MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
My father at his first job, in a camera store in Urbana, IL. It was here that he turned down stock in Polaroid at a dollar a share in 1954. What can I say, he was a dumbass. ≡ Click to see image ≡
My mother dressed as Pochahontas for Halloween in 1946, She's hiding her left hand; it had been disfigured by a dynamite cap. ≡ Click to see image ≡
My father, dressed as Robin Hood, Halloween, 1946. It's odd that the only two pix I have of my parents in costume are from the same year, long before they met. ≡ Click to see image ≡
My grandfather ca. 1910, working on the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad in Galesburg, IL. ≡ Click to see image ≡
My grandfather, in France just after WWI- he had been hospitalized after having been gassed at Meuse-Argonne. ≡ Click to see image ≡
The five Jern brothers, in Oquawka, IL, ca. 1935. My grandfather is in the center. ≡ Click to see image ≡
My maternal great-grandfather John Beeson in California in 1879. Collodion emulsion print. He's the handsome fellow on the right. ≡ Click to see image ≡
Most of my immediate family (aunts, uncles, cousins) were way older than I, because my dad was born when his mother was 42 (in the 1920s that was scandalous) and he and my mother were in their late 30s when I was born, so I didn't really know most of these people as they nearly all died during my childhood.
My paternal grandmother, with her engagement present, 1906.
Since I am away from home, I will put up the only digitized image that I have, of my maternal grandparents (Maria Vita and Alfredo) on their wedding day in nineteen thirty. She was sixteen and he was no good. ≡ Click to see image ≡
These are all photos from my father's side of the family. I think he'll know who they are, but all I have to go on is what's written on the photos I scanned. It's part of a present for him, so I have no way to identify them yet!
amro, my grandmother died of an asthma attack during an air raid in 1942, so I never met her, and I didn't see that photo until I was about 30, when my Auntie Hilda sent it to me. I was completely stunned at how much I look like her. My sister takes after my other grandma, even down to her whooping laugh.
My mom and my brother and I (on left). Mom wouldn't like this photo, but she looks sooo young here. Its one of my favorites. This would have been 1959 or '60.
≡ Click to see image ≡
My dad. He died in '69, so this is a few years prior. I get my affection for Pendleton shirts from him. I still have a few of his shirts which I wear on occasion. I remember taking this picture. He was very sardonic, and took on this expression for the benefit of the camera.
My maternal grandparents with me in front of the house I grew up in. This beach house was given to my mom (it was grandparents' second house). He was the mayor of the City of San Fernando at the time of this photo, from what I remember. They are also so excited to be grandparents, obviously.
Dad again in Morristown, TN, on a 1955 Sears Allstate Cruisare (rebadged Vespa): ≡ Click to see image ≡
And my Dad's grandparents, the Greenes. (The infant is my grandmother Mary): ≡ Click to see image ≡
I haven't scanned the toga party photo of Mom & Dad from the University of Alabama, circa 1965 that Dad gave; not sure if Mom would forgive me posting it. Maybe I'll scan it when I get home :D
I'm pretty sure that I've posted this before but I love this picture of my grandmother. It's from 1937 when they lived on Charles St. in Greenwich Village. This picture is probably by her brother who was a photographer for the Daily News. She ended up living in North Jersey for the last half of her life but she was always a New Yorker through and through.
I meant to do some scanning but I've been so damn busy today - these are all so wonderful! Here are a few I've already got online, all except one from my mom's side of the family:
My great grandmother with my great aunt Claire, the oldest, my great uncle Edward, who would tragically die before he was 12 and my grandmother, the baby of the family. I think this is around 1905 or so: ≡ Click to see image ≡
Here they are again, a few years older, dressed up for Halloween: ≡ Click to see image ≡
Here's Claire all grown up. She was a designer, fashion illustrator and a department store buyer in Chicago: ≡ Click to see image ≡
Pic of a pic of my Mom, 1943-ish? She's finishing High School, wearing my Dad's Air Force Pin. I won't come along for another 25-ish years. Seen before on metachat, I'm pretty sure, but this is all just so cool.
Also, she was captain and star of her hs basketball team at this time, in spite of growing to the same height I did - 5'7". She always had good aim. Spooky aim!
This is my whole family on my dad's side, circa 1945. My dad is the little boy in the 2nd row, right behind the man in the hat. The two adults to his right are my grandparents, and the little girl my grandmother is holding is one of my aunts. (The other one wasn't born yet.) I'm related to everybody in this pic EXCEPT the man in the front row with the hat- it was his house they were taking the photo at, and apparently he insisted on being in the pic. ≡ Click to see image ≡
My mom's side of the family in 1945- my mom, my uncle, and my grandparents. My mom and my uncle are twins, and were adopted by my grandparents at the age of 3. This photo was taken in that first year, and I think there's an awkwardness in it that speaks volumes about how my mom and uncle must have felt.
My grandfather died of cancer the year after this photo was taken, leaving my grandmother as a single mom of two children, a role she was totally unprepared for. ≡ Click to see image ≡
This is my violin. A German luthier made it in the 1850's and it eventually found it's way into the hands of my great-grandfather, who had it fixed and polished in 1934. My grandpa gave it to me around when I finished high school. Unfortunately my pictures of my great-grandfather are in Maryland. He's the ancestor from whom I inherited my height, weight and build.
You probably can't see it in this photo but there is a slightly convex area on the back of the violin where the shoulder goes (the area of lighter wood in the lower right area) that fits my shoulder perfectly. I don't use a shoulder pad and the chin rest is very small; when I play I can feel my great-grandfather's shoulder and chin in my own. It's intimate and invisible.
In the foreground there's a velvet cloth my great-grandfather embroidered his name onto, for covering the violin while it's in its case. He was heavily involved in boy scouting and outdoorsmanship and crafts; I also have a powder-horn and a couple knives he made.
When and where he was born, Laverne was a man's name, and his given name was Victor Laverne, which he didn't care for. As soon as he could he changed it to Victor Vernal, triumphant Spring.
I have a similar story to Hugh's. This photo is of my grandfather's pocket watch, which still runs today, 105 years after he received it as a graduation gift in 1905. Every so often I wind it up and listen to it tick, and I feel the distance and years melt away- he had this watch when he worked on the railroad in 1910, and in France in 1918-19. It's on the desk in front of me as I type this. Whenever I miss him, I just wind it up and listen to the same tick that he did a century ago.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
