Loved seeing all the photos.  After I retired in 1996, I organized all my photos and negatives and put all the best or important photos in Creative Memories albums.  The rest went into boxes.  Now that the pictures are all digital, I still print the special ones and put them in an album.  Every now and then I Take an album off the shelf and enjoy looking at the past.

Posting for JeanneP   Photo of her when 20 years old.

1981 when appointed VP at our Bank.

         

Wow, y'all have been busy since I was here last!  Love the old photos & think I would recognize every one of you so not sure I want to share mine!      At the class reunion a couple weeks ago someone asked if anyone had seen Smitty..... the name everyone called me including teachers.  So many Shirleys in my class they had to have ways to distinguish between us.  Anyway, I looked to see who said it & didn't recognize until I read her name tag.... I commented, "that would be me" and we died laughing since we were neighbors during the war years & had gone through 12 years of school together but neither of us looked remotely the same.  I don't have any younger photos of me on this computer but will post some another time. 

I had a rough night & not sure if because of the salad I got & only ate a few bites of the chicken before realizing something was wrong with it... or just the imagination running amuck.  I was up all night again and had been up all night the night before with the power out & trying to contact the power company, 9 hours so still trying to straighten things up & reset clocks.  When I picked up the salad I asked 3 people if it was a bad time for getting a salad.... knowing that they are dated by hours ... & when I checked the bottom it was already 4 hours past the "enjoy by" time. 

I pulled back around & asked if they had any fresher.  I'm convinced they just dumped it into another tray & after tasting the chicken, not sure if they pulled some out of the trash because the chicken I had about 4-5 bites of had salad dressing on & I had NOT put my salad dressing on yet.  Just the thought makes me sick so I am going to have someone else look at it (I put in the frig immediately) before I turn in my report on the receipt.... I don't want my money back, don't plan to ever go there again, but I'd like to know what the kids put in it to "get back at the grouchy old lady". 

I really did ask nicely & with a smile, the salads are one thing I do double check & not the first time I've had one too late to sell, always just hand it back for a refund. It did look like it was just dumped upside down into another tray so I moved it around to look at the bottom, something icky-sticky inside on the bottom.  Yuck! I have had to watch what I eat like this, can eat most anything but careful about food being "off".  One time I ate about half a chicken sandwich "on the road" & my husband ate the rest for me (along with his).... I had to stop every 15 min for the next 24 hours until we got home.  He had a stomach of iron, no problem.  My daughter & 3 of her 4 kids have been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease... she & oldest son had the surgery but is not a cure.  I will never go back to that place again, for sure.  Got to get a grip on my life.... such trivial things but harder & harder to get back up. 

I've thoroughly enjoyed all of your photos, just thought I'd explain why I'm not jumping in right now.  One question, Jackie, are the 2 ladies "mother & daughter"?  They look so much alike except for expressions.  You were such a cute little girl & do think you look the same now.

Rick, I remember my youngest brother wearing the "romper" like that!  Bet you were a handfull.

And you do look like a "proper banker, Jack", you haven't changed at all! 

JeanneP, your hair is/was beautiful in that photo. 

Such fun to go through & think of those years.... for each of you, and how we came to be here.  Thanks.

SHIRLEY.....
...yes mother and daughter, mother was grans only child, I am assuming, as told, mother was born as a breech birth........I grew up with my parents living in grans house, this wasn't a council house but gran owned it...Before gran lived in London, again I am assuming with my granddad who I never knew...so moving to this house after his death...

JEANNE P...
.....how attractive and glamorous you were, as attractive as any famous film star of the day...You have a look of Deanna Durbin....

...JACK WV....
...what a fine looking young gentleman you looked, of which I am sure you are, still to this day....Ok maybe not so young but still a gentleman...

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Me when I was about 33.  Taken at the Cape (in Alaska)

Hal. You were  A big 13 year old.

Jack looks the Perfect Officer of a Bank.  We both had contact with a lot of money back in those days. Billions.

