Slight Detour: Turn Right on Memory Lane

Special guest for Laurie's birthday:  Lorna.  Easy to tell it's Laurie's birthday cuz of all those Easter eggs on the cake. 

Laurie said that maybe she should NOT have allowed Marianne to take the shoe box of old photos home.  

Marianne responded that the photos of Laurie that later appeared on Facebook were not anywhere near as bad as what Marianne posted of herself.

It's been a Memory Lane week for numerous reasons, and, as we pore through family photos to prepare for our mother's Celebration of Life/Wake at Western Pleasure, Aug. 11, wonderful stories of time's past surface with the photos.

Someone thought the bottom photo of the four "angels" saying their prayers came from our family and that maybe it was taken after Marianne's postal heist of 1953.  

I suggested that maybe the little angels aka Skelton cousins had probably been instructed to pray for their 5-year-old criminal cousin in Sandpoint who now "had a prison record and would never get a job" following the discovery that she had been pilfering the contents of 12 neighborhood mailboxes for three weeks. 

Only problem with that story is that one of those cousins----the one who raised the glass in Mother's honor last Friday (angel on the right) had barely been born in 1953, if at all. 

I do have a shoebox full of photos, many of them horses, a large number of bulls, some of the Girl Scout Round-up at Farragut, a few royalty shots (including Queen Elizabeth above) and oodles of little-kid pictures. 

Laurie found the shoe box (which advertises Rawling track, tennis, football, softball, baseball and basketball shoes on its side).  Pricetag for whatever variety came in the box was $18.50. 

I brought the box home yesterday, and happily transcended into another time when Mother was snapping photos of birthday parties, horses, graduations, horses, family gatherings and, did I say, horses!

The birthday party in the top photo occurred in our kitchen at the North Boyer farm.  Mother loved any occasion when she could dress her little darlings to the nines.  I'm not sure the little darlings always shared her enthusiasm, but we knew better than to protest. 

The second two show earlier versions of Mother's Batch One and Batch Two.  Mike, Marianne and Kevin were, I believe, standing in the barnyard where it led into the west pasture and woods.  

Not much had been cleared at the time, and very few good fences had gone up, but it looks like a start, once Harold joined us and started developing the farm. 

Looks like the daisies were good that year, almost as prolific as the dandelions in the Queen Elizabeth picture. 

I personally think the photo of Laurie, Jim and Barbara is one of the best ever from our family collection.  Such beautiful kids and such a great addition for Batch One.  We always said Barbara was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL baby.  She came with a head full of that gorgeous hair.

One of the main folks to show up at the house often during those early childhood years was Helen Schmidt Poelstra, one of Mother and Harold's horselover friends.  

She also reigned as a queen, looking a whole lot better than Queen Elizabeth and probably a lot more comfortable.   She and Marian Wyman rode together often, and I'm pretty sure that's Marian in the photo with Helen.

As far as Helen and the princesses, I know a couple but not all.  Maybe some readers can help me out. 

Anyway, the shoe box found in the cabinet yesterday has proved dangerous here on the Web but kinda fun too. 

Happy Tuesday.