1962 - Pam and Sandy under flowering tree

Sandy has already been featured in her brownie uniform and Pam under this tree but it's still a cute picture. Pam's curls behind her shoulders. Am I reading that book to her? That California sunshine. The open valley land, I am becoming more curious to see that yard now that I've been steeped in its 1962 imagery.....

1962 - Ginsburgh girl scouts

Mom in her girl scout leader's uniform and I'm a Brownie and Pam...she's a toddler. Mom was the girl scout leader, she was completely committed and me, Sandy, I could never see much in it. To me, scouting could not compare with the library. I endured the activities, I wanted to get back to read my books.

My mother made a deal with the parents regarding my younger sister. She agreed to be the troop leader but she was not going to arrange babysitting. Every parent had to agree to take their turn caring for 3 year old Pam during the meetings, there was a signup sheet. Some parents came over, some couldn't be bothered and hired a babysitter to come to the house. As a result, my sister knew lots and lots of moms and had homes all over the neighborhood.

But my mother was proud to have us in our uniforms. Look how thin she was around the waist, wow. Hated that one piece uniform, kind of scratchy and uncomfortable.

Ironically my two younger daughters are completely committed scouts. I never pushed it, they could be a girl scout if they wanted, I guess. At ages 17 and 21, they just returned from a summer as staff members at the local girl scout camp. Ilana is president of Campus Girl Scouts. It's just natural for them. Heredity, I am sure.

Picture is in the Arden Park home backyard. You can see the back of the workshop, I think there were some storage cabinets. The vista is so open, over the fence and off into valley, sun baked semi-arid land. I think landscaping and irrigation has changed the landscape for now.

1962 - Pam in the blossoms

Three year old Pam underneath the plum tree in the backyard. This tree was fruit-bearing (I think), I remember lots of little plums. Characteristically bright California sunlight even though the season is spring. The sandbox in the background was heavily used by children and cats. The toy wheelbarrow looks pretty new. You can see the partial fence out to the swingset. I don't know if my parents built that fence. Having just arranged for various fencing to be replaced, I know how expensive it is! The concrete area to the left of Pam looked like a small driveway that came out of the back of the garage. Maybe somebody used it as a storage place for a boat. But how would you get a vehicle out of there? I don't remember any doors in the back of the garage, maybe there was. That paved area was a mystery to me. A driveway to nowhere?

Nice smile for Pam, you can kind of see the curls. Glasses but no patch. The more I look at these pictures (of myself), the more I recognize the viewpoint of the child looking out.

My main memory of this tree is reading to Scotchy. When I learned to read, I was SO excited about it. No way, Mom had time or patience to listen to me read (and I wanted to read a LOT). So she sat me down with the dog under this tree and I used to read to the cocker spaniel. Everybody was happy except for the impatient dog.

1962 - Sandy and Charlie at Purim

Sandy and Charlie are dressed for the Purim celebration at Sunday School. I am Queen Esther, Charlie is King Ahashuerus. Traditional for the children to dress up as members of the Purim story and march in a parade at the temple. The Megillah (Purim story) is read aloud and you eat Hamantaschen (triangular pastries stuffed with date or raisin filling supposedly in the shape of Haman (the villain)'s hat. I don't remember much about the outfit that I'm wearing though I remember the bracelet. A Halloween crown on and lipstick. I do remember admiring Charlie's cape made of iridescent gold fabric. Foil enhanced crown and scepter.

Just never did follow through with Sunday School that much with my own kids. Impaired judaism.

Picture taken on the back steps of the Arden Park home. The back of the very nice screened in porch that my parents added. I remember dark aqua stucco exterior walls and deep pink concrete floor on the porch. It was 1962 and looked fine...wonder what it's like now.

1962 - Charlie and Sandy in backyard

Similar picture of Charlie and Sandy in the backyard of the Arden Park home. You can see in this picture that Charlie is wearing an official Arden Park Swim Team suit. I remember now that the silky blue suit was long and came down lower on my thighs.

Adapted from AZURE:
The backyard and house looks so familiar to me. It's all as I remember it, the yard, the roses, the garden, the patio, the children in the yard. Yes, it all looks correct. That is, correct 45 years ago in my memory. And some places still are as you remember them last year, ten years ago, twenty years ago.

