PHOTO 1 and 1a -
The two photos above were taken around 2015-2018 (the B&W photo was one of
the last photos of Dad at the house in Spring Tx.
PHOTO 2 DAD AND HIS
TWO BIG SISTERS – MARJORIE (Margie) AND Barbara (BOBBY). Photo taken in 1928
when Dad was one year old.
PHOTO 3 -
Graduation from University of New Hampshire in 1951, Grandpa, Dad, and Nana
Figure 1 - Dad, age 12, with 2 girlfriends (kidding) with his
two big sisters Margie and Bobbie
PHOTO 4 Graduation
from University of New Hampshire in 1951
PHOTO 5 Dad in Navy
uniform 1945
PHOTO 6 EARLY
"SELFIE" (Press timer on camera and run like heck to get into the
picture)
PHOTO 7 - Picture
of Dad and Mom either just married, or just engaged
PHOTO 8- ME AND DAD – OCTOBER 1958
PHOTO 9 - This is
an interesting photo that Glenn just ran across: Dad and Grandpa working on the
house in Maine before it was renovated
PHOTO 10 - I took this picture of Dad the night he did not get a
seat on the local water board (1964/5).
It didn't look like it bothered him much, but Mom was in the doorway to the
right, trying her best at shooing me (and my Instamatic camera) away.
PHOTO 11 - Dad
almost always had a toothpick or two on him. Taken 1970 in Enfield, Ct.
PHOTO 12 every home has
a "command center" and this small table in the kitchen was ours
Each
morning, the kitchen table was the center point of attention and activity.
Monday - Friday Dads routine would be squeezing oranges so we’d have fresh, and
pulpy juice. On days where he wasn’t feeling so great he’d fresh squeeze
lemons, pour it into a glass that held a packet or two of BC powder, stir –
then down the hatch. His unspoken moto was: “If
BC powder can’t fix me, nothing can”.
PHOTO 13- I'm pretty sure this was taken when Dick and Judy
came to visit (early 70's Enfield, Ct)
PHOTO 14 Enfield Ct.
House 1972 (Dad’s expression: “Quit taking pictures and let’s get to Sears)
On Saturday morning Dad would study the weekend sales
flyers from W.T. Grants, Bradley’s, Sears, and others - much like General Patton would do when deciding
where to attack. Dad’s “Palermo” was
almost always Sears. After that
major decision he’d determine what department to first land his forces, which
usually consisted of Dad and I, and occasionally the 3 of us: Dad, Glenn, and
myself. The choices were fairly
simple: Hardware, Lawn & Garden, and Automotive. Patton had his hand guns,
and Dad had a No.2 pencil tucked behind an ear, and a sharp eye for a new tool…
PHOTO 15 - Dad's
"MECCA": The hardware dept. at Sears
Our most embarrassing moment in any Department store came
courtesy of the music each store piped throughout the building. Dad considered
himself to be one of the top 5 whistlers in the country, so once we got inside
the store he’d begin whistling along with the music coming from the speakers
above. It was never a quiet whistle because Dad only had one setting – LOUD.
Occasionally he got a few looks his way, to which he’d
smile and give a nod of thanks for their appreciation of his talents. Glenn and
I would shadow Dad from a parallel aisle to avoid the association, but
eventually we figured out a way to use Dad’s whistling to our advantage. Once
inside the store we’d disengage from Dad and run off to other areas of interest
and whenever we wanted to track him down it was a simple method: follow that
whistle. As it increased in volume we could pinpoint what department he
happened to be in, and this approach never failed us once.
The remaining plans included a stop at the local package store, insuring he’d be home by
noon, which would give him all afternoon to work on his latest wood working
project/home repair as well as tending to his garden, which had some of the biggest Zucchini squash I’ve ever seen
in my lifetime.
PHOTO 16 Basement
shop bend in Enfield Ct.
He meticulously kept track of all his tools by paining an
outline of each one on a sheet of peg board that was then mounted above his
work bench, in the basement. Next to using one of his tools without permission,
misplacing that tool was a cardinal sin.
