Saturday, April 2, 2011

A Little Slice of Life

The other day I was at my moms and her photo album had fallen apart. She had created it back in the 40s so it was on it's way out anyway. I told her we could create a new album with the pictures and we could have some fun walking down memory lane. She wanted to throw most of the photos away stating "I don't know most of these people anymore, I'll never see them again and it's too much work." Spoken like a true 87-yr-old. I wouldn't let her off the hook that easy so we delved in and took a look at some of them. Even though she was born in Duluth she spent from junior high years and up in the Minneapolis area. She went to Washburn High School and went steady with a guy named Donald who we both agreed was a real "looker". She would later run off to California with some girl-friends when her job as a typist at Cargill Corp. was ending (yea, they had layoffs then too). That is where she met some guy named Harold who she later became engaged to but then met and married my dad at a USO show in San Diego and the rest is history.
While in high school she had tons of friends, hung out at Lake Nokomis and was a baton twirler for the marching band at Washburn High School. Her best friend was Arlene Dahl, the American film actress that worked in TV (What's My Line and various movies) in the 50s. My mom use to go over to her house and they would practice their twirling. When Dahl was active in TV in the 50s the press would always state her age as about 4 years younger than she was and my mom said she would yell at the TV "she was not born in 1927, she was born in 1923 you fool!" So much for a little slice of her life very different from mine. I never dated in high school or college and I would never be brave enough to run off to another state with friends but then my mom was a real "looker" and braver when she was in her 20s than I was. For those of you with moms that are still among the living pull out those old photo albums tucked away in a closet somewhere and walk down memory lane with her. For those of you whose mom is no longer with you take a look anyway and remember the good times.
Mom is the one on the end closest to the photographer.

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