May your birthday be the beginning of a super year!
❤️
Love, Ma
Grafenwoehr Germany 1984
P.S. I’m certain that hat band was blue but the Kodak photograph has changed color
Tag: childhood
I’ve got mail
I’ve got mail.
The mail carrier brought it today.
Not just catalogs, flyers with pizza coupons and bulk rate circulars. Real mail, not just junk, addressed to me.
What a happy surprise.
Charlie (3) and his mom mailed his preschool photo AND the self-portrait he drew inside the card. ❤️ Thanks Charlie. (and Laura)
Throwing Coins in the Wishing Well
We drove from Columbus this afternoon and pulled into Pittsburgh and went straight to the Phipps Conservatory Botanical Garden to see the train exhibit before they change exhibits after Sunday.
Do you ever throw a coin in a wishing well or a fountain and make a wish?
Here is Michael making his coin splash, thinking about his wish.
He told me to wait to take the picture as he was thinking about his wishes carefully. I was scrounging around in the bottom of my purse pockets for coins.
Charlie made a splash, too.
I was trying to get the moment of impact on the water.
Here are the trains.
Halloween in Ohio
This morning it started at Halloween Storytime at the Clintonville Whetstone Library.
Charlie wore his astronaut costume and after the songs and stories the kids got treats from different stations in the library. The first was at the RETURNS slots. Stick you hand in and get a treat! I thought that was so creative. Then you had to know where to find the Shark books. There was a shark passing out festive Snoopy and Great Pumpkin pencils. There were so many cute and creative costumes but I try to not photograph children I don’t know so it looks like Charlie was on his own which was not the case.
Later Charlie wore a BumbleBee Transformer costume his Dad created from cardboard and duct tape. It was a lot of hard work but came out great. It was fully operational and folded so Charlie could transform from a car to a Bot. The neighbors had a mask Charlie could borrow. Laura passed out the treats. Their neighbors dog, Hudson sported a HOT DOG costume.
At 6:30 I got in the car for the 15 mile drive to Mark and Erika’s to photograph my four grandkids. It was dark and rainy by the time I arrived. Michael was inside the house taking a break….scary mask. And then I found Maura the unicorn her friend, a deer and and tried to capture them Trick or Treating. No flash to be had. Anna was at swimming practice and didn’t get home until after 8. Jack was a soldier and all the kids gave me their Almond Joys cause they aren’t keen on them and they know I like them!
Maura Made an Ohio Welcome Just for Me
Tuesday morning I drove out to Columbus to visit the family.(ies) Halloween I’ll split my time between both families so I can photograph everyone in their costumes. We won’t let the predicted rain prevent the photography.
Here’s what I found when I arrived.
Maura collected the sock monkeys (I didn’t make the giant one or the ones sporting Ohio State or U of Florida hoodies)
And all her knitting projects and yarn AND a jumbo size box of Cheez-its. Mmmmmm. My favorites. (No judgment please)
My grandma name is Froo Froo Ruthie thanks to Anna now 15.
Thanks Maura for the festive welcome. Love that you created this happy scene for me to find upon my arrival. Xxoo❤️❤️❤️
A Bodhi Wind Original
Here is my friend Vincie in my living room, holding a Bodhi Wind original portrait painted in 1965, She had just picked it up from the framer’s where Jennifer Panza had helped her select the frame and matting. Vincie brought it in and we unwrapped it so I could admire the framed portrait. I’d gone with her to help get it framed, weeks ago.
It’s a really good story.
Five years ago last April, I posted about the Extraordinary Art of Bodhi Wind
In that post I wrote about my friend Steve reading an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette by Joe Smydo about what to do with the artwork of an artist who had passed away. When he read the article, he kept asking me if my friend Vincie knew Bodhi Wind since he’d graduated from her alma mater, Perry High School. After a couple of weeks of him asking if I had checked with Vincie if she knew Bodhi Wind, I finally remembered to ask her. “Vincie, Steve has been on my case to ask you if you knew a Bodhi Wind who graduated from Perry High School who was an actor in LA”.
Steve had mentioned the murals Bodhi Wind painted for the Robert Altman film 3 Women No, she didn’t know him.
(Here is a NYTimes article about The Man Who Painted Robert Altman’s 3 Women by Jennifer Dunning. )
So a few days later the three of us are in the car and it comes up again.
Steve is determined. Asks Vincie himself. Turns out I messed up by asking about an actor when I should have inquired about an artist.
When we got home, Steve got on the computer upstairs and called Vincie to come and read the article. And there was the missing clue. Bodhi Wind had changed his name. For more information it said to contact his mother Mrs. Kuklis. Vincie said, yes, she knew him. Yes, Vincie and Charles (Chip) Kuklis not only went to High School at Perry together but they were classmates in elementary school. Steve was insistent that she must have known him and not only did she know him but they were very good friends in elementary school, too.
This past August, Vincie and her friend Maribeth were attending their 50th Perry High School Reunion. Over the reunion weekend, the two of them went to visit Mrs. Kuklis at her home. Her granddaughter helped show them her Uncle’s artwork but before they looked at the work, they sat in the living room. Vincie said that Chip had painted her portrait when they were in high school. Mrs. Kuklis said “I have it.”
Not only did his mother have the portrait he painted of Vincie in high school, Mrs. Kuklis had set in out on a special chair for Vincie to see, and Mrs. Kuklis asked Vincie if she would like to have it. Oh my!
What a gift!
Vince wth the original portrait of herself, painted by her childhood friend- Bodhi Wind/Chip Kuklis. You can see his signature and the date 1965
Pumpkin Season- Guest Blog
This afternoon my daughter Laura sent me some photos of their family outing to Franklin Park Conservatory. It looked like so much fun, I wish I’d been there too. Seeing the photos of Charlie enjoying the Pumpkin House made me smile. Thanks Laura.
First Halloween House Decorated
Halloween Decorations have increased significantly from a single Pumpkin carved to be a Jack O’lantern with a candle flickering inside.
Clintonville Ohio
Lucky Thirteen
First day of 7th grade. 8/15/18
13th Birthday 8/21/18
Lucky thirteen, wow! We’ve a brand new teenager in the family!
Happy Birthday Michael.
Love, FF Ruthie
And here you are with FF Marlene 7/14/18 on the right
So Long Ohio
Charlie’s face says it all. Again. Maura is my guest blogger today. Friday morning she took this photo with my phone as we backed into the driveway, saying so long to cousin Charlie. I drove Maura back to her house and then I left for Pittsburgh. We had a nice time together and it’s always hard to say goodbye. 