The Family Patio

My grandfather, Dow, was the Vice President of a large bank in Arizona…

…this was his portrait for the bank--isn’t he handsome?

Because he was well-known in the area, a newspaper scheduled an interview and photo time with the Ostlund family one sunny, 1950’s afternoon…

…and this was what appeared in the paper.  I’ve always loved this photo…the family all together, sweet, blind little Judy looking so happy, my mother, the beautiful teenager, in her homemade dress, my grandmother, Velda with spoon in-hand…ever the homemaker.  Even Jocko the dog posed properly that day!

Here’s the same patio, probably 7 or so years later…

 

…a little less posed, my mother now married, Judy was sadly gone by now…but here I am…toddler me…toddling around on that very same patio…

I never lived in Phoenix, but nearly every summer, our family would spent quite a lot of time there…all of our extended family was there, after all…a very special place for us to be…

{you just don’t get to choose your thighs, do you?!}

Here’s me again, a year or two later, once more on that beloved patio…in the very same spot the family photo shoot took place a decade or more earlier. 

Even though it was always summer when we visited, I never remember the heat bothering me at all when I was a child, and I would spend hours and hours playing outside…

I remember that very patio so very well….pink-hued cement…smooth and warm (sometimes quite hot!) on my bare summer feet…I remember the sun-baked smell of that backyard so vividly…isn’t it funny how even smells remain tucked away in our memories?

Just beyond it was the lawn—a stiff, prickly & well-groomed Arizona lawn…I didn’t like to walk on it barefoot unless it was being irrigated, and then I would walk forever in it--soft, drenched grass , lying underneath a couple of inches of water warmed by the sun…an absolute delight for a child!

{beautiful vintage prints and “tea cakes” tag found on Crafty Secrets’ 2nd soon-t0-be-released CD}

A new page made this last week for my heritage album…

I chose the colors very much on purpose…the vintage blue for the always-blue Arizona skies I remember in my childhood mind, and the warm, beautiful orange for the Arizona sun…

My grandparents moved away from the family home when I was about 11 or 12…off to a more modern condominium. 

I will always miss that old house on Kaler Drive, but my memory holds it close to my heart…

…I’m so very grateful for these lovely old family photos and my very own memories of the family patio.

See you soon with something new…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Ostlund Family,Arizona,Crafty Secrets