Christmas Greetings From the 50’s
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
The last couple of years I have shared some vintage images from my Mom’s side of the family as we approached the Christmas holiday. This year I’ve found just a couple of really cool Christmas postcards that were send out by my Dad’s family in the early 1950’s. Unfortunately, they are not dated, but it appears that the photos used are from around 1951 or 52 perhaps – when my Dad was about four or five years old, respectively. The photo at right looks to be taken even a year or two after that. Funny how Christmas trees even look so warm and inviting even when they are in black and white! Read the rest of this entry »
On August 29, 2009, my Great-Uncle Duane Murphy passed away at the age of 90. Duane, whose official given name was Harry after his father, was 90 years old and living at the Englewood Manor nursing home, in the early stages of Alzheimier’s Disease. Duane (standing on the right in the photo at left with my Grandpa and their Mom Edith) was my Grandpa Murphy’s brother and he is fondly remembered by his family for his dry wit and his sarcastic sense of humor, which apparently trickled down to some of his extended family over the years. 
This year in our installment of photos from early Murphy Christmas celebrations, color comes to the Murphy family as we enjoy these photographs from the Christmas of 1967. Some appear to be taken on Christmas morning in the house on Cunnington Lane, while some later in the day for the Murphy family Christmas party. This in fact was not so much a ‘Murphy’ gathering but rather a ‘Murlin’ gathering, since the siblings present were those of my Grandma’s. 
Today is my Mom’s 58th birthday. Goodness, that seems like a high number – but she pulls it off with her young-at-heart attitude. To celebrate, I thought I would share some uncommon, unrelated, and mostly random photos of my Mom from the 1960’s as she passed from little girl, through her teen years, and into adulthood. There isn’t typically ample opportunity to group photos from this time period into much of a cohesive-themed posting – since there are so few of them in existence. But here’s a batch of cool, nostalgic photos in both glorious black and white and brlliant Technicolor. Enjoy. 
The Summer of 1976 was over and my Mom wanted me the hell out of the house. Okay, it probably wasn’t that drastic, but she did try to get me in to Kindergarten that Fall because she felt that I was in desperate need of a challenge. My birthday, being on October 2, was two days over the deadline to get into school, so I needed to be tested to see if I was ready to be enrolled early. I passed every test with flying colors, except for one thing: I cried for my Mom when they took me in to be tested. I had never done that before (at least since I was a toddler) and never did it again to my knowledge.