Flights of Fancy

This is my grandfather’s uncle and namesake. I just love this photo.

I took yesterday and today off from work to give myself a little Spring break. Yesterday I helped my best friend celebrate her birthday. I made her lunch, we went to the beach, I made her this for dinner and baked her a cake.

Today is Family Fun Day. We had grand plans of getting out of the house early, driving down the coast a bit and getting back early enough for Pip’s nap. Well, we didn’t make it out of the house before Pip’s nap (oops) so M went to work for a little bit while she naps. We are going to have family fun when he gets back. Instead of going down the coast I think we will stay local and go to Musee Mecanique. We’ll see.

The above photo was taken in Golden Gate Park about 90 years ago. The girl on the far left is my grandmother Estelle. My great grandmother Elsie May is the woman in the hat with flowers. The little boy in the middle and the two little girls to his right are my grandmother’s brother and sisters. The rest are cousins, aunts and uncles. I imagine that day was a day very much like today.

Enjoy your weekend!

My grandmother and grandfather were married in Santa Cruz at the beginning of the depression. They lived in San Francisco for the first decade of their marriage. They waited until 1940 to start a family, so the 30’s seemed to be a rather care free time for them. This photo was taken in August 1936 on a trip to Russian River and is my favorite of the two of them.

This is my grandmother, Estelle.  Chelsea suggested posting stylie grandma vintage photos in this post on A Cup of Jo.  So far I have only posted men and was inspired to give the ladies some love. 

I love photobooths and love that I have several photobooth photos of my grandma.  (Apparently it’s in the genes.)  This was taken in the 20’s when she was a teenager.  (1925ish?)  I absolutely love her hair in this picture and her top and scarf would totally look good today.  She would be about 98 if she were still alive.   

This is my great great grandfather, Horace. He looks like fun, doesn’t he?

I have a lot of collections. My favorite collection is my collection of vintage photographs. What makes them so special is that all of the photos are family photos. I have photos of several generations of my ancestors. Many photos are around a hundred yeas old. I grew up with these photos and though most of the people in them passed on long before I was born, I feel like I know them. My mother used to say, “You poor girl, you’re surrounded by ghosts.” I am in the process of scanning my collection and would love to share them from time to time.

The baby in the photo above is my grandfather, Gustav. This photo was taken around 1913 - probably in Menlo Park, California. I have never heard anyone call him Gustav. He mostly went by Gus. He was named after a Swedish king. He used to play his guitar and sing “Rhinestone Cowboy” to me. He passed away when I was seven.

I have more stories and more photos.