I think we all look pretty much the same as we have aged. Can see it in our latest Photo. I kept my long Hair until I was about 39 and then went for the Lola Bridget-er Look. Remember her.?The Italian. Wonder what she looks like now. We were lucky to have such hair that was just Wash and go. But now we would be ironing it as the thing is to go Straight. That is what my girls did. Mine short now but still easy to take care of. Let the gray come but wanted it to go silver. Still staying dark.No chance now.

My family must not have been into taking photos. The younest of me seems to be about 12. Have lots of my family from the early 1900s but only a few from the 1940s on up until the last 20 years.  Now in years to comepeople will have hundreds. I think I have my grands and great grandchildren from the day born and every week since. Although they just send them on E-M and people will not have in frames all around like we like to have. I have them all over the house.
They don't seem to want Wedding albums now . Just want them on a DVD.

JeanneP........13?

Jackie - Precious pictures of your childhood. You were a cute little girl. Many girls like to change hair color. I have a granddaughter (trained as a hairdresser) who changes her hair color with the weather.

Jeanne - That's a lovely photo. Would have loved thick hair like that!

Jack - Handsome young banker!

Hal - I would have known that was you!

Hal I noticed 33, but I was counting the stripes.   I was in 52 to 54, promotions were frozen, we even had officers in the company reverted back to their last enlisted rank.   When promotions were turned back on I got 2 quick ones, they told me I was doing a Master Sargent's Job and if I re-rupped would be there within a  year.  Week I was making decision the put me on KP and I decided time to leave.

Skating on the swamp with one of my best friends, probably around 1953. (I'm the one standing.) The entire swamp used to flood making a huge skating rink. The marble quarries lime plant is in the background.

Bev.  Those were such fun times.  In UK we really never got it so cold to have lakes to skate on other than up in Scotland.  But I loved the snow on the Hills so could use a Sled down.
You were 2 cute young Ladies.Are you still close friends? I seem to have outlived all mine now.

Bubble.  Do you still have contact with any of the friends you made in the UK? WAs the Asian young lady in the one Photo still Nursing?

Jeanne - I still keep in touch with Janet. They just gave her Mom a party to celebrate her 100th birthday. Wish I could have been there.

Beverly, your photo reminded me of an old memory. There are five rivers either flowing through town or skirting it. One of them, the Chena River, has many bows and went curving through the center of the city.

In the fifties, it still got cold enough to freeze the river solid, and every weekend, folks would gather along the bank by first Avenue, building a massive bonfire under a huge kettle full of hot cocoa for the kids and others.

The men, from the Order of the Elks, tending the fire and supervising often had flasks to keep warm other than the cocoa. Along the river, couples, children, and families would tie on their skates and glide along the river. During the week, that same spot hosted people curling on the river.

Changing Times

The swamp is divided by a dirt road. It is now called "the marsh" and has been designated as a wildlife preserve. All of us from "back in the day" still refer to it as a swamp. It used to be pretty, filled with cattails, etc. I took this photo on the opposite side of the road. I used to live to the left of the bottom of the mountain in the distance. We had large skating areas on both sides.They recently built this nature walk into the marsh.

Angelface - That sounds like fun. Moving waters seldom freeze deep enough in Vermont for safe skating.  My brother fell through the ice when he was about 12. We managed to fish him out, wet and cold but otherwise okay.

Beverly, it is a very rugged but beautiful area surrounded by hills, a nice place to spend some time.

Our rivers are glacial usually, rarely getting above the thirties in water temperatures. Your brother was lucky. That was one of my Dad's early duties with the city and then later assigning workers to fish bodies out of rivers. With the waters so cold, most drunks or driving accidentals became numb and helpless.

Back in the fifties, it would get down to thirty below from Thanksgiving through March on two-week spreads. 45 to 68 below was common in January and February.

Now we might hit twenty below overnight or for a day perhaps once all winter.

