Random Old Photo of the Day:

Though this picture is “only” about 50 years old, in some respects it feels as distant as the Civil War. Many of the family members from this era are still alive — some in the photo, some not — and yet there’s been some debate about who a couple of these people are anyway. From the outset I felt that I only recognized two (despite being Facebook friends with two others beyond that, and knowing one of them quite well, as it turned out), and was born probably a couple of years after this photo was taken. So I expected to be surprised. But the older family members not even recognizing some of their own, that has been kind of a trip.

I knew that was my grandma Judy, second from the right in the back. Also that this was my mom in the front right corner. Beyond that…not so much. Hilariously enough, though, my own dad pegged those two girls to the left of my mom as being his sisters — but was only half right! I guess in his defense this picture is quite old, somewhat faded, and, like, magenta tinted or whatever you would call this. So that’s my aunt Gail just to the left of Mom, but not my aunt Sue to her left. And it gets even funnier — Gail herself pegged the woman on the back right, with the tall white boots, as being her sister Sue. Sue, who it must be said is only a handful of years older than Gail, finally had to come forward and clarify that she is not in this photo at all.

But anyway, we did finally manage to mostly reach a consensus here. That’s my paternal great grandma, Thelma, on the far left there. And this photo was taken at her house, off of route 33 in southern Ohio, somewhere around Nelsonville or Logan. These folks are all on my dad’s side of the family, or they were (by marriage) at this time. The front row left to right consists of his cousins Mary, Valerie, and Rhonda, then my aunt Gail, finally Mom there on the right.

As far as the back row, the older lady in the middle is my maternal grandmother, Bea, whom everyone called Beazie — that was like her standard name that everyone used. Except on the occasions where Dad and his siblings referred to her as Be-A-Transistor (apparently it was some old commercial or something; even they don’t quite remember how that started). Otherwise, the four grown women in the back, they were respectively either a grandma (Judy) or great aunts (the other three) i.e. married to my grandpa Rich and his brothers.

So left to right, standing in the back, that would be Thelma, Barb, Beazie, Arlene, Judy, and Delores. Barb is meanwhile holding the baby Tracy, who is another of my Dad’s cousins.

This has been a fascinating process, although some mysteries persist. One is that no matter how I wrap my head around this timeline, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. The first picture I posted in this series was from January of 1981 and has my grandma Judy and aunt Gail in it. I’m thinking this one almost has to be from before my parents were even married (they tied the knot in April of 1973). But even if that’s the case, this photo must be from somewhere around the summer of ’72, meaning only 8 1/2 years earlier. The age differences between the two snapshots really doesn’t compute. But I guess time moved much differently then, and there are some things you can never know, without being there.f him at a later date. Cars are just so blah these days by comparison. As for the location, this is the backside of our house at 748 South Street in Galion, Ohio. We were living here when my brother was born, and I started kindergarten in this house. Grandma Judy always referred to it as 748 Mojo Street, for some reason. Looking at this picture, I think we now know why.