We went by the Arden Park house 12 years ago, last time we were in Sacramento and we were surprised how upscale the houses and yards looked. Second stories added, trees and landscaping grown and developed. I just looked at the aerial shot of the area on Google Maps. The outline of the home appears to be the same. However you can hardly see the ground in the front or back for all the greenery. A big rectangular swimming pool sits about where the patio and brick flowerboxes were with a big palm tree behind it. The rest of the yard seems to be obscured by trees, not the raw dry rough open lawn area in my memory. I remember that prickly, largely crabgrass lawn hurting my bare feet.

1962 - Father on vacation

I think that mom and dad went on a few trips on their own. Allen, age 36, posing on a rock, not sure where, but it looks arid in the background. Maybe extreme northern California. He must have let mom take the pictures. Kids are not along which may be why he looks so relaxed. He was always tall and reasonably slim, did not have a problem with his weight. Doesn't look too easy to get up on that rock!

1962 - Sandy, Pam and Charlie in the bright sunlight

Reviewing 1962...Pam is 3, Sandy is 10, Charlie is 8. Sandy is wearing the Arden Park swim team bathing suit, a navy blue speedo styled with a patch sewn on the front. I remember the silky feel of that suit. Unclear if Charlie is wearing an Arden Park swim suit. He's holding up the ribbon and shaking hands with me. I'm thinking that he has won the ribbon and I'm congratulating him. We were unlikely to have done it together and, no doubt, I would not have allowed him to hold the ribbon if I had won it. We are in the backyard of the Arden Park house. It was large with a patio with flower boxes at the top, then a swale with a flower garden in the swale, then a small fence and a wilder arid area in the very back with a swing set and a cotton willow tree that I loved to climb. Charlie did endless gold mining back there in the rocks. There was an 8 foot fence at the back then a wild area with a drainage ditch. You could go out the back gate and go the 'back way' to Arden Park which was actually very close that way. It was more exciting going the 'back way' with the weeds and the trash and that little creek.

Look at the brilliant flowers against the fence, there were many bushes, I remember them but the scale of the trees is still small, it's still quite a new development. I think that if you went by today, all of the trees would be so much bigger. Dennis and I did go by in 1995 but that was 12 years ago. Our impression that the Arden Park houses had aged very well, were very well cared for, had been expanded and were way out of our price range.

But back then, they were just the right level for young Aerojet engineers with wives that stayed home.

One of the strongest memories of California is the brilliant brilliant light. This slide is 45 years old but the light is very clear.

1962 - Charlie and Mikey in the foothills

This must have been taken the same day as the previous picture by the (probable) Marshall statue. Might hav been the same place...or it could be in Cameron Park. Cameron Park was a development in the foothills that was just being organized about this time. My parents bought a lot at the very beginning. It was not clear that they wanted to move there, it was more of an investment. We used to visit it. Their close friends, the Zwisslers bought a lot and did build on it a few years later.

Charlie and Mikey with the foothills in the background. But what's that on his head? The bandage? Charlie was always getting in scrapes and ending up in the emergency room. Looks like one of those occassions. - Sandy

1962 - The kids in Gold Country

Prepare for an onslaught of 1962 because I got my slides back.

This photo shows an excustion up into the Gold Country in 1962. Not sure what the statue is, might be the one in Coloma where Marshall is pointing to the place where he discovered gold in 1849. I remember going to that statue quite a bit. I always tried to figure out exactly where he was pointing and was that the real spot?

I think Charlie and I each got to bring a friend, my guess is I got to invite Mary Ann Geller from across the street and Charlie invited Mikey from next door

Left to right

Mom, Pam, Sandy, Mary Ann, Charlie, Mikey

1964 - 861 Los Molinos Dr

The Arden Park house in the 'north area' outside of the Sacramento city limit. I'm dating this 1964 which was the year they moved out but this picture could be much earlier. My family lived in this house from 1955 - 1964. The bedroom with the shutters was my bedroom, the one to the left was Charlie's. I don't remember if you have a bedroom, Pam, maybe you shared with me, which I've conveniently forgotten. No sidewalks, double garage with separate doors to the left. This, and other Arden Park homes which were within reach of one income Aerojet families, are now worth a fortune.

