Way Back When-sday - Easter Memories!

I decided to bring back a blog feature that used to be so much fun - Way Back When-sday! That's where I take a particular year or even an era or a day from my past and post about it on Wednesday along with photos and images from that time. Since today is my Birthday, I thought it would be the perfect time to bring back the feature and do a little reminiscing...and since it's almost Easter, I thought I would concentrate on Easters/Bunnies from my past... (I've shared some of these before but it's been several years so I thought it was OK to share again...)

Here I am with my very well-worn loved bunny that I had since I was a baby - since my Birthday often falls near Easter, I always received bunny stuff as gifts...so I've always had a thing for bunnies going way back...

Here I am acting silly with my shiny new replacement-bunny...I eventually wore it out too. (dig that stylin' black and silver couch we're sitting on...so mid-century!)

An Easter classic - scratchy, stiff new dress, white hat, white shoes, huge chocolate bunny, huge basket full of goodies!

 And here's the whole family that year - very groovy, 1969...  My Mom was pregnant with my little brother who was due in May...

And here we are the next year (or maybe the next) when my little brother was a baby...and I was still sporting a scratchy dress and white shoes. We were standing in front of the Wyatt's Cafeteria in Pasadena Texas after church - we rarely ate out when I was a kid, but we went there occasionally on Sundays and special occasions...

Bunny Montage - from my bunnies past and present...

Eastertime Bunny illustration from 1995...

OK fast forward...a LOT. I got engaged to my sweet Hubby John on Easter Day - he put my engagement ring inside a plastic Easter egg along with a sweet note - so adorable...

Thanks for indulging my little bit of reminiscing. I love this sweet Spring time of the year - it's so lovely and full of promise...what are some of your favorite Easter memories??

I hope you enjoy every bit of this amazing celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ! May He bless you with His unfailing love and unending joy!!

Way Back When-sday: 1979 - My Senior Year

1979 - My Senior Year

Today is the perfect day to reminisce about 1979, my Senior year of High School, because this coming Saturday night we will be attending my 30 year High School Reunion!!

Wow, has it really been 30 years...?? I'm afraid so. I've had some mixed emotions about attending this reunion (mostly because I have not been connected with most of these folks since school), but now that it's almost here, I am very excited! Johnny and I will be attending with our dear friends Connie and Buddy - Connie was in my class and my best friend senior year (and now again since I moved back to Houston). Should be fun! I've been digging around in my hope chest and found lots of senior year memorabilia that I will be bringing along to share...issues of our school paper, my senior year scrapbook, prom photos, prom program, etc. I've scanned a number of these things to share with you guys as well - please indulge me as I look back for a bit - I imagine some of this will trigger memories for you as well...

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Connie and I really got to know one another well our senior year when we were both in H.E.C.E. (Home Economics Cooperative Education). This was a program/class that worked with local home economic-oriented businesses to employ students. While in H.E.C.E. my senior year I got out of school at noon to be able to work half a day. I worked at Cloth World and spent a fair amount of my time there as a special order clerk in the bridal department. (loved that job - but overall was never a big fan of working retail)


Here is a photo of our H.E.C.E. officers (I'm 5th from the left - Connie is 3rd from the left) - somehow or another I managed to get elected as president of the club...we had SO much fun that year!!


In this photo, Connie and Buddy were attending Buddy's senior prom - he went to our big rival High School in town.

I'm happy that we will be spending the weekend with this sweet, wonderful couple starting Friday afternoon. We will ride down with them to the reunion on Saturday evening, then spend one more night with them Saturday night and head back home Sunday. We always have a blast with these two - never a dull moment...

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The prom at our school was such fun for me. I had a boyfriend my senior year so I had a built in date and didn't have to go through the angst of hoping for an invitation...

Here I am, getting ready (my brother's girlfriend was playing makeup artist) - and, what a shock...I was on the phone...I lived on the phone back then. (I guess today I'd be texting in this photo :o)

For a long time I had been dreaming of wearing a peach prom dress (my favorite color at the time) and my date would wear a chocolate brown tux with a ruffled peach shirt. So that's exactly what we did... My mom made my dress out of peach "Quiana" (do you remember that fabric??). I had it picked out at Cloth World for months before the prom. She also sewed onto the empire waist a little peach millinery flower accent that I had found while working in the bridal department. I guess it would be a vintage piece now...

I was on the Program Committee for the prom and was able to do several of the illustrations inside. Here's the cover (I didn't draw that one)...


I did this little pen and ink illustration on the menu page. Goodness I wish I could draw that over now! :o)....

I had fun doing this illustration on the Entertainment page...

