This Is Still Bike Week

 

1969

We've owned lots of tricycles, bicycles and motor versions of two wheeled vehicles. There was a track around the back yard for riding this mini.

Mini Bikes in Colorado - and some fish

We really took a lot of equipment to Colorado. Fishing poles, minibikes, canoes and food supplies. Rainbow Lake was our camping place with log cabins and beds!

The Family that Rides Together -

This was a good friend, Keough, with the rest of our family. I was the camera person. Fun times.

a birthday

A break from Bike week to recall where I was several years ago today - ok - eighty-four. I remained there from March to September (can you even imagine the bill today?) when a wonderful nurse and her husband adopted me. What a great thing to happen to a little skinny baby. They never were able to fatten me up. A wonderful life was given to me. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Christmas Bikes

Some bikes for Christmas. About 1969.

Boring Bike

He doesn't look too thrilled - maybe it's not the bike but his mom taking another picture.

Tractor and Trike

PN had just learned how to wink. We had no sidewalks in our addition. Only the driveway for riding. We did not allow them into the street. Lots of neighbor kids were in the street but we were the meanies.

Trike and dogs

Another tricycle and family members.

Rumble Seat Bike

These are not in order, age-wise. We biked a lot.

First Trike

This was our older son's first tricycle. He received it "from" his new baby brother in

1961. Check that military helmet and there was also a lunch bucket among the goodies.

First Harley

Boys and Bikes

First full size bike. (There had been mini bikes that weren't street legal.) Fair grounds - off limits; river dike - off limits. Get those guys a street legal model!  Early 1970's

Fairy Princess with Angel Wings

She designed it herself. I think it is pretty special and a sweet girl is still a sweety today.

KPL in the 1940's

A bunch of brave linemen who worked in all kinds of weather to keep the lights on in Hutchinson, KS.

The Farkle Family?

This was the early 1930's. You've heard of the Depression?

Luckily, my dad had a job but we don't look like we had very much money.

The bright afternoon sun seems to be bothering my mother and me.

Dad looks happy but he is holding an inflatable Dachshund by the tail.

Cousins

Another picture of M and M who were shown yesterday. These two were expected to arrive on or near the same date. Unknown to both mothers, they had picked the same first name for a boy. Since we were a week early we used the name, Michael Lee, and the other baby got the name Mitchell Lee. It all worked out.

Bullying in 1959

I was talking with my sister-in-law and we didn't remember a lot of bullying when we were kids. These photos show it may have started when our boys were very young....six month old. M and M in a moment of strife!

Meeting Gordon Parks

This was in Manhattan, KS, the Little Apple, many years ago.

Mr. Parks also came to Hutchinson and spoke at the Dillon Lecture Series. He led an amazing life, starting his career by buying a camera in a pawn shop, I believe it was. His photos that he took for Life magazine are wonderful. His book, The Learning Tree, tells of his early life in Kansas and it was made into a movie.

TBT Selfie - 1950

With an old Brownie box camera, the outcome was blurry.

And Where We Cook Now

This one is small and someone keeps saying, "This kitchen is not big enough for two people." Most kitchens aren't!

Small Apartment Kitchen

This was our kitchen for fifteen months while we lived in Texas. I liked apartment living but others did not so we returned to Kansas.

A Little Kitchen Imp

There's more than one way to get to that top shelf!

Skylight

This kitchen is in Washington state where there are many cloudy days.

I was not familiar with sky lights and when I saw how bright it was - even on the cloudy days,

I was amazed.

Every time I left the kitchen I wanted to "turn out" the lights.

A very good cook lived here, my cousin, Marcheta.

Miss her.

1956 Kitchen

The photo was taken in 1970. Later a dishwasher was added in place of the double door cabinet.

A skilled carpenter, David, cut one of the doors down so we still had a narrow space

for cereal boxes next to our noisy Maytag dishwasher.

I am thankful for later models that were much quieter. Maybe there was no insulation around

this one.

I am thankful every day for a dishwasher!

Barry - 1982

This was taken at a concert in Wichita with a camera that used FILM and I happened to have a long lens then.

A Heart Full of Love

A computer drawing by granddaughter, MLN.

Jeep Ride

First and second granddaughters taking a ride.

Just love the look of joy on that young one's face!

Tote That Wagon!

These are the sisters belonging to our younger son and his wife. Third and fourth granddaughters! Miss them like crazy. They are now 9 and 11 years old. In this photo, they are 4 and 6. The younger is getting a ride!

Second Granddaughter

This cutie will be graduating from high school this year. So proud of her and all the grands!

Blessed with four girls after two sons.

I love them to pieces but now I know why we were given two boys to raise.

I was just as dumb about being a parent of boys as I would have been about

raising girls, but I think I am enjoying them more as granddaughters!

 

First Quilt

First granddaughter with her first quilt.

I don't know if she's made one since but she's done a lot of other amazing things.

A Nation of Readers

This was my entry in a photo contest at the Hutchinson Library several years ago. My first cousin, once removed, Violet Dewey, sitting in her jeans with the afghan over her lap to give the impression of an "older" person. I believe she was in her 80's at this time - still active and a reader and interested in all things politics. I was thrilled when I won.

Dahlia Quilt

These petals were all cut and the edges basted by my mom in the 1930's.

There are fabrics there from my dresses, sun suits (yes, there were things called that)

and other scraps.

After I learned to quilt, I put them together following the pattern of another quilt

that mom and my grandmother had put together.

I found the striped fabric and cut it into strips for the framing of the blocks. Applique

was not a skill that I had. Later I found out the stitches should have been

almost invisible.