1963 – Ruth E. Hendricks Photography

A Birthday Card from 1963

You know I’m always trying to cull the memorabilia around my home. Glad I saved this one as I found it again just in time for today.

This is a birthday card from my mother and father wishing me a happy Fourth of July birthday. The year I turned eleven. 1963. I looked on the back and it’s a Norcross card for 25 cents. I was visiting my godmother in Maybelle, Colorado that birthday. My mother wrote “What a life.to have a ride on a super jet.” The red words are raised and flocked.

A cool find while cleaning out papers in the desk.. my dad’s lengthy messages inside includes an itinerary for my brother’s trip to Philmont Ranch in New Mexico with the Boy Scouts.

There is also a lovely card from my sister from this year, too. Happy Birthday to me😀

My mother lets me guess which picture on the front resembles me!

My dad filled up the entire interior of the card when I unfolded

July 4, 2020 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: 1963, birthday, childhood, family, Fourth of July, greeting card, July 4th, memories, parents, photography, postaday 14 Comments

Planted in 1963, Our Family Christmas Tree

A friend drove over from Morristown to Morris Plains (New Jersey) today. It’s where I spent a decade of my growing up.

Photographed this evergreen for me. Sent me the photo. Between 40 and 50 feet tall now. Wow!

I was wondering if it was still there after all these years.

We had a live tree with the roots encased in a burlap sack just that single year. I remember how we watered it and of course it was really heavy to get out of the living room.

Usually we’d get a cut tree, close to Christmas Eve. You know the ones- sometimes hard to get level in the metal stand or the base of the trunk is too thick so you get a metal bucket and some rocks, the fresh trees that drop needles before Epiphany, or you grab the trunk and are dripping with sappy gum. These real trees evoke Christmas of yesteryear with the pine fragrance. Not a candle or soap or air freshener. True woodsy clean fresh pine along with a tangerine peel says Christmas to me.

This Christmas tree was planted behind St.Paul’s Church in Morris Plains where our dad was the rector. We lived in the Rectory across the street.

The photographer prefers anonymity to a photo credit but I’m grateful for the effort and can’t wait until my brother and sister see this magnificent tree. Thank you.

Happy memories.