I showed a set of student's legs wearing their everyday school clothes, then the same kids dressed for prom... hey, I think some of these looks are back again :o)

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Class Motto:

Yesterday is already a dream
and tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness,
and every tomorrow
a vision of hope
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Class Song:

"Poems, Prayers, and Promises" by John Denver

I lobbied hard for having this song as our senior song - I nominated it and printed up the words to the song and passed them out all over school. I was a BIG John Denver fan and I thought the words (most of them) were great for this time in our lives. Here is a YouTube video of John Denver singing the song... (please ignore the little "Save the Tiger" blurb at the end)

Here are the words to the 2nd Chorus of the song...

I have to say it now - it's been a good life all in all,
it's really fine to have the chance to hang around,
and lie there by the fire and watch the evening tire,
while all my friends and my old lady
sit and watch the sun go down,
and talk of poems, prayers, and promises,
things that we believe in,
how sweet it is to love someone,
how right it is to care,
how long it's been since yesterday,
what about tomorrow,
and what about our dreams and all the memories we share...

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I also nominated and lobbied hard for the Class Colors - Pastel Rainbow, and the Class Flower too - Spring Bouquet...

And even way back then I was setting up and photographing still lifes...here is a vignette of my prom dress and associated memorabilia...

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My boyfriend went to a different high school in a close by town, so I was able to attend two senior proms that year. The dress I wore to his prom was a white gauzy tiered Gunnie Sax dress - remember those?? I loved anything Gunnie Sax! Here I am pinning on my date's boutonniere...

...and here we are in my front driveway in front of his beloved Camaro...
(recognize the "Tennille" haircut from the Captain and Tennille...?? :o)

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The year culminated in our graduation of course...it's mostly all a blur really because we had a class of 566, so it took forever. However, this day had extra significance for me because my Dad was in attendance - just two short weeks before graduation he had undergone 14 hours of brain surgery to remove a damaged section of his brain from the Cerebral Hemorrhage he had suffered several months prior. It was a real blessing for him to be there...for all of us!

Here I am getting my diploma...

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Now I really am looking forward to seeing folks again at the Reunion this weekend...I went to our 10th, but missed the 20th, but I know from looking at photos and reading bios on Classmates, Facebook, and our Reunion website that folks have certainly changed and matured a lot these past 30 years...I don't mean so much in looks, (although all of our looks certainly have changed)...but more the type of change that comes from a wide variety of life experiences that we have all had. It's that kind of change that I hope to explore as we spend time talking and getting reacquainted.

I'll have camera in hand, so I should have photos and stories to share for sure!! Please stay tuned!!

HUGS!!

Way Back When-sday: Easters Past

Hello Friends, and welcome to a special edition of Way Back When-sday: Easters Past! I have SUCH fond memories of Easter...dressing up for church, the always over-stuffed Easter basket, dyeing Easter eggs, Easter egg hunts, and of course, chocolate bunnies! But Easter, or Resurrection Sunday as I prefer to call it, is not really about those things, though they are such sweet memories to me - no Resurrection Sunday is truly the most important date on the Christian's calendar, because without the resurrection of Jesus, we have no hope.... Hop on over to my friend Nancy's blog, and read this great post on the true meaning of Easter...she also has some VERY cute Way Back Easter photos to share! (all the participant's links are at the end of this post...don't miss 'em!)

And in keeping with the Way Back When-sday tradition, I am sharing some old and not so old photos of Easters past. This first one is from 1969 and was taken in front of our apartment in Pasadena, Texas. My Mom was quite pregnant with my little brother David in this photo (dig that hair, those sunglasses, and the sunny yellow floral maternity dress...love it!) Goodness, I remember how very stiff and itchy my yellow dress was that day...ugh!


And this photo was taken on Easter Sunday one year later. David was born in May the year before, so he was about 10 or 11 months here. My older brother Ricky was almost 11 years old and I had just turned 9. My hair *finally* began to grow in earnest between age 8 and 9...I had always had short hair prior to this. This photo was taken in front of the Wyatt's Cafeteria that was close to our church in Pasadena - it was a very common gathering place for church folks any given Sunday. We often had Easter lunch at home or at relatives' homes, but this year apparently we were treated to a rare eating out experience...my Mom undoubtedly deserved a cooking break with the arrival of a new baby 8 years after her last one!

Now, fast forward 36 years to 2006. I had just returned to Texas from Colorado right before Christmas in 2005. My divorce was finalized on Good Friday of 2006 and my new single life lay ahead of me...it was a time of mixed emotions and uncertainty to say the least. Right before Easter I had ventured out north of Houston to a little town called New Waverly to take photos of the gorgeous bluebonnets that grow all along the Interstate. I remember being struck by how homesick I had actually been for Texas during my 8 year stay in Colorado. There's almost nothing that says "Texas" like a field of bluebonnets, so I'm sure that's what triggered the feelings. I was SO very glad to be back home. And every Easter season you can count on seeing numerous families along the roadside in their Easter finery taking photos nestled in the field of beautiful bluebonnets. Love it!

