Whew! Grant and Ruth must have gone to bed, haven't posted a FHE Flashback, so I'll put mine on a day late. Yesterday was loaded and I didn't get to it. My VT partner has been unavailable (gone, it turns out, and forgot to let me know), so I put it off as long as I could trying to connect. It's a busy workweek, so I made the rounds yesterday.
Here are several “dressing up” poses of Jewel. The white fake fur coat complete with a muff a neighbor made and loaned to Jewel while it fit her, and we “crimped” her hair. Her dad brought this bouncy ball home from the DI and it provided hours of pleasure. She got really good at maximum height, up and down the hall! The dog got lots of exercise, as well. Jewel would tease our little dogs relentlessly, then run off, and they would chase her, often scoring a bite in her behind or legs. I chose to not interfere, figuring it would cure her, but it never did.
Here’s a cute picture of sleep having overtaken Jewel and Grant. No doubt the movie was a Western and on the boring side. (J/K, but I did used to tease that sex in movies was bad but apparently killing people was just fine.) This is the kids dressed up for the baptism festivities involving Jewel turning eight, Grant almost 12. It was the one and only time Jewel had short hair as a preteen. We didn’t have hair salon trips in our budget, and it was very traumatizing for me to cut off her lovely, long hair! (What she requested for her birthday. She actually liked it [then]. For which I was most grateful.)
These are two Halloween’s in a row, and the last time Grant went out trick-or-treating. He and his friends made masks at school and wore them. (Grant’s in the middle.) For years thereafter it was part of the decorations - I’d hang it on the porch light. Still have it. (The mask, not the porch light. J) I can’t remember who both friends are. One was Brent Francom I think, and the other was probably Tyler Humble or Justin Burgon.
Jewel’s room was redecorated only once in the 15 years she called it hers, and after the bed we added new carpet, window treatment and picture frames, hunter green and burgundy. The bed was a Christmas surprise, and you can see how pleased she was. Grant had bunkbeds which Jewel inherited. We gave them to some neighbors who were kind enough to come get them on Christmas eve after the kids went to sleep. I cooked up some reason for them to sleep downstairs. The next two pictures are a 1992 trip to the coast, and the cutie Jewel was enjoying with Janeil is Emily.
This last picture is one of several bikes Grant bought with the money he earned delivering newspapers for years and years. He had another one that was pretty fancy, a silver “trick” bike, and the last day of school the neighbors had a movie celebration and he left it on their lawn. Some questionable teenage male visitors of the family next door helped themselves to it and we assumed it was gone for good. One day, late that same summer, I got a frantic phone call at work from Grant, he’s in the kitchen upstairs and I can hear the pounding on the downstairs door! Those boys came back for a visit to that same house, Grant spotted his bike and just grabbed it and brought it home, inside the house. Luckily one of the neighborhood dads was home and noticed the commotion, and came to his protection until I could get the police there. The boys, in their arrogance, insisted that the bike was theirs, but Grant ID’d a hidden flaw which was good enough for the police to allow him to keep it (even though he didn’t know the serial number), and shewed the bad guys away. This bike he sold; the silver one he gave away to a boy who didn’t have a bike.
Next installment - last Sunday in July.
