Ridin' with Dode!

When my maternal grandmother passed away forty years ago (1979) my mother ended up with a couple of shoe boxes of old black and white family photos Dee Dee had acquired over the years.  They ended up in the very same shoe boxes in mom's closet and there they stayed for the next fourteen years until mom passed away in 1993.  Dad stayed with us one more year, but went off his chemo treatments when mom passed. So it was fifteen years after Dee Dee died that we finally sorted through the family heirlooms and Deb retrieved a couple of larger boxes filled with old family photos.

We too carried the photos around for what seemed an interminable amount of time -- and finally in 2012 Deb convinced me to use that new scanner/printer we'd purchased to scan in the photos and add them to an external hard drive for safe keeping. Having done that, we sorted out the hard copy photos by family and returned most of them to the people who appeared in the pictures.  We now had easy access to the old family photos, we reduced the volume of photo boxes we had in the house, and we surprised some family members with pictures of themselves they'd long forgotten or didn't realize still existed.

As the few of you who read my blog know, the Pacific Ocean beach at Kalaloch, Washington is a huge part of our family history, time together and some incredible memories.  The folks, Grandparents and parents, first took me down there when I was six years old.  That's sixty-five years ago this year.  On one of those trips a picture was taken of my mom on the beach in shorts, holding a floppy hat on her head.

A couple of years ago our daughter Erin saw that picture and thought it would be neat to duplicate the shot. She found a similar outfit, talked Chris into shooting a picture of it on the same beach just a little farther South, and

we now have a frame with the picture of mom, and the duplicate of Erin. It was kind of a neat idea, was fun to do, and brings lots of smiles to our family when we walk by.

Over the last few years, especially as I've tried to add more and more photos to the family pages I've been fascinated by a picture of Dee Dee when she was a young girl, before she married Gilbert.  It shows her sitting outdoors, in what might be a wicker chair with a stuffed pillow under her left arm and she's reading a book -- Cynthia-of-the-Minute.

There's also a picture of her standing holding the book.  We believe she was about seventeen (1915) had yet to meet Gilbert and was living with her family in Twin Falls at the time.

So, the last time I walked by the photos of mom and Erin on the beach, I thought, "Well, she's done one of her grandmother, why not one of her great grandmother.

Thus began the journey with Dee Dee (Dode as my grandfather called her). Since Deb got me a Kindle for Christmas, I now find it very easy, convienient and "costly" to access Amazon.com.  And when I click on the link, I'm there, I'm signed in, and purchasing is a "one-click" event.   Just for shits and giggles I decided  to see if I could find the book "Cynthia-of-the-Minute".  WaaaaLaaaa!  The book was first printed in 1911 and subsequently made into a movie in 1920.  In my search I found three "hard back" copies of the book. Two were for under ten dollars, and the third was touted as a First Edition copy in excellent shape, and listed for $45.  Well, all I needed was a cover that could be read in a photo, so opted for a copy listed as acceptable, and it sold for $5.00 with $3.99 shipping.  Today the book came.

I have a copy that is a hardback, with a nice clear cover, and inside it shows it to be a First Edition copy printed in 1911.  That made my day.

So now the rest of the story.  A week ago Deb and a longtime friend drove to McCall for her friend's birthday and a lunch together--she'd not been there in the ten years she's lived here.  They took their time, took their cameras, and took lots and lots of photos.  Along the way, Deb told me on her return, she'd found a suitable spot to duplicate the photo of Dode.  So now we await the time to dress up Erin, go towards McCall, take the book along and duplicate another family photo.  I'm excited.  Maybe we are starting a trend.  Need to see if I can find a picture of my great grandmother doing something interesting and go for a third generation.

Thanks for taking us along on the trip to great memories Dee Dee!