We Were Young My Friends, We Thought it Would NEVER End

My dear friend Mike from time to time posts pictures on his blog www.existinginbfe.BlogSpot.com of life when we worked at the Mary Davis Home. Surprisingly after having worked there 11 years I have zero pictures from inside that facility. In my 20+ years at the prison I have a few. Mostly they are my hostage photos. You know the ones they take in case you are held hostage so they know who to shoot. Some day maybe I'll track a couple of those down and share them. Today it is pictures from around the time I started at the Mary Davis Home. We are going to jump in Mr. Peabody's Way Back Machine (figure that reference out if you are young) and look at my family on a couple of dates. I began my employment at the Mary in December 1977 so this picture is one year into my career.

Here we are at my Grandparent's home in rural Wataga. It is Christmas Eve 1978. I have a little bit different version of this picture but in it my eyes are closed. You have to look closely in this one but they are open. I chose this one for a different reason. The smile on Carol's face. She looks very happy in this picture. Those weren't the best times for us. Newly married (4 years) and two young children, jobs we liked but didn't pay much. It was a struggle every day. I was a little surprised when I saw this picture that I had a beard. It seems back in those days it was a winter thing for me.

 This picture and the next two were taken on June 10, 1979. It is Jeremy's first birthday. He's a happy boy having just eaten a piece of the cake pictured below. No beard in this picture although with the sideburns it looks like I left about one pass with the razor between them.

 The Panda bear in front of him is the cake. Not sure how we ended up with a Panda cake. My Mom loves Panda bears...mmmmmm???

A picture of the happy birthday boy. He's a bit older now (36) and I can only hope there are days when he is this blissfully happy. Life was simple back then and a piece of cake could make your day. Seeing him this happy makes mine.