Look what Aunt Vickie sent me...

Every once in a while I get mail from my Aunt Vickie. I usually say the same thing out loud when I notice the return address. "Oh dear Lord, what is that woman up to now!" Then I say a quick prayer that the package or envelope doesn't contain a boobie trap. Hey, you have to be on your toes in this family. It turns out that Vickie was cleaning out a closet and came across these pictures of my Second Birthday party in May of '72. Vickie has said before that it was a memorable day for her because she'd been out partying the entire night before because it was her High School prom. She forced her boyfriend...later to become her hubby and my Uncle John to attend my birthday party too. Hey, if she had to suffer through a family event on no sleep, poor John was going too. That is me with my Grandma Slater..aka Martha, in the top photo. She's the only Grandparent that I have left, the rest have all passed away and I'm sad to say that Grandma's time is coming to an end. She's confused a lot and her skin is so thin. I know she suffers and that is why I find myself hoping that she passes peacefully in her sleep and then there are times I can't bare to think about it and I just want to hold on for a little longer. Time has a way of marching on though, doesn't it.
Now, I have no idea why I am in a different outfit in the bottom picture. Maybe it was a new outfit, perhaps I was covered in cake and had to change. What do I know, I was two years old. Anyway, Grandma had me standing on the table. I needed this picture the other day when I blogged about grand kids getting away with anything. Ah, I wish my hair was still Strawberry Blonde. Sure I could dye it but then I would have to keep touching up the roots....blah, I don't want to mess with that. Vickie had a few questions about this picture. I'll answer them on my blog. She wanted to know if that was my Dad at the end of the table behind me (just under my hand). The answer is yes...he had hair back then. Looks like they had a card game going....nothing new there, they always had/have a card game going. Then she asked who was sitting by John. I totally know. For everyone else's benefit, I will let you know that my Grandpa Virgil Slater is being blocked by Grandma Slater's arms and Grandpa Kaster is over there too but I only know that because I have seen other pictures of that day and I know they were sitting next to each other. Across the table we have Uncle Jim in the green shirt, Uncle John in the stripped shirt, Aunt Vickie standing over him, keeping him in line, no doubt...and the person on the other side is Uncle Gary. I know this because I remember seeing a picture that my Mom has and Gary is scooping out ice cream at my party. It's the same hairdo. Vickie also wanted to know why there was only one light bulb in the fixture above. Maybe because it was an over watt bulb and one was enough to light the room. Honestly, who wants to really look at family anyway...they can be scary. lol. Of course Mom and Dad were very young parents, not even close to 25 at the time these pictures were taken, so maybe they couldn't afford more bulbs. I DON'T KNOW. I'm sure Mom will comment and give us her incite, or lack of it.
Thanks for the pictures Aunt Vickie...I love them. I would have totally cut you some slack if it has not been for this comment in your letter, "You were so cute then. What happened?" lol, nice, very nice. You will pay for that, you know that, right. Stay tuned, I'm going to post about Dad teaching Vickie how to drive. It's a fun story. I might even throw in the story about how she got her head caught in the steering wheel of a 1960-something mustang. She will never come clean with the real story, so I will just have to improvise. Mine will be better anyway and may include brief descriptions of nudity. YEAH, it will be gooooood.