Found Object: 1970s Supermarket Interior

Scan: Found 35mm slide.  Photographer unknown. 

1970s Grand Union Supermarket interior (obviously located in a Spanish-speaking area).

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.

Nineteen Fifty-Three In Living Color

My Grandmother Joan with my then-newborn Uncle Kevin and Mother (nearly two years old).

Uncle Kevin is christened as his Godparents look on. 

My Grandmother receives baby gifts at a party thrown for her by former co-workers at AT&T.

Thanksgiving Dinner with Uncle Richard (in front, at left), Aunt Marion (in rear, at right) and their growing brood.  Cousin Lois is on the left (in red) and her fraternal twin sister Dianne is wearing a matching red top across the table from her at right.  Baby Cousin Janet is peeking around from behind Dianne, but there is no sign of Cousin Ricky, who was most definitely around at this time.  I don't know who the man in the blue tie is, but the older woman in the blue dress toward the back of the photo is my beloved Great Grandmother Mae Costello.

Classic Father & Daughter Moment:  My Grandfather Norman with my Mom at the park.

ABOVE & BELOW: Two gatherings... Many cousins.

My Grandmother tends to my (rather unhappy) Mom's pom pom outfit as Cousin Janet makes her best "grownup face".  This photo seems to have been taken at a scenic overlook on the Hudson River overlooking NYC.

ABOVE & BELOW:  My Grandmother and Grandfather with my Mom and the infant Kevin in front of their apartment on Hoyt Avenue in Staten Island.  Saint Vincent's Hospital can be seen in the background.

My Mom pushes a doll in a brand new toy baby carriage.  I'd like to think that she was just getting in some early practice, seeing as she would be pushing me around in one of these exactly 20 years later.

This must be where my Mom's love of the equine decorative motif began.  Who knew that such a highbrow taste level would have its origin atop a coin-operated storefront ride on a Staten Island street?

Though somewhat soft focus and oddly composed, this is one of my favorite images from the family slide archive.  I first happened upon this slide and took some sketches from it some time in the 1990s (when the slide carousels were first given to me by my Grandfather).  I remember being transfixed by the complexity of this Kodachrome frame (and the questions about the holiday activity around it) as I projected it onto a white wall of the studio in my Brooklyn apartment.  A short time later, after boxing up all of the carousels for what would become a whole decade, I would use elements of those initial sketches in the composition of a kaleidescopic drawing called "Every Xmas Ago". 

1955: Have Brood, Will Travel

Here are some glimpses of Spring 1955 from inside yet another box of my Grandparents' well-preserved 35mm slides.  As usual, everyone looks fantastic... Neatly-scrubbed and well dressed, laundered and groomed.  Though probably a little bit warm on the Easter Sunday shown below, I get a kick out of how my Grandmothers' fox fur stole makes another striking cameo.  Nanny must have spent a pretty penny on that furry folly (and worked to get her money's worth) because it seems she wore it every chance she got.

ABOVE:  Twin Cousins Lois and Diane with Ricky (in hat) and Janet (lower left).

My Uncle Kevin is the one in the shorts who looks like he's about to take off down the street.

My Mom is probably wondering how her handbag looks with her little Mary Janes.

Cousin Janet with my Mom.  Though young girls, they look like two little old Ladies Who Lunch here.

More backyard fun with the cousins...

Donald and Brian...  INSTANT comedy, folks!

Kevin... Not too sure about having to hang out with these icky girls.  

He would, however, change his mind about fraternizing with the female of the species in later years.

Unidentified bathing beauty at an unidentified swimming lake in an unidentified state.

Backyard barbecue at Aunt Harriet's house near Four Corners in Staten Island.

Above & Below: Cousin Janet (in front, at left) with my Mom and Uncle Kevin one one of the motorboat rides on the Asbury Park boardwalk.  Oh, how I wish my Grandfather had spun around and gotten some shots of the Asbury Casino and Carousel House behind him.

All this excitement sure wears a two-year-old kid out.  Forget snack time, Kevin needs a nap!

The Colors Of December 1956

Another gorgeous shot of my Mom and Uncle Kevin on "good behavior".  I don't think it had so much to do with the imminent arrival of relatives as it did the imminent arrival of a certain portly bearded man in a red suit.

My Grandmother, Joan Nelsen, is seen here (arms folded) pregnant with my Aunt Karen, who would be born 11 days after this photo was taken.  Joan's sister Marion is in the royal blue dress to her right.

Christmas was always a massive deluge of toys and games in our family... even before I was born.  These photos show a couple of the Nelsen kids' gift opening sessions: The requisite morning gift bonanza in pyjamas (above) and a later one (all dressed up) after the arrival of company.  

My Grandparents always told stories of struggling to make ends meet.
However, it should be completely clear that NOBODY in our family was starving.

My Grandmother:  The 1950s model of female domesticity: Pregnant and sweeping (in an apron).

Having been a New Year's Eve baby, my Mom always celebrated her birthday on or around the Christmas holiday.  Here, she is seen playing with other kids in the family, who seem to be entertaining the adults with their antics.  I 'd love to know what was going on HERE...

Happy Birthday, Mom.  5 is gonna be the best year yet... I can just feel it!

The Spirit Of '57: Sunday Best & Paper Hats

These images span January through July of 1957.

My Grandparents, Uncle, Mother and Cousins (and assorted family friends) celebrate My Aunt Karen's Christening, participate in a Saint Joseph Hill Academy Spring Pageant and celebrate Easter as well as my Uncle Kevin's 4th Birthday.  I think my cousin Donald is the husky kid at the head of the table in the photo above with his mother Peggy (an extremely sweet and funny lady) behind him.  

At far left in the same photo is my grandmother's lifelong friend Audrey (whom we all called Aunt Audrey).  She was two weeks older than my Grandmother and grew up next door to her in Port Richmond.  Their mothers were close friends and on the day in 1928 that my Grandmother was born, Audrey's mother came over to the house and placed two-week old Audrey in a crib so she could help the midwife with the at-home birth.  Not only was she present for my Grandmother's birth, but she was a fixture at all of our family functions.  Aunt Audrey also holds a special place in my heart because it was her blue cabin in Speculator, New York that we visited each Summer for fourteen years.  She and her husband (Uncle Eddie) allowed my grandparents and I annual use of the modest, but comfortable cabin and set the table for countless fantastic memories among the pines and lakes of the Adirondack Mountains.