Saturday
We had a nice visit from R today. We went out for lunch and then she and K did some shopping. As for me ...
It has taken me literally years, but I finally got from Wonderful Niece the big box of all my mother's pictures and mementos and things. I knew that I would find the picture I wanted for those Disney World trinkets, even though I used another picture and made them already. But the picture I wanted was in there, and so today, I made us each a refrigerator magnet from this picture:
The shrinky-dink, of course, is darker and smaller. I believe this is the only photograph ever taken of the four of us cousins together, although I could be wrong; I just haven't ever seen any others. I am the little one in the front. This was taken when my mother and sister and I visited their family in California when I was seven.
I'm watching one of those awful TV shows about beauty pageants and little girls (and boys, in this one), and I think all these parents should have their children removed from their custody. This is a bizarre form of child abuse; I can't imagine these children grow up with psyches intact, unscarred.
So, I've scanned over 130 pictures and things since yesterday, and I'm taking a little break today. There was some amazing stuff in the box, including my birth announcement, a card announcing the engagement of my father's parents, and that grandmother's original passport (in Russian), which I had never seen before. No idea where that came from, but it was accompanied by notes in my mother's handwriting from when she had it translated once. Oh, and I'll leave you with this. It was a note also in my mother's handwriting; it looked like a rough draft of a letter she then re-wrote and sent, but I don't know to whom. There's no date on it. I'm using the real name in the letter because I probably have it wrong anyway, since my mother's handwriting is nearly undecipherable. Here's the transcription:
To whom it may concern:
During the 15 years that I have known Jeanette Kenn, I have never heard her say anything that might tend to identify her with Soviet Russia or Communistic sentiments.
I am strongly opposed to the dictatorship of Communistic Russia and all that it stands for. I would never want to associate with any persons who are disloyal to the U.S. and the [to] the best of my knowledge, Jeanette Kenn is a loyal American, who believes in the American way of life.
[Signed]
So I'm thinking early fifties, which means this was probably a friend from high school she was writing a reference for. Never saw this before either.
watching TODDLERS AND TIARAS :: ENTRY #2098
READING: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
That's a great photo of the four of you. Great idea to make them into magnets!
ReplyDeleteIt's always amazing for me to think back on the Cold War era, when Communism was something to be feared and to be fought against. I remember small things, like there being two Germanys and hearing about the Communist bloc, and of course I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the former Communist countries are no longer our enemies, and the enemies we do have are the terrorist groups that infiltrate countries, so it's not even a nation we can be mad it. It's a totally different world, in such a short time.
Timelines: how funny to see a picture from Knott's Berry Farm. I went there in 1965? I was...25.
ReplyDeleteThe old documents are wonderful. My aunt has a lot of them, and the cousin I saw last week was telling me, she found our grandfather's birth certificate. He was born in *Latvia* (not Lithuania like everyone else) but near the border.
Nu, something else we have in common.