HALKEL...
...you look very proud, comfortable and relaxed in your army uniform, wonder what was going through your mind at the time as you took your next puff on your cigarette........could almost imagine a pint of beer sitting next to it...

BEVERLY...
...you look so happy skating on that ice....certainly looked like fun times for you and your friend.....although I did cringe on seeing it as there is - was a story withing my family that I lost two cousins who drowned at a place called Hunton Bridge in Watford which made large headlines of the day...my cousins would have been around my age had they survived...Sorry to turn your fun photo story into a negative, just a story I grew up with, of  the loss of two young cousins, sister and brother...
Looking at your photo, I can still see that its you,... ... strange how we are all still recognisable....

Edited to add, two cousins were skating on the frozen pond when they fell through the ice and drowned...while trying to save older sister who got out alive...

Quote from: JeanneP on October 17, 2016, 08:40:55 PM
Bubble.  Do you still have contact with any of the friends you made in the UK? WAs the Asian young lady in the one Photo still Nursing?

The Japanese nurse (Mary Asazawa) was one I kept in touch for years and she even came to visit me in Israel when my daughter was 3y old. She was a dedicated nurse until her last day.

Unfortunately I lost track of the UK friends I had, they seem to have scatter around the world once they got married. I wish...

Bubble.  It seemed like all my friends growing up in the UK .Even the one I went to school with scattered all over the world. Lots to Canada and Aust. NZ. My Best went to South Africa.  Some because their parents went after the war ended. Think the war years caused people to do that. Most of Europe and British isles were bankrupt. Lots of men never returned. I had always read lot on traveling and so I got itchy feet also . Was even ready to go out to Israel with 5 friends when 18. Father said no to that. Brother was out in Palestine for 4 years and loved it. 3 of my friends did go and remained there.

JeanneP, so maybe now is the time for a visit?...  Think about it!

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our beach today

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and up in the sky...

Bubble.  Yes, I need to go. Usually been doing every 2 years but now its  3 because family have been having New knees, Hips. etc over there and time has gotten away from us.  Keep watching prices of flights and been awful high this year. But Spring for sure.
Oh! I couldn't stand a beach so crowded . It does look quite small . Water must still be warm. Summer has lasted here but getting colder today. Darker at 5pm also.

Now I think I would be a little bothered living in one of those Condo's looking at the drop down so close to the edge.  Be nice views I suppose.. It happens to often over here now of homes being washed over the edges into the sea.  I am not that good a swimmer.  You must not have the earthquakes they have here.

I don't have time to talk much but was thinking how brilliant the design of the beach to take advantage of different levels like that, & the stacks of chairs/tables to use.  I'd love to be the one doing the hang gliding, it's on my bucket list!  Bet Don is eating his heart out wanting to join you there, Bubble! 

Are you going into fall or what season is it now?  Our fall is a complete dud as far as trees/color goes.  They are starting to turn but high winds blowing leaves off before they do anything but change to dirty brown. I can't go anywhere I can't drive the 3 cats.  Dumb, huh? 

Beverly, I keep scrolling past that long bridge-walkway.... what a pretty view.  Guess the road was around near the base of the mountains (they look bigger than hills).... nice place to grow up.  You still have the same smile as in that photo, just as pretty.  We were lucky if the ice froze solid enough to skate for a week all winter,  where I grew up, my brother bought me skates like yours when he got out of the service after WWII.  I still have them & would still give them a work out.... if the leather doesn't fall apart.  I used to keep them oiled up but haven't checked them for a long time.... 10 years or more.  Been on my roller skates since then. 

Must go feed cats, late for them.   

Shirley, those are what I would call foothills. Fairbanks is surrounded by and partially built on four sets of similar foothills and three mountain ranges within 100 miles of town. Our smallest mountain is Mt, Foraker, at 17,400 feet.

Beverly, I didn't really notice at first; but looking more at the bridge across the swamp, it reflects a quiet serenity.