PHOTO 17 - Late 60's picture of Dad, Glenn, and Mom at a
go-cart racetrack where they took Glenn to for his Birthday. Dad still didn’t
trust me with his 35mm camera yet (hung around his neck) so this was taken with
my Kodak 126 Instamatic camera.
PHOTO 18 - This picture was taken around 1971-72 at Uncle
Craig and Aunt Margie's house in Wellesley, Ma.
PHOTO 19 DAD TOOK
THIS PHOTO OF GRANDPA AND NANA AT THEIR HOUSE IN MAINE (late 60's). I remember
Dad and Cousin Mike painting the house one summer (while my
lazy 13yr old self traipsed along the shoreline or in the woods).
PHOTO 20 Cushing Maine
early 70's (toothpick in mouth)
PHOTO 21 Cushing
Maine early 70's
I accompanied Dad on many trips to
Cushing, Maine, where his plans usually revolved around two things: Work around
the house (painting & gardening) and cutting a clear path down the property
line of the woods across the road. He’d do the cutting, and I would pull those
cuts off to one side. I also shot a lot
of trees and maybe one or two giant horse flies with my .22 rifle during our
outings. ** While typing this, a
memory of Nana warning us about a dangerous animal called a “Fisher “popped
into my head (Don’t go in the woods, or “the Fisher” might get you”)
PHOTO 22 - The fearsome Fisher
PHOTO 23 - Dad took
this picture thru the bay window in Flintwood, which
had a great view of Grandpa’s garden and the St. George River.
PHOTO 24 Photo of
Dad checking in on Grandpa's garden
PHOTO 25 Dad
W/GRANDPA 1966
PHOTO- taken one Saturday morning when Dad took me to
work @ Combustion Engineering
PHOTO 26 - Dad
wearing his "Crazy" shirt (Enfield, ct.)
Dad had a love, and creative flow for
photography. Every fall he would go out in search of fall foliage, often taking
Glenn and I with him. He started out with a no-name
35mm rangefinder camera, later upgrading to a larger format (2 ¼ x 2 ¼), and
let me use the 35mm camera whenever I wanted.
Early on, Dad usually had his camera
hanging off one side of his body like an odd appendage, and almost always used
Slide film. Both Glenn and I have spent a
lot of time going through hundreds of Dad’s slides, and yet we haven’t
truly begun to scratch the surface of all of the slides we have in storage.
The most vivid memory I have about
Dad and his photography passion was being held captive in the living room
during those times he brought out the slide projector and subjected us to hours
of viewing one slide after the other, with a lengthy narration of how-and-why
he took each picture. Whenever friends or relatives came to visit both Glenn
and I knew we were in for a long night viewing slides that we’d seen over, and
over 😁
If YouTube and the Internet had been
around back then, Dad would have been one of the first to document his life in
photos.
PHOTO 27 - APRIL
1959 - OHIO
PHOTO 28 - APRIL
1959 - OHIO
PHOTO 29 -
CINCINNATI OHIO - MOM AND DAD LIVED THERE FOR A SHORT TIME BEFORE MOVING TO
CALIFORNIA
PHOTO 30 - Dad took one last photo of Cincinnati before moving
us to California (1959)
PHOTO 31 DAD &
MOM W/ GRANDPA AND NANA (and maybe Aunt Margie) - LATE 50's
PHOTO 32 - Mom and
Dad (Spring, Texas late 70's)
PHOTO 33 - Dad at
the Spring Tx. house (mid-70's)
PHOTO 34 DAD AND I
(BRIAN) WHEN HE CAME FOR A VISIT FROM CHICAGO (late 80’s)
PHOTO 35 A later
picture of Glenn, Dad, and Myself
PHOTO 36 DAD AND MOM
WITH MY OLDEST SON - JOSH
PHOTO 37
Left-to-Right: Dad, Josh, Myself, Chris, and Glenn (2002)
[The photo
above was taken in 2002/2003. Josh and Chris are Dad’s grandsons (my sons).]
