Time Travel Tuesdays~Easter in Camelot

I am a bit late in posting this but only by a few days and it is Tuesday after all!

We are traveling back in time today to Easter Sunday of 1963. As usual, the weather was glorious in Mesa. No need for sweaters or umbrellas here! I am five and-a half years old  and had been an aunt to this weeping little girl for a year! This is my niece Jalyn Black, my sister Sharon's first child. I was in love with this little girl and her red hair! She was my first baby; my little sister Gena was born nearly 8 months later. Jalyn made me an "aunt" which none of my friends would believe when I told them. I loved watching her learn to sit up, wave, and crawl. Crawling was a whole new adventure because she did crazy baby things like eating Gravy Train dog food from the bowl set out for Tammy, our Boston terrier. She once pulled a watermelon rind right out of the garbage can and we found her gnawing on it happily! There were other not so funny things we caught her eating...but I digress!

Look at how we are dressed in blue. My mother and big sister planned our outfits to be matching. Gena was just a little six month old at the time but her dress matched too. Our dresses are homemade (as they all were back then). Aren't they cute? I don't know why she had reason to cry!

 This was Jacqueline Kennedy's heyday. The height of being a lady! I had white gloves to wear with this ensemble but I hate to tell you that they were hiding in that darling hand bag! I hated wearing them, which drove my sainted mother crazy! When I did have them on I did awful things to them like eating jam or drawing pictures in the dust on the end tables! I wish you could see the bib collar on the dress up close. It had three blue buttons down the front. So cute! I loved the hat and purse. I am certain they were purchased at J. C. Penney's on main St. in Mesa. Love my little Mary Jane shoes too! This was a special outfit because I wore it for a mother/daughter fashion show that the church Relief Society put on that spring. I remember walking out on that stage holding my Mom's hand and just knowing I was so adorable! (I had my little white gloves on too!)

Look at those vibrant roses! My Dad loved to grow roses and these were his favorite, Chrysler Imperials. I have a bush of them growing in frot of my house now in memory of him. I loved our shady front yard where we had many birthday parties and pretend adventures. That is North Recker Road in the background. It was gravel then. Now it is five lanes wide. Apache Wells golf course was built a few years later across the street. You can just barley see the orchard in the distant right side of the photo. That was my favorite place to play! It either smelled like orange blossoms and lemons, or was fragrant with plums and apricots growing. There were grapes, blackberries and pecans too! Why am I not living there now?! Sadly, the very spot I am standing is now the driveway to a Camelot Country Club. Unreal. Why does progress ruin things?

Oh geez!  I just had a cheesey thought.

"Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment 

that was known as Camelot".

That's what the Kennedys thought of their time in the White House. It's how I feel about my childhood. Now it's covered over by asphalt and concrete and called Camelot!