POTPOURRI

Actually, the title of this post should more appropriately be called Miscellaneous but I don't know how to spell it (*smile*).

In my previous post, there is a photo of my Mom and I standing by a sequoia in northern California. Lisa, who has been following my blog longer than I can remember, wondered what the design was on my mother's dress.

Well - just because you caught me in a very rare good mood - I dug into the dusty archives and found another photo of Mom in that same dress. The design on it is a baby seal. It was just an old, makeshift dress but for some reason my mother liked it and wore it all summer.

 Mom and I by the sequoia

 Mom in the seal dress, with her sister Ann (Ann is my cousin Nancy's mother)

While I was digging in the dusty archives, I found a few more photos. Since my cousin Nancy is a faithful reader of this blog (one of the few) I thought she might enjoy seeing these photos.

 My cousin Nancy

Nanc, do you remember this? I don't know how old you were here, but I do recall that your Mom took this photo. I used to have a very similar one of your sister Patty but I can't find it.

 Jon, age eleven

Okay, what the hell was going on with my hair?? I remember that I had put some kind of really greasy stuff on it. The dubious pomade came in a tube.

No, it wasn't toothpaste!!

And it wasn't Brylcreem.

Whatever it was, I must have been crazy to use it. 

Just for the record, I am a natural blond, but that crap on my hair made it look dark.

 Me and some of my cousins

This pic was taken during a summer trip to New Jersey when I was nine years old. We were on the steps of our grandmother's house.

Back row: Nancy and her sister Patty

Front row: Stephanie, Barbara, Cookie, and me.

(Cookie's real name is Elizabeth)

My cousin Stephanie (the youngest in the photo) has recently become a grandmother! 

Holy crap, that makes me feel old.  

Nancy hasn't seen Cookie's family in a very long time (they live in different states) so I'll post a recent photo here. 

  My cousin Cookie & her husband Maynard with their two sons David (left) and Joseph (right). I don't recall the dog's name.

This is probably getting boring but I'm on a roll. Here are some unrelated pics.

 The ice on my window two days ago

(if this doesn't excite you, nothing will)

 My cat Bosco when he was a kitten. He was so scrawny and sick that I didn't think he'd survive.

 This is Bosco now, nearly three years old

 In the first photo of Bosco, he was checking out my antique Russian wolfhound. 

 The photo behind the wolfhound is Prince Victor Albert, Queen Victoria's grandson. It's an original photo - not a print.

 On the same shelf, some English dishes and a small creamer from the 1820's.

The figurine of the man with dog was made in 1791. I paid $25 for it. I happened to find the listing for it in an auction catalogue and the appraisal  was nearly $1,000. I sure as hell hope I don't break it.