Saturday, March 22, 2014

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE

(See previous blog).

My sister had a photo of the famous birthday cake described in my last blog and sent it to me.  Thank you Kaybee.  I don't remember seeing it before.  I have two corrections to make.  First Little Gran was 74 that day and second, by the looks of me in that photo I must have been 13, 14 years old. I think I look older, but I know where the house was in which this photo was taken and we moved from there in   1953.


This must be one of the last photos of our family together, except my father was probably taking the photo.  From the back left are, my mother, my brother (deceased aged 48), me aged 15 approx.
Maureen,  (the little girl who lived a couple of houses away), my sister Kaybee, Little Gran, (looking a youthful 74 years)  and the notorious birthday cake.  

Too bad Dad wasn't in the picture.  I can't recall ever seeing a family photo with us all in it.  So I'm glad to have this photo.  My initial reaction is that we all look so normal.  Truly this was one of the happiest times of my teenage years, but my overall feeling was that we were a somewhat dysfunctional family.  Or perhaps it was me that was dysfunctional -- I would not conform to my father and brother's opinion of women as being useless and feather-brained.

Thank goodness for Little Gran who was a great role model for me and kept me on track without even knowing it.


8 comments:

snafu said...

Nice picture of you all. I never thought of your family as being dysfunctional, but it was hard to keep up with where you were living, because you moved often following your dad's work. At that age, I spent more time with Kaybee than you since you were much too old, along with my sister and cousin Patricia. You never dug holes to make mud, collected snails or climbed trees, all of which Kaybee did excellently, even though she was a girl.

Morning's Minion said...

I enjoy family photos even when not my own family. I suspect that we are all dysfunctional--its a matter of degree--and most of us manage to get through life and get things done in spite of it.

kaybee said...

I collected snails?? ! Ugh, I think you are making that up, snafu! Climbing trees, however, was another story...especially the willow tree at the bottom of Little Gran's garden.

Wanda said...

Chris ~ I left a message the other day...but my computer has been playing mind games with me, and poof...now it gone.

I like your two drawings. I think we were both thinking the same with the Jump theme.

I wonder how many candles will be on my cake come May 1st. "73" will fill more than a cake I'm thinking. HaHa.

Wanda said...

Oh Chris, I'm so glad you added the photo.

Yes, I have to agree ~ every family has their own degree of disfunction!!

She is a young looking 74.

claude said...

I llve vintage photos and that was a good idea to publish it. I am very estonnished you could put 74 canddles on the cake.

Michael said...

Wait, you are the 13 year old girl in there? Wow, you must be older than I assumed for you writing. What a cutie and what a great photo. Well put things here too.

Black Jack's Carol said...

Lovely photo of you, Chris! The comment by Morning's Minion about there being some elements of dysfunction in most families is probably true. There is warmth in that photo in the eyes of each one of you. Must look for the story of the cake!