Here are a few of the yummy Springtime in Texas photos I took that day...

This shot of an old white clapboard church steeple against a crystal blue sky framed with white crab apple blossoms looked like a vintage Easter postcard to me...

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Wow...what a difference a year makes... On Resurrection Sunday one year later, my sweet Johnny presented me with this ring (hidden inside a plastic Easter egg, BTW - how cute is that!) and asked for my hand in marriage...and a whole new chapter of my life was beginning yet again...and what a sweet, wonderful chapter it is...

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I am DELIGHTED that the following sweet friends are participating in Way Back When-sday this week - please stop by and see their awesome posts and be blessed! And hey, why don't you play along? Even if it's not today...simply leave a comment between now and Easter Sunday with your name and a link to your Easters Past blog post and I'll add you to the list of links!

Way Back When-sday Friends:

Becky - Sweet Cottage Dreams

Nancy - The Heart of a Daddy's Girl

Lallee - Lallee's Cottage

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How about you..?? Share your favorite Easter memories with all of us!
Thanks so much for stopping by...we wish you all a very blessed Resurrection Sunday!!

Way Back When-sday: Birthdays and Celebrations!

I want to welcome you all back to Way Back When-sday! This week we are focusing on Birthdays and Celebrations...cuz this week (Friday to be exact) is my 48th Birthday. Wow...how did THAT happen? Saying that time flies is an understatement...more like time travels at warp speed. Oh well...

The following are photos from some birthdays of mine that stand out in my memory...all except for this first one...I don't actually remember this, but this is circa my 1st birthday in 1962... My mom had to tape bows in my hair back then because my hair was so fine...practically non-existent...

You'd think the following bunny cake photo was from my childhood, but nope, it was from one of my all time favorite birthday parties...in 2005. I was 44. That year my birthday fell on Easter Sunday (very cool), so my sweet bunny friends got together at my place on Saturday for a way-fun Bunny Party! We had lots of wonderful, yummy goodies and worked on crafts together...it was so very special...

Just look at all the goodies...what a decadent spread!

I even decorated Double-Stuff Oreos and little round Brownie Bites...gracious...

Here are the Bunny Girls all gathered round in my kitchen in Colorado (in front of the very same hutch I featured in my most recent post). I took my voluminous bunny collection and let my pals pick their favorite bunny to be their companion for the party (I did say I was 44, right?) That's me with the short blond hair on the right...

Probably my favorite part of the party was the craft time. We made little greeting cards and the most fun...homemade soaps! I had never made soap before...it was SO much fun. Each friend got to take home their soap creations...it was a blast!

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I have a 2 more photos to share from a couple more stand out birthdays in my memory. This one is from the very first surprise party I ever had...it was 1983...two months before my first wedding. I was 22...half my age from the bunny party. I was truly surprised...had no idea this had been planned...it was great!! To my right is my lifelong friend Connie, whom I have had the great pleasure of reconnecting with since moving back to Texas - when I saw her at the Mr. Gatti's Pizza Parlour that night, I knew something was up...she lived clear across town at that time and I hadn't seen her much since High School. It was great to have here there!! Would you look at that perm of mine...and the prairie-style shirt....gosh, I LOVED that shirt!

Fast forward 10 years to 1993...when I had my second ever surprise Birthday party...my 32nd year. In 1993 I was in the final couple of years of working at The Gift Solution where I was the lead t-shirt designer/Art Director. Almost all of my clothes were hand-painted in those days. Those are some mighty big sunflowers...note the sunflower earrings too!! :o) Oh yeah...my cake was in the shape of a sunflower too! My wearing a sunflower shirt that day was just a happy coincidence...everyone knew that sunflowers were my favorite, so it was easy to come up with cake concept that I would love... Oh, and BTW my sweet friend Connie and her husband Buddy were also at this party...and it had been about 10 years since I had seen them. Another great surprise!

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Finally, I thought I would throw in an illustration I did way back in 2005 for Illustration Friday - the theme that week was "Aging". In my 48 years, I can definitely say that there is sweetness and beauty in every season of our lives...if we will simply choose to see it...

(click on the image to see more detail)

"To every thing there is a season..."
Ephesians 3:1

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Please check out Lallee's blog as she will be posting a Way Back When-sday post today as well. We hope you will join us in this weekly feature...we would love to see and read about your favorite birthdays and celebrations from way back in the day. If you want to play along this week or in future weeks simply leave a comment with a link to your blog and I'll add them to this or future posts... It'll be fun!!!

Love y'all!!