March 4, 1953

Fifty-six years ago today my parents were married. This is their formal wedding portrait which was taken in a studio before the wedding. Both 19, they look so young. I don't know if the photos were taken early because there weren't photographers at weddings or for another reason. They had a church wedding and a reception that included a dinner at a local restaurant. It was a very small affair. I have the guest book from the reception, and there were less than 30 people there.

My mother wore a suit rather than a gown. She was poor as the proverbial church mouse. When she and my father met they were both 16, and my grandparents basically took her in. She tells of her first Christmas with them when just about every gift under the tree was for her.

Three years later they married. Just 19 years old, they expected my father to be drafted and sent to Korea. Rather than get their own apartment, after their honeymoon they went home and continued to live with my grandparents. The war ended later that year, and he was never drafted.

For their honeymoon they went to New York City and stayed in the Abbey Hotel for four nights. According to the receipt I still have, the room rate per night was $8.93 including taxes. The bill shows one charge for the valet for $1. They made three phone calls; two at 15¢ each and one long distance call for 84¢, no doubt a call to home.

Below are room service menus from the hotel. Take a look at these prices! Click on any to get a closer look.

And here are two matchbook covers with photos of them taken at the Latin Quarter, a club which in those days was located on Broadway.


Here's the drawing from the matchbook that I grabbed from the Internet. Looks like it must have been a fun place.



I'm so glad my mother hung onto these things over the years. It's so much fun to look back. Dad died in 2001 but it's still impossible to see this date come up on the calendar and not remember what happened on March 4 1953.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Dad Would Be Proud

I took this photo of a cotoneaster beside an antique cultivator last fall. This is one of several antique farm implements on our property that came from Paul's grandfather's farm. This one sits in a rock garden in our yard. Paul remembers walking behind the cultivator hooked to one of the farm horses and in front of his grandfather. Walking behind a cultivator and a horse? What century was that?

With this photo, last fall, for the first time in my life, I entered a photo competition. I actually entered two contests and won both with the same photo. The real estate company I work with, Residential Properties Ltd., has a photo competition four times a year, one for each season. We have so many fabulous photographers among our agents, I never considered entering a photo until I saw this one. The winning photos are used as part of a slide show on the company's website. Most of the winning photos have always been interesting houses or local scenery. This was a little out of the ordinary but I think they liked it because it was in my yard and had a personal story.

The second contest I entered with this photo was on the blog The Badass Geek . A professional photographer himself, The Geek has a really cool website at Shift Photography, please go visit him. Feeling pretty full of myself after having won the company contest, I figured 'why not?' I entered and won! The Geek actually offered a prize. I was told to choose a photo from his website which he would send matted and ready to frame. I picked a beautiful sunset over water which arrived yesterday.

I started taking pictures when I was eight years old. I don't know what I was using for a camera back then but I remember seeing what looked like 35mm negative strips hanging in our make-shift darkroom. Soon I had my own little 110 Instamatic. I've moved up a little since then. Here's my newest camera.

My father set up a darkroom in the cellar of our house in the early 1960's. And I do mean cellar. Half the floor in the cellar of our early 19th century house was dirt. The photo enlarger was on an old work bench. I use to develop and print black and white photos. There were only three baths necessary to develop black & white and many, many more for color so we only worked in black & white. My father is gone so I can't ask him so my memory of the whole process may be a little fuzzy.

I remember how cool it was to watch pictures of my dog Missey come up from the trays. Notice there's always a dog in my stories? I still have some of those photos. I also remember one day, in my clumsy way, knocking a bottle of a chemical wash over in my mother's kitchen. I watched the cabinets instantly turn white as the stuff splashed across the wood. Fortunately it washed off but for a minute I thought I was in big trouble.

So after starting my photography experience in a dirt cellar 45+ years ago, I still enjoy taking pictures.