Chia Hat!

 

 

mid-1960's sometime

Webster Groves MO

 

    This is my all-time favorite picture of me as a kid. We're playing dodgeball. The cameraman is crouching behind a chain link fence with his lens poked through one of the holes in the fence. My target is standing practically right in front of him. That's David Watt behind me and that's his garage behind us. Our little cluster of houses had four homes with 21 kids between them! We played together every single day. We played dodgeball, baseball, kickball, badminton, kick the can, midnight, ring-a-leevio, even golf. We also played cards and board games indoors. We put together several neighborhood plays that were very well attended. We built a six story tree fort! We had an awesome sled run in the winter. The Watts had an apple tree in their yard. We called it the Wapple Tree. They also had a great climbing tree that stretched out over their garage. Each of us had our own "spot" in the tree. We'd all climb up it, get in our spots, and hang out talking for hours. But don't be in the Watt's house at the wrong time or else Mrs. Watt would give you eardrops, too, when she gave them to her own kids!

 

 

 

 

    Another of my all-time favorite photos of me. This was taken in South Duxbury MA on Kingston Bay on the beach at Blairhaven Retreat Center July 1982 when I was camp director at Camp Blairhaven, a two-month children's residential camp run by my church.

 

 

 

 

The actual may pole at May Pole, a weekend family camp-out I've been going to for years.

 

 

 

 

November 2004

Philadelphia PA

    Cats and crossword puzzles. I was just sitting at the table doing my daily crossword puzzle at my sister-in-law's old place in Philly, and their cat Herman jumped up on the table and — as cats so often do — nagged me into petting him. So the left hand petted while the right hand clued. The left hand got tired before the right hand did. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's illegal! You may not remove that! Two of my brother Ian' kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    This is a night-blooming epiphylum. It has one of the most amazing blooms I've ever seen. First of all, it only blooms at night. Secondly, the blooms only last one night. Thirdly, blooms only happen on two-year-old leaves. And fourth, their scent is very, very strong... amazingly good, but very, very strong. Oh yes, and fifth, they are stunningly beautiful!
     My mother gave me this plant after having it for 8 years without a blossom. Another 8 years went by and she gave me a how to take care of houseplant book for my birthday in March. So I did what the book said: moved nearly all my plants around for optimum light, put little notes on each one about how much to water it and how often, and fertilized the ones that like that sort of thing. All my plants were suddenly noticeably happier.
   The next August, we got home from two weeks of camp in Maine around 9:00 p.m. and were greeted at the door by an overwhelming, wonderful aroma that filled the entire house. I walked into our living room where the smell was even stronger, turned on the light, and there were nineteen (19!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) blossoms open all at once! Absolutely stunning. It's bloomed every year since. Not that many all at once, but usually 5 or 6 at a time opening over a period of a few days. What a wonder!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    My daughter, Myrrh, the artist, has always been a dancer, too. As a child, while the boys played with trains, she would often be in the background somewhere dancing to music only she could hear. This is one of my favorite pictures of exactly that.
    Now she's an adult and is still a dancer. She's taken so many dance classes, I can't remember them all: ballet, modern dance, contact improv, swing, ballroom dancing, African, and more and more and more. I'm pretty sure she goes to more than one regular weekly dance, and is well-known in dance circles in her area. She even had swing dancing at her wedding reception.                                        My daughter the dancer!

 

 

 

 

 

This is Myrrh's cousin Anna just a few days after her birth in March of 1979. Shhhh. 

 

 

 

 

 And here's Anna again a few days later

 

 

 

 

 

Now there's a 60's Christmas card! This was 1968. That's me on the left in the front row. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Before moving to Maine a few years ago, my parents lived in Sharon MA, a suburb of Boston. My father was a huge fan of the New Black Eagles Jazz Band, a local dixieland band. He went to most of their local shows. He knew all the musicians personally. He knew all their substitute musicians. He knew all their wives. He knew all their songs. He knew all their arrangements. He owned all their recordings. In fact, I recently acquired Pop's tape collection and about 20% of it was NBEJB!