Bubble I would love to come visit! Other than being on the inland sea, I have never been in or on the ocean and we have four of them here Bering, Beaufort, Chukchi and Pacific!

Shirley - We do call them mountains. I climbed the one in the forefront. There are cliffs near the top with quite a view of the valley. If you look closely you can see them.

Angelface - I'm sure they would be foothills in Alaska, but in Vermont they are mountains....part of the Green Mountain Range.

I took this photo from the car. This thruway was built into the side of the mountain across the road from our house. The original road is still below that bridge but our house is gone.......taken out when the new thruway was built. 

Bubble, on windy days, several people fly kites at Lake Michigan, some even are like the one in your picture.

We even have a mountain in Michigan, although it is in name only, certainly not high enough, but it's called Brockway Mountain and is in the Upper Peninsula (UP).  If you walk up out mountain, you will not get a nosebleed from the height!

Shirley, I've been pleased to see some color along out roads and it's good color too - bright red and/or yellow and/or orange.  I had expected we'd have nothing to speak of.

Mary Ann

Murphy dome, a foothill on the east side of town is 2,897' and some call it a mountain. Chena Ridge is 912 ' and Birch Hill is 1,093, part of the first set of foothills'.  These are the only ones I know the names of, but Fairbanks is nestled among four rings of foothills and three mountain ranges directly behind those. Of the mountain ranges, The Brooks Range to the north is part of the Rockies that go through Canda and the US. The Alaska Range to the south, has Denali, the highest mountain other than Everest in Nepal,  and the White Mountains are to the east. To the west are the Kuskokwim Mountains.

To the west and north is the upland area of the Seward Peninsula, the western tip of which is some 50 miles from Russia, across the Bering Strait. Much of the peninsula consists of broad, convex hills and ridges with an average elevation of about 2,000 feet surmounted by more rugged mountain groups. A few peaks rise above 3,000 feet; the highest, at 4,714 feet is Mount Osborn in the Kigluaik Mountains

This is why you can watch the clouds and weather creeping up and over the foothills to drift into the Tanana valley below. Alaska is restless and timeworn. We have active volcanoes, part of the world's ring of fire. We have glaciers, earthquakes, volcanic ash, fires and severe storms or drought, never a long spread of any weather. We are in the midst of an arboreal forest and a watershed with rivers, lakes, sloughs, ponds, creeks and sulfurous  hot springs all about. Because of the lack of development seen in the south and the rough terrain and long distances with no road system, the land looks the same as it did thousands of years ago. If you watch some of the cams around Fairbanks, you can see the hills surrounding.

We don't have the malls, water parks or clubs. What we do have is wilderness and adventure. And there are three other geographical parts of Alaska besides the Interior. You all should visit. In the summer there are more Europeans than Americans drawn by adventure and the unknown. There are trips to just about anywhere, and you can see different wildlife, from muskox to buffalo to bears bald and golden eagles, hawks and ravens. You could  pan for gold, fish or golf in the midnight sun or take tea with a homesteader in a hidden river valley and dip your toes into a sea bordering the actual North Pole.

This morning I had to put my beloved Jessie to sleep.   It came on fairly sudden.   She turned 15 this June, very blessed that I had her with me that long.   She had issues with fatty tumors, having several removed.  That and/or the meds had slowed her down to the point our short walk was her only excercise.  She would not eat or drink, I had her to the park, but in the evening she was not able to stand on her hind legs, to the point my Son had to come over to help lift her from the yard and into the house.  We arranged to take her to my Vet this morning, again having to carry her.     We discussed leaving her for several days for tests and possible other meds, but they agreed that at her age she had little time to improve.  Know many of you have experienced this.   Do me a favor tonight and give your pets an extra hug for my Jessie.

             

Jack, I am so very sorry. I know how much this hurts when you lose a family member pet. I wish you comfort in your memories of such a sweet girl.

We have all loved her too from your photos and descriptions.