Category: Photographs

Pupil

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Inspiration: Ragtag Daily Prompt: Pupil

 

5th grade
Public School Fifth Grade
New Jersey
1964

I rarely hear the term pupil anymore. At least as it applies to schoolchildren.

However, back in the olden days – the 1960s – I was a pupil. One of many pupils in my 5th grade class. A large class by today’s standards…after all we were the babyboomers.  Schools would be scrambling to accommodate us for years to come.

Bizarre at it sounds, I still recognize those classmates – and can name almost all of them. Perhaps not always for the best reasons.

Fifth grade – when I turned 11 – remains sharp in my memory.  There is Andy, twin brother of Ellen, who I had a mad crush on. Probably because he complimented me on my kickball skills at recess. Debby…whose house I visited to play games and sleep over. Patti Ann, Judy and Dianne…the mean girl trio who took turns making my life miserable. Except when they didn’t and I thought we were friends. Kathy…the girl who was taller than me…a rare occurrence. Johnny…whose science experiment once blew up. Meredith…bullied because she was overweight. Eric…the boy who I think had a crush on me…although I was as clueless as they came. So who knows.

The only dress code of sorts applied to girls. We had to wear dresses or skirts. Except on once-a-week gym days. My favorite day of the week…pants!…sneakers!

Boys could wear whatever they wanted. Neckties only came out on school picture day.

In addition to Math, Science, Reading, etc., we were also graded on Penmanship, Behavior and Effort. Girls had gym and health class separate from the boys. Often a pupil…like me…stood in front of her class and gave the Spelling tests. And missed Social Studies to correct them for the teacher.

I wonder what happened to those kids. Now in their 60’s. The mean girls do not look as mean as I remember. I see no angry faces…or narrowed eyes…or…evidence of what happened. I also look happier than I was. It’s an odd perspective.

My family moved to another town when I started sixth grade.

I never saw those kids again.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lines & Angles

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This post inspired by Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lines and Angles

 

 

museum ceiling
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
café ceiling – January 2019

 

Remember to look up…

I remind myself…more and more
As the years add up and time rushes by…
Realizing there is so much I have been missing…
From a lifetime of purposeful paths and forward focus.

One winter day…
While sipping a hot cup of tea in the museum’s cafe,
I glanced up.

And discovered…
My favorite hidden exhibit.

 

 

 

Climb

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This post inspired by: One Word Sunday

 

stairs museum

 

I climbed up (and down!) this staircase…during a recent visit to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.

It is located inside the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building. Named after the museum’s founder. The building is a recreation of 6 rooms from Mrs. Webb’s 1930’s Park Avenue apartment in New York City. Complete with her collection of French Impressionist paintings and unique furniture.

Electra Havemeyer Webb founded the Shelburne Museum in 1947. This building was completed in 1967.

 

 

View

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Nancy Merrill is hosting a photo challenge. The prompt this week: View

