Photoessay #171 - Old interview from an older picture album

Prologue

Over a year ago, I was taking a writing class that involved doing an interview. I got behind due to my upper back issues. I was looking for a 'working tape recorder'. As if!

But instead I find something else...a tape in the back of a file drawer marked "Sandy's family album tape 2" I don't remember it but it plays on the machine. Most of this piece was written in September 2006.

The interview

Sandy (that's me) is interviewing my mother, it's probably around 1985...that's 21 years ago. My son Danny appears, he's a toddler though he has some definite things to say. He's 24 years old now, the eldest of my 4 kids. If Susanna (now 21) had been around, there would have been no way that we could have done this interview, she would have loudly disrupted everything. She is referred to in passing so she must be asleep.

My mother had made some photo albums for me of family pictures and I have asked her to go through the albums and describe the pictures. She does and I fill in with some comments and encouragement.

We both sounds so young then....all 3 of us. We are all so much smoother then and we sound so strong and healthy. Our words are clear and sure. Health is now an issue for all of us...my mother is now 82 with congestive heart failure and she gets along but she can't remember or keep track of too much.

My mother animatedly talks about the pictures from around 1955-1959. The houses and the job transfers. She uses words that two year old Danny favors that I've forgotten.

"Here's a party" she says "Look, Danny, your mama is having a happy you day in the backyard. Isn't that the way it is with your first child, you pay attention to the cute things that they say. I had 4 kids in seven years and nobody remembers a thing that Naomi said! No first words, nothing. But Danny used to like to sing the song but he didn't quite get all the words "Happy uuuuh uuuh YOU!" he would hum, so birthdays became "happy you"s.

She tells the story about how we got her first dog, the ride out in the country on Sunday afternoon (is there 'country' in the Sacramento Valley?) to a lovely big place on the river. There's a sign "Puppies for sale". "We'll just go and take a look" my parents say (seems out of character for them as they always made a point to plan everything out and not be impulsive). So they go up the driveway and suddenly there is a huge noise, 200 cocker spaniels all start barking at them at the same time. The proprietor takes a look at my toddler brother and says "I think I know of just the right puppy for you, young man" He brings out several 3 month old cocker spaniel puppies onto a beautiful lawn for these two small children to play with. My mother describes how one puppy (we could never figure out if he was black with white spots or white with black spots) played more than the others, falling all over himself and chasing his tail. My father says "what should we name him? What's black and white". And my mother said "one thing is black and white, that's Scotch." So they registered him as Lord Scotch and took him home. "He did a great job taking care of the kids and the backyard' observed my mother.

She talks about pictures of us as children with cousins and grandparents. She can remember the clothes I am wearing and, sometimes, so can I. A bathing suit with appliqued owls and red piping. A red dress of stiff dotted swiss. A bike parade, I've got my bicycle all decorated with crepe paper and a funny floppy hat. A trip to Lake Tahoe. The new baby comes home (my sister Pam in 1959 after six weeks in the hospital). My father bellows at us regarding her tiny premature self "This is a NO TOUCH baby! No Touch!" So my brother (age 5) is has his hands wrapped around his torso and I'm sitting on my hands. My sister is 44 years old and she's still The Baby.

Three year old Danny is making all kind of noises trying to get some attention. He's looking at the pictures "I see my DADDY!" he says. He dissolves into giggles.

I don't remember the room we were in or what kind of day but my mother continues to tell stories, I wonder if Danny remembers.

Many thanks to Erwin who rotated my picture so it would display appropriately on my blog. I realize that the perspective is skewed