Mislaid memories

My house is a little bit like an archeological site. The past tends to get buried and forgotten, and it takes some sort of minor upheaval to bring it up again, in bits and pieces. Some of these fragments of the past aren’t even really mine, so they’re that much more mysterious. Almost 20 years ago I somehow came into […]

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Memory Monday, Week 159

I may have mentioned before that one of my pastimes is trolling through the vintage toys offered on eBay to see if I can spot any toys I used to play with in my childhood; in fact, I shared one of my previous finds back in February 2021 (see A Vintage game bird). It’s rare for me to actually find […]

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Meet me at the swap meet, Part 3

The quality of merchandise at any swap meet will vary widely, and Denio’s is no exception. As you wander through the many acres of vendors’ stalls you will find brand new items of clothing, toys, tools and hardware, floor coverings, and kitchen items; you’ll also see just as many used items, in conditions ranging from pristine to one step away […]

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Memory Monday revisited, Week 5

This post was original published as Memory Monday, Week 75, on July 16, 2018. This week, I’m starting in on the photos of my dad’s fellow servicemen — although unfortunately he didn’t record their names anywhere. And some of the prints are really tiny, like 2 x 2.75 inches. The majority though are 3.25 x 2.75 inches or 4.25 x 3 inches in size. Makes me remember how far print photography has come even during my lifetime! It’s great seeing images of the servicemen interacting with very happy local kids, especially considering that a mere 5 years earlier, our countries were at war with each other. Next week, I’ll have more posed photos like the ones below; again, I can’t identify these guys, but I’m sure they were excellent young servicemen!

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The Adventure Continues… Songbird of Manzanar

Yesterday I wrote about two very inspiring men who lived through the forcible relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War 2. Today I’m continuing that theme with this episode of California’s Gold from 2005. Manzanar War Relocation Center was located in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, and although the camp barracks were dismantled long ago, the past […]

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