    The point is, he was a total Black Eagles groupie.
    So when Pop turned 80 in 2001, my siblings and I planned a big house party for him at his house. He was all adamant about we couldn't have a party at their house. His first excuse was that the septic system couldn't handle it. So we ordered a PortaPotty. Then he said we couldn't have all those people in the house. So we ordered two big tents. Then he said we just plain couldn't do it. We said, Too bad, we're having a party for you and you're going to like it. He said he wouldn't go; he'd stay in the house the whole time.
    But what he didn't know because we didn't tell them, is that we'd hired his favorite band to play in his back yard for his 80th birthday! So when the band showed up and started setting up under one of the tents, Pop came spilling out of the house all smiles and surprise! From then on, he proceeded to have a great time for the entire party!

 

 

 

 
"Waffles T. Clown sings the Red, White, and Blues"   
Performance, walk-abouts, and workshops for all ages. For additional information call
(978) 544-7210
P.O. Box 96, Wendell MA 01379

A political clown who also actually makes awesome waffles for parties!

    This man is terrific. He does political actions that are both funny and politically poignant. Once, in full clown garb, he drove a schoolbus to a nuclear power plant, parked it sideways across in front of the entrance gate, hand-cuffed himself to the steering wheel, and threw the keys into the swamp. He goes to jail regularly, but also gets lots of media coverage regularly, too.

 

 

 

August 1972
Kankamaugus Scenic Roadway
Conway NH

    I got my driver's license in 1972, the day after I became eligible. My father's car at the time was this monster-sized, olive green Checker sedan that we affectionately called The Tank. It had a red interior with fold down jump seats between the front and back seats... we are, after all, a family of ten. We all fit quite comfortably, too. 
    My actual road test when I got my license still amazes me. I drove to the registry in Brockton MA with Pop in the passenger seat and parked directly in front of the registry. Pop went in and got the test instructor who came out and hopped in the car and told Pop, much to his surprise, that he had to wait there.
    The guy told me to pull out into traffic, take the first left, take the next left, take the next left, and then turn left into this little alley where he had me do a 3-point turn (which was actually about a 7-point turn because the Tank was so big), then I turned left out of the alley, took the next left, and parallel parked in my original spot directly in front of the registry. He then handed me my license. So basically, I drove around the block, turned around in an alley, and parked in a parking space. That was it. It took less than five minutes.
    This photo has me behind the wheel at Passaconway, one of the scenic stops on the "Kank". I was driving a car load of teenagers on Outing Day from summer camp. I guess my Pop trusted me.

 

 

 

 

 

     So, there's a town named after me in Wisconsin! (There's also a street named after me in Enfield CT.) Pacific Puzzle Company is two of my brothers' old wooden puzzle company. They made great stuff. But they shut it down in the late 90's and have both gone on to other things.

 

 

    Nancy Thomas took these photos of me in May 2002 in Greenfield MA at the Green Fields Market Grand Re-Opening. I was more than a little surprised to get this postcard in the mail a few days later. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Christmas 2007

Fryeburg New Church Assembly
Fryeburg ME

 

Now that's a lot of snow!

 

 

 

 

Christmas 1996
Sharon MA

    Way back in the early 70'so my little big sister Laura made me the Indian headdress on the left based on an authentic native design. She asked me to bring it with me this particular Christmas because she was giving two of her boys these cowboy and Indian get-ups and wanted her youngest to have a headdress for this photo. 

 

 

 

 May 1987 (?)
Hartsbrook Waldorf School
Hadley MA

 

    My son Jason's 2nd grade class photo. (There was also a "serious one.) That's my boy standing at the far left end with his sleeves pushed up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Here's Jason (and his sister) a few years later in April of 1991 at the Oakes Ames Estate (now Borderlands State Park) on the Sharon/Easton MA town line. I went here regularly when I was in high school in Sharon, so it was fun to take my kids there 20 years later and show them all the cool places at the park I used to hang out at with my high school buddy Sandy Solomon.

   Somehow, despite his rubber boots, Jason got his feet soaking wet (he's a Pisces). Notice that first he squeezes the water out of his sock into his boot and then he dumps the water out of his boot!

 

 

 

 

 

August 4, 2008
Fyeburg New Church Assembly
Fryeburg ME 

 

    Streaming hair, streaming beard, running barefoot across the lawn during Sparks Games. Bliss.

 

 

   I spent over half an hour watching this baby turtle. It kept swimming ashore (3-5 minutes of effort to overcome the outgoing waves), resting for a few minutes, and then swimming out again (another 3-5 minutes of effort to overcome the incoming waves) over and over and over again.

 

 

 

trevor@trevorthegamesman.com

PO Box 463, Haydenville, MA 01039