I always thought that my Mom’s immediate family typified the All-American family unit. Her parents’ marriage endured until death did them part, her siblings remained close into their adult years, and all of their children became friends as we continue to see each other at all the major holidays…and often outside of them. Now that we have introduced the fourth generation (Ashleigh and her co-horts), it is clear that even these children have strong family ties.
Of course I credit most of this to my Grandma and Grandpa Murphy who planted the seeds in all of us – but it also makes me long for the much simpler times of the forties and fifties, a generation that fostered strong close-knit family values, a wave of which I only caught the tail-end before most of us were corrupted by the materialistic lifestyles and sensibilities of the 1980’s and 90’s. It certainly had become a different world. But let’s take a moment to reminisce with these great Murphy family Christmas photos from 1959 and couple of bonus shots from 1960 and 61.
Bev, Diana, Jim, and my Mom are having difficulty dealing with the flash bulb so early in the morning.
Grandma Murphy joins her family in the matching pajamas. My Mom and Bev cling to their dolls.
Grandpa Murphy shows off one of his Christmas gifts
Jim and Bev (who still hasn’t let go of her new doll) entertain their cousin Steve Murlin
And here are a couple of isolated phots from the next two Christmases. These all come from the collection of my Uncle Jim. Surely there are some more out there somewhere.
Grandpa Murphy throws one back during Christmas 1960
Bev and her loot, Christmas 1961
More nostalgic photos at a later time…
The guest that Jim & I are entertaining is our cousin Steve Murlin. Steve is one month younger than I am, which put him one grade younger than I was in school.
And the group of 4 very bright and very large lights from the camera shinning right in your eyes was a very hard thing to look into.
Bev
December 23rd, 2007