~ vintage photo Saturday...

~Circa 1972~  Afternoon ice skating at the War Memorial outdoor skating rink in Clove Lakes Park, Staten Island, NY.



From left to right:  Lauren, our friends Dawn + Karen, me.  From the looks of the scrunched up faces, it was a bright and sunny day. :-)  Anyone remember who took the photo?  You can see the shadow of the photographer at the bottom center of the photo.  I'm guessing the double breasted peacoat and fringed suede jackets were all the rage?

Am I the only one wearing a hand-me-down (itchy, scratchy wool) coat? See photo below!

~Circa 1967~  Easter Sunday  Photo taken in front of 50 Hatfield Place.  We definitely dressed up to go and eat Easter Sunday dinner at Nonna's house.  Does the tailfin of the car belong to daddy's 1957 pink chevy, or, grandpa's 1958 rambler?

~ happy father's day...

...a belated "vintage photo saturday" post :-)

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I would think that the few people who read my blog would recognize who's in this photo.  But, just in case you don't -- from left to right:  ~ moi ~... my father (Larry) holding my sister Lovey... my sister Lauren.  Photo was taken in front of the garage at 26 Hatfield Place.  The "cool" car is a Mercury -- and it has fins but you can't see in them in the photo :-(

Looks like the 4 "L's" are enjoying some time together on an early spring day in 1969!

vintage photo Saturday...

Easter 1968...




Photo of some lovely ladies wearing their holiday best.  From left to right:  My grandmother, Aunt Ida, Nonna, and, Mother.  Small boy in background is my Uncle Charlie.  Nonna is wearing a casual sweater over her favorite holiday dress because she was the holiday hostess -- and busy cooking -- and they probably had to practically carry her out of the house to be in the photo.  They are standing in front of Nonna's house.  She was quite independent and lived there, on her own, well into her 90's!

~ vintage photo Saturday...

Photo of my father, wearing his summertime loafers.  He only wore them after he had finished working for the day and bathed -- and then he put on some Old Spice cologne...  My grandmother is sitting on his knee -- and even though she looks a bit serious in this photo, she probably giggled after it was taken. :-)




You can click on the photo to take you over to my flickr stream where you can learn a little bit more about it.

This hot and humid close enough to summertime weather puts me in a vintagey mood.  You know, the kind of mood where you want to sit outside on the porch, drink a cool glass of lemonade, and have a light hearted chat with someone...

I'm off to do just that :-)

~ family history...

Ancestry.com is allowing free searches through military records until May 27.  I hopped on over there and found this!



It is a draft registration card from 1942 for my great-grandfather!  From what I have researched, even though my great-grandfather was 58 years old at the time this draft was taking place, he was required to register.  It is called the old man's draft.  This little piece of paper answers many questions for me.  It was a great find!

If you are interested in your own family history, you should hop on over to ancestry.com today or tomorrow -- before the free military search access is over.

~ old irises...

...spring anew in the warm morning sunlight. :-)

~ my staten island history ...

I decided to put together a little vintage family photo album over on my flickr account. I will post here when I update over there. I decided to start with this photo, because at the end of this past summer (2012) I was driving myself crazy obsessed with looking for a map that showed Herman Street in New Dorp Beach, Staten Island. The datestamp on my downloaded copy of the photo of the map is August 20, 2012 -- this is the date I downloaded the photo to my PC. Now you might be asking yourself why I couldn't just go to googlemaps and find this street. The reason is -- this street -- along with a few others surrounding it in this section of New Dorp Beach -- was "demapped" during the Robert Moses project many years ago. Nothing was ever built in this section of New Dorp Beach again. After I found this map, my obsession subsided. And then, on October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit right at this very spot in New Dorp Beach, Staten Island.

Click on map to enlarge:

 

Closeup of map (click on map to enlarge):

 

Here's a link to an even older map of this area (from 1907)  Click here

And here's a link to a photo of the ruins of some buildings that existed here in the 1907 photo.  These buildings were already gone before I spent my early childhood summers on this beach.  I do remember, during those summers, this area had white silky dry sand that sparkled and you could only see the very tips of some of the cement pieces in this photo.  We were told not to go "over there" because it was dangerous.  Now, only many years later, I can see what was under all that pretty sand.   Click here

In this photo you can see the remnants of the long pier shown in the 1907 map.  That is the section of the beach that we frequented in my early childhood.  You could walk away from the water and off the beach right onto Herman Street.  Click here

a little piece of history...

I have been trying to find the pieces of my family history... forever...  At least once a year I start digging...again...  Well... this year I have hit paydirt a couple of times.  The little snippet above is the 1940 census for my father's side of the family.  At ancestry.com, you can now search through the 1940 census (for a limited time it is free).  I recommend giving it a look-see.  You may just find out that you are not who you thought you were!

a lovely rainy summer afternoon...

Yesterday, our summer afternoon routine was interrupted by -- well -- you know -- another summer afternoon thunderstorm.  This one began just as we were about to leave and run errands -- so instead -- we stayed.  I kept thinking that it would have been a great day to work on the blocks for "The Farmer's Wife" quilt-along.  Since the book is not in my possession yet, it was a good opportunity to straighten up my sewing space -- and look through my fabric stash -- so I did.  I realized after a bit that I have never really just looked through my fabric stash without actually "looking" for a particular piece of fabric.  Am I that busy? :-)  This was actually a fun thing to do!  Sofia kept me company while she quietly organized her collection of completed polymer clay creations.  My collection of fabric spans quite a few decades -- so I reminisced to Sofia about the history of some of the pieces while I semi-organized them.  Since she was dreamily pre-occupied with her own organizing, every now and then I would get either a glance or a little nodding gesture -- but she really wasn't talking much...  So, I did a little daydreaming of my own while accomplishing about one fourth of the room.   

Just a few more lovely rainy days and I'll be all done!  :-)

Note:  The ironing board setup shown in the photo is a bit inadequate.  It is a small ironing board placed on top of the sewing cabinet that houses my mother's early 1960's Singer sewing machine.  I have tons of memories attached to that sewing machine and cabinet -- so it may not be pretty, but it gives me the warm fuzzies when I do my work there.