Old Pictures, Part Two

I ran out of space and decided to split these posts up....

You know you were born in Iowa if...you learned to drive a tractor before you could see over the steering wheel and/or reach the pedals. I was really good, though - just ask my dad! P.S. My Granny would be horrified that I posted this picture because you can see my panties! Shocking.

Matt on the bridge over the creek in our back pasture. I don't know what year this was - late 80's, I suppose. My Uncle Tony built this bridge for my Granny, so she could cross the creek without climbing down the embankment. The bridge is no longer standing. When it rained and most of Iowa flooded in 1993, this creek raised so much that the force of the rushing water washed the bridge away and crumbled the rock wall that it's setting on on the left side.

Jeff in one of his Little League uniforms.

Jeff again - this time helping to shovel the walkway. Once again...nice pants. :D

My dad and Jeff sledding. This picture made me homesick.

I must have scanned all of the Jeff pictures right together because here he is again! This is my Uncle Tony pulling Jeff with the lawnmower.

Ah, yes - here I am. I'm pretty sure these are my first grade pictures. Either kindergarten or first grade. For some reason, we apparently had a ton of them left over.

Jeff again?! He's just too cute, I guess. Plus I love the green and yellow shag carpet we had in our house when he was a kid. Very 70's.

This is the Ralph I remember. One time we were going to go to my Uncle John's house and my baby brother refused to get dressed. (You can see Matt's stubby, naked little legs here.) He was probably two or three at the time, which would have made me about five or six. My mom said that it was fine if he didn't want to get dressed. She'd just put Matt's clothes on the dog and take him in Matt's place. As I recall, Matt tried to call her bluff but chickened out as she was carrying Ralph (fully dressed in Matt's clothes) out of the door to the car. I just remember this was the funniest thing ever to me.

Here I am in Arkansas! This is the summer before fourth grade and it's the only "real" vacation that I remember our family ever taking. I remember that my mom bought us souvenir after souvenir on this trip - which may be why we never went on a big vacation after this - my dad probably had to work overtime to pay for this one! Anyway, we went to Branson and my dad had promised to take me across the state lines so I could say I'd been to Arkansas. We took my dad's pick up truck, which had a topper over the bed. Dad had put in a old school bus seat and a little mattress - so anybody who was back there (usually me and Jeff) could get comfortable. It seems amazing to me that my family drove all that way with us kids in the back of the truck (very redneck)...but, as I recall, it was great fun and actually quite comfortable. Of course, I was eight - so what did I know about comfortable travel? Anyway, the day came when my dad took me across into Arkansas and I was so sick. I felt like I was going to die and remember my mom being insistent that I go stand by the sign and get my picture taken when all I wanted to do was crawl into some dark hole and die.

Look how young my dad is here! Younger than I am now - about 27 or 28, I'd say. My dad told me a story with this picture that still makes me laugh. When my parents got married, my dad was working the night shift and slept all day. One day shortly after they got married, my mom stood at the end of the bed, yelled "Geronimo!" and jumped on him when he was sleeping...and the bed collapsed. The had to pull this bed (the one he's sleeping on) out of the attic to replace the bed she'd broken.

One last picture of Jeff - but this time with my mom. As I was saying, she always looks so young and beautiful in the pictures with little Jeff. She's probably 23 in this picture. It's probably a good thing that she's dead - because she'd probably kill me for posting a picture of her with her hair all in curlers.