Non Sequiturs: Seen, Done & Snapped

iPhone notes from another week of things I saw and did... 30 March - 6 April 2012.

Collage: "Good Egg, Swell Fellow" (2010-2011)

CHRISTIAN MONTONE 

Collage: "GOOD EGG / SWELL FELLOW" (18 x 24")

2010 - 2011

Details Below:

Norman & Joan Nelsen: 17 June 1950

Scenes from my Grandparents Wedding Day.  These six images seem to have been given to them by someone who attended the church event and later provided them with slides.  The slides themselves had "Nelsen" misspelled as "Nelson" on the cardboard frames, so I'm guessing they were shot and annotated by someone who was a friendly with them, but not related to them (or aware of my Grandfather's Norwegian nomenclature).  Regardless, I'm very grateful to the photographer for the six candid and beautifully-lit snaps they took on the church steps this day.

Mother Of The Bride:  Mae Costello in her Midcentury Matron Finest.

Picture Perfect: My twin cousins Lois and Dianne in their Flowergirl Frocks.

Bridesmaids and Flowergirls... Off to the reception!  (Behave, ladies... Behave.)

Working backwards from about 1976, we have arrived squarely at 1950.  Posting this series of images is a bit bittersweet, as these are the very last slides from the family archive.  Essentially, a very large chunk of my family has just seen a large portion of their lives displayed (albeit in reverse) on the internet.  These six pictures represent the endpoint of a rather broad arc of events, milestones, celebrations and journeys.  I'm very glad, though, that this final post of 35mm slide scans shows the beginning of what would become my Grandparents' life as a couple (and subsequently their life as parents and grandparents).  What they would go on to create in terms of family and who they would later touch in terms of friends and loved ones would end up being rather large.  Thanks for EVERYTHING, Nanny and Pop... You are loved and missed, but mostly remembered and celebrated.

Florida Convoy, Summer 1956

Several images from a Florida vacation that my Grandparents took with my Mom and Uncle Kevin.  Also in tow on this trip were my Great Uncle Richard and Great Aunt Marion, as well as their growing brood.  I keep coming back to how simple (yet rich with feeling) these outings were.  Traveling with children was very expensive, so road-tripping in two cars and staying in guest bungalows at motor inns was the cheapest option.  As modest as the accomodations and modes of transport were, it was a diversion from the every day for the kids and a welcome getaway for hard-working parents who needed a break, a change of scenery and a walk on the beach.  

Side Note:  I love the fact that tucked away among these scenes of family togetherness, there was this one isolated image depicting three anonymous bathing beauties making their way down the shoreline.  Perhaps my Grandfather just wanted to capture some "local color" for posterity...  I'm sure it was just a National Geographic moment.

1950s Snowball Sequence

This slide from the winter of 1956 - 1957 was marked "neighbor's kids" and shows the terraced backyards of the two-family homes on Hoyt Avenue in Staten Island.

Here, my mother (at left) and Uncle Kevin look sweet as pie, but it wouldn't last long, folks... 

Something tells me a stray snowball from the neighbor's kids intervened and inspired the following...

I can just hear my grandfather saying, "OK now, Kevin... Kevin!  KEVIN!!! STOP THAT!!!"

OOF!  That had to hurt, Mom.  Someone looks like they could use a Nestle's cocoa.

Let the record show that my grandfather stayed back with camera at the ready and recorded this snowball assault for posterity.  I must say I'm a bit amused that he kept shooting and didn't intervene.

 Note To Mom:  It's OK... You were a total cutie pie here.

Kevin and Kathleen get the last laugh... "HA! Take THAT, Dad!"

Child Labor: 1958 Style

Two extremely cute images of my Mom and Uncle Kevin shoveling snow from the front stoop of my grandparents' apartment on Hoyt Avenue in Staten Island.