Layers.

So they built a house,

designed by Daddy's brother, Thomas.

He drew the plans.

I heard it told, once, that Granddaddy gave them the downpayment.

The house cost $11,000.00 in 1953.

I know because I asked daddy once, when I was getting older, not a teenager yet,

but old enough to wonder about those things.

It was finished.

And we began to live in it

and it was becoming home.

Mother wrote, "We  moved into our new house Saturday, 11-28-53, and on Sunday night Elizabeth said she wanted to go home.  I had thought she had taken it for granted we were living here."

and time began to go by, season after season....

and inside, Christmas always came around with it's magic

And my former house, below, was now established as my grandparents' house.

and we had our family gatherings.

but on Williams St we watched TV on this, 

until the Kennedy assassination which prompted us to get a new television.

We needed to see the coverage really clearly.

And we did.

I watched Howdy Doody on the above television, every Saturday.

One morning, the channel wouldn't come in clearly.

I told Mother, with no hesitation, that I had to go over to Ella's to watch it.

She wouldn't let me.

I remember clearly my mouth being wide open in sobs,

but Mother wouldn't budge.

First Grade School Picture.

I'm not lying about what I am about to say.

I recall the excitement of having my first school picture made

and making the decision, in the first grade, to try to "look sexy".

I swear I thought that.  I have no idea what I thought that meant.  I think this was my attempt at sultry.

Oops.  Missed the mark.  Could be the short bangs didn't help.

Why is it so mangled?  

I gave this picture to a Frank McAbee, not realizing I'd given him my last one.

I asked him to please give it back.  He wouldn't.

I was very upset about it, and told my parents.

Next day, and I hate this for Frank McAbee,

but my rather intimidating daddy at times,

being at the elementary school for his beginning band students,

mentioned the situation to Frank McAbee, a first grader.

I didn't know Daddy said anything to him.

Frank McAbee returned the picture to me in this condition,

telling me Daddy had prompted him to return it.

Second Grade

I'd learned to smile a real smile for school pictures.

Even with a missing tooth.

Third Grade Christmas Play

Jeannie B Price and Me

Fourth Grade,

Still missing that tooth.

It was a dental situation which was corrected that year.

In the meantime people really close to me, in my life.

First - my precious cousin, Rachel.  Notice, she's wearing the same dress that I wore in my first grade picture.  Mother made this dress.  Rachel got all my hand me downs.  I got Mary Ann's.

Susan Canterbury.  Sweet, sweet girl.

She lived next door to us, with her many siblings.

Her sister was Kathy and Mary Ann's age.

Susan was a year younger than I.

Her family moved away and we wrote small short letters for a while.

I wish I could see her now.  I don't know where she is.

Ellen Nix.  This is her second grade picture.

Ellen was my closest school friend first through sixth grade.

We were always in the same classroom.  She, too, had many siblings.

Her mother, Ann, was the first real artist I ever knew.  

She was so creative and so fun.  In Jr. High, Mrs Nix got sick.  Really sick.

and had to go away.  But I loved her when I knew her.

Ellen was an artist, too, and she and I would always draw pictures together, in class.

Ellen in the Third Grade

And my closest friend, in childhood, Jane White.

She lived on my street.  I loved her and her family.

She had 2 sisters.  They all called me Lib.

She moved on Williams Street when she was in the 2nd grade and I was in the 3rd.

They lived in that house for 4 years and it broke my heart when they moved.

We stayed in touch randomly through the years.  The last time I talked with her was when my oldest, Ann, was getting married.  It's so hard to maintain when there's so much distance - beside the miles.

Our lives build up distance.  Don't they?

And Mary Ann in the First Grade.  So that would have made me aged 4.

I had two years at home with Mother, just the two of us, while Mary Ann went to school.

and Mary Ann in the Fifth Grade?  I think.  Maybe.

Which would mean I was in the Second.

My cousin, Rusty, in the Third Grade.

He was always in the same grade as Mary Ann, so I just did the math, 

with his years listed below the picture.

He's Rachel's older brother.

He's so fun and so funny and so sweet.

And my cousin Scott.  

He had to be in the First Grade here.

Which would have made me Two.

Mary Ann and Rusty not even in school.

Scott.  Again, the sweetest and so much fun.

My cousins.  I love them.

This is Suzanne, with no shirt, comforting Rusty who is holding his nose,

and Mary Ann with a bewildered look, holding the ball.

wonder what happened.

Suzanne is older sister to Rusty and to Rachel.

And this is Suzanne, the little girl to the right,

on the front porch of Ella and Elbert's house(our grandparents)

at Mary and John Law's wedding reception.

Remember? If you read this blog, Mary is my aunt, my mother's youngest sister.

And this is Suzanne, senior in high school, head majorette in the band.

She is such a leader, such a take charge, get it done type of person.

She can handle, it would seem, any situation, and is an artist, also.

And again, so fun and so funny.  I love her.

And Mary and John Law?

Here they are at their granddaughter's wedding last year, in the same church where they married in 1952 or 1953.  I think it was 1952.

Layers and Layers

and continuing with the school pictures and the layer upon layer.

Junior High did happen for me.  We all have to go through it.

Seventh Grade Picture.

And High School

Tenth Grade

Twelfth Grade

Fall 1968

And Huntingdon College

Fall of 1969

And Auburn

Fall of 1972

Sorry about those weird curls.  

The photographer did that. 

I had no idea.  I was in and out of there.

My roommate, Sarah, and I stood in line to have these pictures made.

She got me there and told me it was a good idea.

For the Glom.

So, I graduated from Auburn in 74

by then Mother and Daddy had moved from our Williams St. House

and moved to Troy. and lived in Daddy's home where he was born and raised.

But during my "working" years, while I was single, they moved back to Evergreen, after 5 years in Troy.

and they were living there, in Evergreen, when I met and married Charlie.

Here is Daddy, practicing giving me away.

And he did.

And here we are.

With more layers and more time.