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF YOUR FAVORITE VIEW OR VIEWS.

~~~

Look at this view!

My dear friend of almost 40 years pointed across the lake from her new summer home on Lake Champlain in Vermont. One sunny July day in 2010.

Look at it!

She and her husband had recently moved in…when I first visited this magnificent spot. The dining room, situated at the back of the house, faced the lake. Seats at the table…arranged for maximum view potential.

My husband and I recently returned from a wonderful 3 day visit. Enjoying their company. The conversation. The shared meals. Walks along the lake. A trip to a museum. A few games of cards.

And especially…that view!

view afternoon
The View
6:30 pm

 

view inside
The View
7:30 pm

 

view sunset
The View
8:30 pm

 

Radiant

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This post inspired by Frank at Dutch goes the Photo

The prompt: Radiant

 

Version 2
“Barbra: The Music, The Mem’ries, The Magic”
Boston, MA

 

“The Three B’s”
Bette (Midler), Bonnie (Raitt) and Barbra (Streisand)

My concert bucket list…
For over 30 years.

Bette…check!
Bonnie…check!

The last holdout?
Barbra.
I figured I’d never be able to check her off my list. Sigh.

Why?
She rarely, if ever, toured.
Tickets would be horrendously expensive and impossible to get.

August 16, 2016 changed all that…when I received an early Christmas/Birthday gift from my daughter, son and son-in-law. Thanks to my daughter’s herculean skills at navigating multiple internet browsers. To score tickets. The instant they went on sale.

Floor seats to a Barbra Streisand concert extravaganza in Boston. Complete with a light show beyond anything I had ever seen before. As cliché as it may sound, I was transported by the music, her one-of-a-kind voice, the showstopper after showstopper. Including my favorites – which was just about the entire set list – the super fan that I am.

Radiance on all levels.

One of my all time bucket list dreams finally came true.

Check!

Subtle

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This post inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #54: Subtle

 

vermontbay

Sun slipping
colors reflecting
shifting
softening

Nature’s
subtle metamorphosis
of day into night
begins

 

 

Unique

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Post inspired by Lens-Artists Challenge #51 The prompt: Unique

 

My friend AR came into my life when we were 15 or 16. I met her when I joined “PF” (aka “Pilgrim Fellowship”) – a Congregational Church youth group. Basically a group of high school kids who met on Sunday nights. We formed committees. We planned activities, trips, coffee houses and spaghetti dinners. It was a friendly and welcoming group.

AR and I attended the same high school – a regional school drawing students from 4 towns – so we may not have ever crossed paths if not for the church connection. She was quiet, shy and…I was to find out…brilliant. And talented. Some may have added…eccentric.

We were both the oldest in a large family. She was the oldest of 6. I was the oldest of 5. We both had difficult childhoods; although at the time we didn’t openly discuss the darker places we later found out were eerily similar.

The summer we were 18, she embroidered a swatch of denim (~14″x18″) with words from one of our favorite songs by The Rolling Stones. I don’t remember what the occasion was – or if there was even a specific occasion that sparked her creativity – but I still treasure this unique piece of art. It is framed and hangs on the wall over my desk.

You can’t always get what you want…

Now isn’t that the truth.

abby patch2
Crewel Embroidery on Denim – 1972

 

AR and I went our separate ways to college. We kept in touch with frequent letter writing. Letters I still have – with her tiny perfect script – detailing her struggles with making ends meet, making friends, experimenting…and…charting an uncertain future. Always signed: Your loving and sincere well-wisher.…

Shortly after we graduated from college, I lost track of her for a few years. Until her letter arrived telling me she was now Sister M.

My Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan loving friend had converted to Catholicism and joined a cloistered community of nuns. Beginning her new life in a monastery.

I have visited her off and on over the past few decades. We chat as if we were still those two goofy teenagers at PF meetings. Her eyes are bright as they look back at me from beneath the white habit she now wears. Denim a long forgotten thing of the past.

Once I showed her a photo of the beautiful detailed embroidery she made for me.
She was incredulous.

You still have that?

Of course I do! 

She smiled…Oh my!…that was such a long time ago. 

 

Flower

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Nancy Merrill is hosting a photo challenge. The theme this week:  Flower

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING FLOWERS OF ANY KIND.

 

iris trio
Immigrant Iris

 

As anyone who lives in a condominium may know, there are rules. So many rules. As a former homeowner they have sometimes been difficult to accept.

However, I knew going into this new lifestyle what was expected. I signed the papers. By-laws. Rules and regulations. Blah blah blah.

I don’t regret the move, but sometimes I do let my mind wander to what was….

And one of those mind wandering destinations is flowers.

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I loved the flowers and flowering shrubs & trees at my former home. Where I could plant whatever I wanted. Whenever I wanted. Anyplace I wanted.

I could also shovel snow. Snow blow the driveway. Hack ice off the eaves. Rake leaves. Fertilize the lawn. Chase down wasp nests. And so on.

But I digress.

One of our new condo friends had the foresight to save a collection of iris bulbs from his former home. Where his gardens were spectacular – as he showed us in photograph after photograph.

One day in the fall of 2017, he stealthily planted several of these bulbs amongst the legal bushes around our building. They popped up the following spring.

As iris do, they spread…this past spring there were a few more.

They are…almost…an exact match to the ones I left behind.