THIS NEXT LOT OF PHOTOS ARE FROM 2012
- 2021
PHOTO 38 UNDATED
TRIP BACK EAST, DAD & GLENN (and I'm taking a guess on the rest) with Aunt
Margie and Cousins Stewart & Lynn (her children).
PHOTO 39 JUNE 2010,
DAD, MY SON CHRIS AND HIS WIFE ADA
PHOTO 40 - Taken May
5th 2008 when we were celebrating Glenn's upcoming birthday
PHOTO 41 Dad, Robin,
Brian August 08, 2010 Photo by Glenn
PHOTO 42 - Dad at the house in Spring,
Tx. (2010)
PHOTO 43 - Dad at our (Robin, Brian) wedding reception 2011
PHOTO 44 - Dad on a visit to our house in Sugar Land, along
with his Grandson Josh, and Great Grandson Jack (2012)
PHOTO 45 - Dad's 85th Birthday at our house in 2012
PHOTO 46
Thanksgiving weekend visit with Dad at Spring Texas in 2013
PHOTO 47 DAD IN
WASHINGTON D.C. AT WWII MEMORIAL (2019?)
PHOTO 48 COWBOY BUD
AND HIS SIDEKICK GLENN
PHOTO 49 DAD - ALWAYS
A WINNER (DATE UNKNOWN)
PHOTO 50 ANOTHER ONE
WHERE I'M NOT SURE OF THE DATE: GLENN, DAD, ME (BRIAN)
PHOTO 51 Taken at
Dads old apartment. Pictured: Dad, Robin (my wife), and myself (Brian)
PHOTO 52 Celebrating
Father’s Day 2009, Houston Texas (pic 1)
PHOTO 53 Celebrating
Father’s Day 2009, Houston Texas (Pic 1a)
PHOTO 54 - MY SON
CHRIS, AND DAD - 2012
PHOTO 55 - DAD, MY
SON CHRIS, GRANDSON NICHOLAS, (AND ME) 2012
PHOTO 56 - FATHER'S
DAY 2014 (SPRING TEXAS)
2020 AND COVID
No one knew how bad COVID-19 would be, but Robin and I
managed a visit on the 1st Sunday of March 2020. The next week
everything was shutdown, including visits to the home where Dad, and to some
extent, Glenn lived. I don’t believe the building management allowed visiting
until earlier this year (2021). At
first, residents would be allowed outside the building where up to 5 family
members could visit, as long as we all had masks on. Robin and I had absolutely
zero issues about wearing our masks just as long as we got to finally visit “eyeball-to-eyeball”.
Vaccination’s had begun in January, and finally the rules
were relaxed a bit. Visitors would have to ring a doorbell to get an attendant
to open the front doors and then we walked to a machine that took our
temperatures while the administrators behind the desk made copies of our vaccination
cards. Once we got to Dad’s room we could take our masks off during the visit.
It was clear that Dad was on a sliding scale mentally,
but the difference between July and September was, in our eyes and hearts –
Brutal.
PHOTO 57 Robin took
this picture of me and Dad in March 2020, just before everything was shut down
PHOTO 58 this photo,
was taken in January of 2021. Dad is thumbing
through a calendar that we had Walgreens make for us, featuring 12 pictures
that Dad enjoyed looking at
PHOTO 59 - In the
calendar, March 2021 featured a photo of our old house back in Connecticut
PHOTO 60 - In May of
this year (2021) we met up my Son Chris and his family. Along with the usual
suspects in this picture, Dad's Great Granddaughter Abigail is telling us a
story.
PHOTO 61 July 18th
2021. He was still there at times, but that quickly changed after that visit.
It’s the last photograph we have of Dad, still being Dad…
THANK YOU FOR VIEWING THESE PHOTOS,
WHICH HELP FLESH OUT OUR DADS LIFE
GLENN, DAD, BRIAN
OCTOBER 2017
To save your
scrolling thumb, another section has begun! At this time I have only one adventure
to list, but as with this living page, we’ll have more stories and/or
individual photographs to share:
(AS always, when new and
interesting photos are found, they’ll be added to this page or Dad’s adventures
page)