College Days

That's me...the "cool" one on the far left with some of my dorm mates circa 1973 at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida...one of the three colleges I attended to get a four year degree.  This was the middle one.  I attended my junior year.  I was majoring in sociology/education at the time, but the following year I changed  to mass communications/broadcasting.   I thought I'd make documentary films.   Well, it didn't work out that I did.  Life choices...life changes. 

Each dorm had four rooms/eight people...nice and intimate.   The girl on the far right was my roommate...an lass of Irish descent.  We got along fine, but never stayed in touch.  I was sort of here today, gone tomorrow.  Always on the move...then and still now.  It really was all my soul could do to stay put in Corrections for 25 years!