Swinging

Happy birthday, Bradley.

Reading, again

Seriously, I have a lot of pictures of family members reading together.

I guess we read a lot.

It's apparently important to us.


And by the way, that (sort of) octopus pull-toy in the background is really cool. I wish I still had that. I would pull it around while I teach.

Okay. Maybe not. But it still looks like it was a great deal of fun when I was that small.

On the phone

Sitting in my little rocking chair, the beginnings of what would become a terrible teenage habit.

Young Bradley boys

Little Billy and Stephen looking remarkably like the children in Terms of Endearment.

Home on the range

Some pictures from my dad of the farmer relatives in Minnesota.







I guess some of us farmed. Some of the rest of us can barely keep the houseplants alive.

1980s portraits

I never had one of these profile-portraits. I always thought they were pretty cool, but none of the schools I went to did them this way ...

Sometimes I really miss the 80s. (most of the time, not, but once in a while).

I like how much gravitas young Bradley expresses in the profile and that (sort of) innocent smile in the front-facing portrait.

Craft time

I think Jon and I are doing crafts. However we might be doing homework.

Either way, note the wood paneling throughout the kitchen.

Dressed to go places

Frank and Dorothy Leighton, looking like they're ready to go.

Doll bed

This is another family heirloom -- like the kiddie car -- made by my great-grandfather. The doll bed has served many a doll in the family. That's me making the bed. I'm sure that my parents hoped that having this doll bed -- and making the doll bed -- would encourage me to learn to make my own bed. No such thing happened.


At least the dolls had a neat bed to sleep in ...


edit: I have been corrected on the information about the doll bed: Josephine Cooper's father Michael Schaaf made it for his granddaughters, Dorothy and Gladys.