On the left you are looking at my mom holding her first born baby, me, in the town I was born in, Eugene, Oregon.
Happy Mother's Day to mom, and all the other moms who have mothered me during my years of being mothered.
Looking through my collection of photos I found some pictures of some of my favorite moms, moms like my sister, Jackie, my Aunt Arlene, my Great Grandma Tillie and Grandma Sylvia, but I could not find a picture of my Grandma Vera, my mom's mom.
I know I have pictures of Grandma Vera, but my photo organization method is very haphazard, making locating a specific photo a bit of a time consuming treasure hunt.
Below you are looking at my Great-Grandma Tillie.
On the left that would be me, then my little brother, Jake, and on the far right, that would be my big sister, Clancy. This photo is one of the rare documented occurrences where Clancy is wearing a dress. I found two other photos of Clancy wearing a dress which we will come to later in this Mother's Day blogging.
Great Grandma Tillie and my Great Grandpa John came to America, from Holland, in the l880s. I do not know if they were illegal immigrants. I do know that they moved to various locations in America, never quite liking their location. Then they got word of a location in a place called Washington, near the Canadian border, a place where a lot of Dutch immigrants ended up, with land much like Holland. And so my Great Grandpa John was sent out west to check out this place. He returned with tales of tall trees, ample fertile land, apple trees and berries growing wild. And so the family headed west, yet again, to farm near the Dutch town of
Lynden, where my dad's dad, my Grandpa Cornelius, was born in 1902 and where my Grandpa married my Grandma Sylvia in 1927, which eventually resulted in my dad being born in 1930, and where my mom was born a couple years later, with my mom and dad getting married a couple decades after that.
Enough of the history lesson, back to the Mothers.
No, that is not one of the Clancy-in-a-dress photos below.
That is one of my favorite mom's, my dad's big sister, my Aunt Arlene, sitting next to my dad. My mom has her back to the camera in the next photo.
That would be me on the far left, with my dad standing on the far right. The aforementioned Grandma Sylvia is sitting next to my dad, with my little brother, Jake, next to Grandma.
Two mothers are in the next photo, my grandma and my mom. This photo is sort of a sad one. I'll tell you why.
That is my dad drinking coffee on the right, sitting across from his three brothers. Of my dad's three brothers only one is still living. My Uncle Mooch, on the far left, is currently living in Omaha, Nebraska. Grandma Sylvia is sitting between Uncle Ivan on the left and Uncle Mel on the right, all three no longer with us on this mortal coil.
One more picture of my favorite Mother, my mom, and then we will conclude with a series of pictures of my other favorite mom, my little sister Jackie.
My dad was in the Army when mom and dad decided it was a good day to get married on the 6th Anniversary of the dropping of the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima. Soon after getting married my dad was shipped overseas, to France.
My little sister Jackie, mother of my nephews Christopher and Jeremy, probably does not know it, but it was by being a fun big brother to my new little baby sister that I honed the skills that later had me being such a good uncle to my four nephews.
Above you are looking at me and my siblings on a summer day getting our picture taken whilst standing on the front yard of the house we grew up in in Burlington, Washington. I am holding my new little sister, Jackie, next to me is Clancy, in the first known instance of a photo taken of Clancy in her basic lifelong uniform. Next to Clancy is Jason and Joey's dad and Spencer Jack's grandpa, my little brother Jake.
Baseball was indoctrinated into my siblings at a young age, as you can see below, with Jackie in her first baseball uniform.
I rebelled against the baseball indoctrination. My limited faculties did not allow me to understand what was so fun about swatting at a ball with a stick, catching a ball after being hit by the stick, or throwing the ball after catching the ball after it got hit with a stick.
And now the aforementioned rare additional photos documenting my sister Clancy wearing a dress.
I have absolutely no recollection of being all dapper in a suit and tie at such a young age, but apparently this did happen, because photos did not lie back in the days before photoshopping. That would be me on the left, holding my little sister Jackie's hand, then Clancy being all prettied up in a dress, while it appears my little brother, Jake, forgot his tie. Or is that a bow tie I see below his chin?
Above we have Clancy being all pretty in pink, with me standing next to Clancy, while Jackie appears to be holding either a doll or her kitty Pebbles, while brother Jake stands at military attention.
Below can you guess where my dad, me and Jackie are sitting?
If you guessed San Juan Capistrano, in California, you would have guessed correctly. I would have been either 13 or 14 at the time this picture was taken, which would have made Jackie 6 or 7.
Well, that about ends my Mother's Day look at the past of some of my favorite mothers.
Also among my favorite mothers is Spencer Jack's grandma, Cindy, she being my very favorite ex-sister-in-law. Wee Cheng, my favorite mother in all of Singapore. Also, my favorite mother in all of West Texas, the Queen of Wink. Plus the Reigning Queen of Tonasket, Alice O Della.
I am likely forgetting a mother or two, but you know who you are....
UPDATE:
I found another rare photo documentation of sister Clancy in a dress.
That would be Clancy on the right, with me on the left, and little brother, Jake, holding little sister Jackie's hand in the middle. Is that the 1955 Plymouth that was the family car way back then, behind us? One of my all time scariest car danger memories involve that car.
We were on our way to Ocean Shores on the Washington Pacific Coast. Back then there was no freeway type road from Olympia heading west. It was a two lane curvy, hilly road. Our assigned seats whilst traveling were static, never changing, til years later when we got a station wagon. My seat was the right side window, Clancy in the middle, brother Jake on the left.
On a tight turn suddenly my door popped open. This was before seat belts were a mandatory thing. The door opened and pulled me with it. I held on for dear life, literally, while dad quickly braked to a stop. The latch had somehow failed, rendering the door impossible to keep shut. Dad rigged some temporary solution and we were on our way.
This happened before things like recalls had been invented. I don't think suing a car company for a dangerous design flaw had yet been invented either.
I do remember that soon after this incident my mom and dad had seatbelts installed. I think from Sears, if my memory is serving me correctly....
