Only Five? Where Am I??

This afternoon, Michael was looking through his desk drawer and came across some old family pictures. We took a few moments to take a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane. However, one of the pictures REALLY seems to bother me. This one here. Now, keep in mind . . . I am the youngest of six children. Go ahead. Count the kids in this picture. Go ahead. I'll meet you below the picture.


So? Did you count? Aren't they one short? Where am I??? The infant in Mom's lap is my brother Jim. And, Jim is five years older than I am so I am absolutely no where in the picture, not even an inkling!

I'm not so narcissistic to think that life couldn't have happened without me. I guess what I can't wrap my mind around is that is a picture of a family; a picture of MY family. They were a complete family unit. Without me. I guess I can't explain it, I just can't seem to get my mind around this fact!

In case you haven't had the pleasure to meet all of us, from left to right starting with the bottom row, there is: Michael, Jim, Cathie. Middle row: Dad, Mom. Back row: Philip, Barbara.

Ok, wrap your mind around THIS!! That was Philip way back in about 1958. Here is Philip in about 2008! Nice, huh?


In the same group of pictures was this gem. We are guessing this was Cathie's fourth birthday. In case anyone is trying to place the faces with names in this picture, I'll list everyone in the picture below the picture. Take your time!

Bottom row, left to right, starting with Cathie in the middle: Cathie, Cousin Donny, Cousin Bill. Back row: Cousin Nick (can't you tell from that grin!?! He still has it!!), Cousin Marty, Michael, Barbara, Philip. What a crew, huh? One thing I noticed in these pictures is that my sister Barbara just didn't look happy. What's that about?

And, last but not least, where it all started. Grandma and Grandpa. Unfortunately, Grandpa died before I was born, so I didn't have the honor of meeting him. But Grandma was most definitely near and dear to my heart.

A few Grandma stories. Every year on your birthday, one of my Aunts would make sure Grandma would call us on our birthdays. Grandma spoke with a heavy accent, so she'd sing her happy birthday wishes to us with her accent. The best part was when it got to "happy birthday dear (insert your name), sometimes Grandma would get confused. After all, she had a gazillion grandkids! So, here is how Grandma would sing. You just have to imagine her accent here. "heppy bertday to you, heppy bertday to you, heppy bertday dear, um, which one am I calling? (you'd hear Aunt Aggie say CATHIE or whoever) oh yeah, heppy bertday dear Catherine, heppy bertday to yoooouu!!"

Go Grandma! I do my best Grandma imitation every year for Jim and Cathie for their birthdays.

Grandma making dough. Anyone that knows my grandma is right now picturing my Grandma kneading that dough on the kitchen table. That poor little old lady put her whole self into that kneading process. And, boy was it worth it! When they were making home made noodles, the best part was Grandma cutting off the ends of the dough and slipping them to us for a treat. Raw dough. Mom would argue with Grandma to quit that! I think that was just for our benefit to make this seem like a huge treat for us. Because believe me, this felt like a huge treat! Every time I work with dough now, I snitch a piece of raw dough and remember Grandma sneaking them to us.

I just love looking at old pictures. Today was a nice good day of warm fuzzies. Maybe next time I can find some with ME in them! Bonus!!