The Bush

I have mentioned my mother's love of trees.  Nature in its entirety, really.  She grew up on a ranch and she comes alive when she gets out into nature (or did). It must have been difficult for her to live in the concrete jungle that is San Francisco.

She also was not quite as passionate about taking photographs as I have been but whenever  there was some sort of "significant" event, she wanted to take pictures.  But we didn't have a flash camera, so the photos had to be taken outside and "greenery" is not always easy to come by in the big city.

Across the street from us was a big apartment building and in front of it was the door to a big garage.  Next to that door there was a bush.  Whenever we were going to have our photos taken, we headed over to the bush.

 

When I think back over the years, I don't ever remember that bush getting bigger.  It was always this hint of "nature" that snuck into many of our photos.  I'm wondering if  this might have been for Karen's first communion, but I don't remember us ever wearing long dresses for that.

 

Hard to find traces of the people who once performed in vaudeville in these photos...

 

Sometimes we took family pictures in other locations -- this was in front of the apartment building where my grandparents lived from the time my father was a young child until my grandfather died, 1675 Clay Street, San Francisco, apartment 6.  I still remember.

 

I'm not sure what year this would have been, but looking at me, I think it would not be too long before the doctor would put me on my first diet.

Ned and I were going to take some of these photos to my mother to show her today, but I woke up with a sore throat.  It's not bad, but things are going so well at Eldervilla that I don't want to risk giving her something.

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Yesterday was a big day for historical events.  In  1889, The Paris Exposition opened with the just completed Eiffel Tower as its centerpiece. 

* The Dirigible Hindenburg exploded into flames at Lakehurst, NJ. (1937) (oh, the humanity!)
* The Chunnel linking England & France officially opened. (1994) (we went through that chunnel once), and
* the Yale Lock was patented

Now don't you feel just a little bit smarter?