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!

Catching Up

I have not been the most diligent blogger lately. Today I am sharing a few photos I intended to show you awhile back, as well as a few new ones.

My two eldest, Britt and Sarah ready for church the day after Christmas. They are good sports and pose for me even though they are not 7 and 4 any more!

 Every time I cook something all I have to do is look down and these eyes are looking up at me. He is my floor clean-up crew!

 Thank goodness these beasts are gone from the front porch! It was an ice rink out there for about a week!

 

 This picture is for Grandma Helen. The girls wanted to show her what they bought with their Christmas cash. They found a really FUN boutique called "Bags That Fit" in American Fork and bought the tops they are wearing. Thanks G-ma!

 The guys went to a model train show last Saturday. Did they remember the camera? Yes! Did they get a photo of themselves together? No. What's a Mom to do? Theydid get some shots of cool stuff though. Someone had set up a Lego train world.

 Starbuck's is everywhere!

 This house reminds me of my Mom's childhood home.

 There was a Hogwarts Express that took you all through a Harry Potter world.

 Tuesday was the Master's birthday! His students brought him balloons and all sorts of goodies!

He is well-loved by the kids.

 Brittany prepared his favorite...salmon and roasted red potatoes.

 Happy birthday Big Boy! Britt took this one on her I-phone with some filter that ages the photo..(I don't need any help aging, thanks!).

Time Travel Tuesdays~

One of the most delightful things about looking through my old family photos is seeing the styles on my mother and my aunties. They were so darling as young women and I am especially in love with how they did their hair. Ho DID they do it? The whole 1940's roll thing required a lot of hair pins (which were in short supply during the war). Mom tells a cute story of how my two cousins JoAnn and Dody would search the ground for bobby pins every day as they walked to and from school, so precious were the little metal devices.  To help get that roll big and full the girls sometimes used what was call a "rat". They saved their hair from their hair brushes and stuffed it into a clean old nylon stocking. They would then roll their front hair around it and pin it in place.  Looking at some of these photos I think Mom created her style without the rat's artificial help. So cute! Observe the results...

Helen Hamblin~high school ca.1939

 Senior picture 1940.

 

 Mom & my dad, George Ellsworth newly engaged. 1942.

This style was more "up" and tightly rolled.

 

 This one is wavy from pin curls.

Wedding day, June 5, 1942, Mesa, AZ.

Wavy up front, pulled back on the sides.

 I was thrilled to see this one! The "do" from the top. 

I imagine those hair pins had to be adjusted several times a day!

Mom is relaxing on a quilt with baby Sharon in her mother's front yard on East 2nd St.

 I love this one!  All pulled up and piled in front.

It reminds me of the way the Andrews Sisters wore their hair...you know,

  "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and all  that!

I am in trouble for this one, I am sure!

But really, hair took so much time and work to get just right back then! After washing it you had to curl it, in this case with pins curls. Then it had to dry. It was not proper to be seen in public with curlers in your hair and wearing the scarf was one way of hiding them and keeping them in place as well!

Seriously...isn't my Mom an adorable girl?!