Annette Funicello died

I watched old black and white reruns of the Mickey Mouse Club starring Annette in the early-early-early 1960s (when I still took naps).  Later I loved those silly beach movies.  Of course, I did.

Sears Portrait Studios have been closed down for good

Call me crazy, but I like this family portrait (January 1985), even though it was the old-fashioned, perfectly lined up pose.  The lady behind the camera was holding a squeaky toy to keep everyone’s attention.  My mom had made the kid’s outfits and bought me the blouse to match.  We had our Sear’s Portrait Studio appointment and we kept it, by golly, even though it meant going out in a major blizzard – which ended up totally working to our advantage.

This is a bad photo of the picture I snapped a few minutes ago.  But the squeaky toy lady actually got all of us looking at once, with pleasant faces – in several shots, actually!  Tara was 5 1/2, Stephanie was 2 1/2, Tredessa was 1 1/2 and Rocky was 3 1/2 months (HEY!  Don’t judge me.  Haha).  Dave and I were 25.  In case anyone was wondering.

No one else was there that day.  No screaming children nor frazzled moms – just our happy family.  The photographer took her time and lots of photos and we hung out at Markland Mall in Kokomo like it was our own playground.  All dressed up and having fun on a blizzard day.

Stormie never liked this shoot, though, when she’d come across the pictures in photo albums or saw the shot above which used to hang framed on a wall.  Because she was not in it.  So she painted this {below}  as a joke one year for Father’s Day and inserted herself , decked out in red and black, into the picture.  She is funny.

I plan to dress the grandbebes in the little outfits my mom made soon and see if we can’t get a sweet pic of them???

Roger Ebert died last week.

I still miss Siskel and Ebert.  I was a faithful follower back in the day.  I started out by thinking Roger was really arrogant and off-putting, but then I realized he was just so smart and sure and right, absolutely right.

Margaret “Iron Lady” Thatcher died, too.

 The times they are a-changing…I am feeling old.