Wednesday, November 01, 2006
an unusual Way Back Wednesday...
---A little background. I am an only child, my parents divorced when I was three years old (my father left my mother for a man). In any case, my father's family in general never got along with my mother after the split (there was a lot of drama at the time). I spent my childhood having two separate everything from Birthday's to Christmas.
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My father has one sibling, a sister. She is also my godmother and has never married or had children (she just turned 60 I don't think that is going to change at this point). She was also (and still is) one of those people who always had a camera out and was snapping pictures. And as is often the case with childless Aunts (and Uncles) and especially since I was her only nephew (and godchild) she took hundreds of photos of me over the years. They were all neatly filed away in a bunch of albums and three boxes. Tonight on a whim she gave them all to me, every last photo. Most I hadn't seen. None my mother or immediate family have ever seen.---
here are a couple of interesting shots:
---
(Clicking on any of them will enlarge to full screen,
they are high quality scans)
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(me at the beach on the right with my cousin Dean)
(Me, my Nono, Gram and (spinster) Aunt)
here are a couple of interesting shots:
---
(Clicking on any of them will enlarge to full screen,
they are high quality scans)
---
(me at the beach on the right with my cousin Dean)
(Me, my Nono, Gram and (spinster) Aunt)
(below are my ex wife and I )
(these are after we got married)
(below is the 2nd weekend with my kids after I moved out)
---
I got very emotional looking at these perhaps 1000 pictures. It was like she captured my whole life and all those who were a part of it, especially my kids when they were little. My mother doesn't have 1/3 the amount I now have. I am so incredibly thankful, and have been scanning like a madman since I got home to make some CD's for everyone. Some of these photos stretch back into the early 1900's (no she didn't take those) like this one of my great grandfather Diego as a (handsome) young immigrant Sicilian. I suspect this photo was taken in 1916. He was 18.
---Along with the photographs came letters and even post cards like this one from 1924 from father (Diego aka John) to his son (my Nono) Paolino who was then just 7 years old. Diego died at age 36 in 1934. To this point I only knew of one photograph of him in existence. Tonight I have in my hands 6!! My Aunt didn't even know who he was, but I recognized him in an instant.
---
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Finally I decided I had to put something together for my mom. She is at the moment in Las Vegas and then off to her winter house in Florida but when she gets back home, I am going to give her a cd with this video made from over 100 scans of pictures she hasn't seen before. I chose as background music a song by my late father's favorite artist Joni Mitchell. As a child (he passed away when I was 15) he always carried a cassette to play in the car as we drove. He adored her. This is my own favorite from her extensive catalog. It's called Both Sides Now.
---
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yikes it's 1:10 AM and I have to get up at like 7. I am so high on excitement right now I probably won't be able to sleep so well. Night :)---
S4 155
S4 155
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Big hug!
And I would have had SUCH a crush on you if I had ever met you back in the days of your white pants and blue shirts :-)...wow...
Very touching video, Jim. I love Joni Mitchell.
So cool.
Now you were a handsome young mah (and of course you still are).
Cheers,
Kevin in New Zealand
I'm glad you had a good time at the Opera as well. I"ll try and get ahold of you this weekend!
HUGS!!