1990 - The 4 Barnes kids

Sandy's 4 kids in 1990 because Naomi is just a baby. Danny in his cub scout uniform (probably we wanted him to dress up and this is what we could talk him into). Susannak holding the baby ("Let ME hold her! Let ME hold her!) Ilana on the stair thinking her enigmatic thoughts. Naomi just glad to be there. Nope, nobody's really changed.

I used to characterize my kids in this way. Let's say the young kid is playing ball in the driveway and the ball gets away from them and goes rolling down the street.

Danny would burst into tears
Susanna would blast off after it
Ilana wants you to go get it
Naomi doesn't care, she just goes and does something else

Pretty odd now that they are 17-25....

Watch out faithful readers, Pixmonix has received my slides so I should get them shortly after I return. You are going to get TONS of 1962, 1963, 1966, 1972.

Also to my small readership, we will be away Aug 20-24 so there may be not posts to this family album

2004 - Duck Softball

In spring 2004, mom, dad and Charlie traveled from Illinois to the Pacific Northwest. They flew to Seattle to visit with Ilana and Naomi and then we all made the car trip 5 hours to Eugene using our van and the car rented by mom and dad with Charlie driving. In a burst of inspiration designed to avoid anxiety around arriving at night , Charlie and I decided to leave earlier in the day with mom and dad. I had not realized that mom and dad and Charlie had never made the trip south from Seattle through Portland and the Willammette Valley. We've made the trip so many times, we forget how scenic it is. They all thoroughly enjoyed the ride, Tacoma, the woodlands of southwest Washington, the Columbia River, the views next to the Willamette River through downtown Portland and the fertile agricultural Willamette Valley to Eugene.

I had made elaborate plans for this trip, here I've got everybody ready for the game (I think it was a Friday single game with Stanford, then a Saturday doubleheader with Cal?). Munching on the sandwiches from Market of Choice, chairs set up well in advance. Mom and Dad are wearing their hats from the Cornell reunion. Grandma Ann is also there on the end. The trip also involved a breakfast for the team parents at the Harris' and the team banquet. Mom and dad were determined to do everything. It took dad six months to recover from this trip. -- Sandy

1950 - Edward Cohen Mortgages

The only picture I have of my great grandfather Edward Cohen, Grandma's father. I'm guessing on the date., maybe it's earlier. I think that he might have seen me as a baby. Some unsubstantiated facts, that he owned considerable property in Cambridge, that he gave Hillel House to Harvard, that he purchased homes for each of his daughters when they married. In Betty's family, there were three daughters and then three sons. Betty was the third daughter and she bemoaned that fact all her life "Who needs a third daughter?" she would say but I believe that she was her father's favorite. He purchased a $500 Israeli savings bond for myself and my brother. Not for my sister as she was born after his death. My father converted it to a $1000 US savings bond in 1964. I still have that bond, keeping it for that rainy day.

1952 - Claire with baby Sandy

Claire with baby Sandy. I'm not very old there, maybe 3 months old? That would be July which goes with the shorts. Claire is looking good, not yet 30, pretty with lipstick. Proud. Maybe in Oak Ridge? As always, I can get nothing from the baby even though it's me!

Edit: My (the baby's) gaze. Something tells me that this baby (me) is looking at the world the way I do now. Critically, observant, wanting to know everything that's going on. Why should it be different?

Eventually I'm going to run into the picture taken in 1958(?), I've just finished kindergarten and we are visiting on the east coast. There's a group picture and my uncle (David?) has a time release on his camera. He sets up the camera and then runs and gets into the picture. I remember it so clearly. I thought that was the smartest thing I had ever seen, how clever to be able to be in a picture that you yourself are taking. I marveled at the ingenuity. I remember clearly how I (the six year old) thought.

2002 - 102nd birthday

Our mother, Claire with her mother in law, Betty on her 102nd birthday. I could be a year off either way on this. I know it wasn't the 103rd because that was shortly before her death. I was in Rockford and mom made a little birthday party in the afternoon over at skilled nursing at Wesley Willows. Mom had arranged for some cupcakes with some candles and some small wrapped presents. And some cards. My lesson for the day was how much a birthday card can mean....especially the one from Clarinda.

1952 - Allen with baby Sandy

Our father, Allen, as a new father with Sandy as an infant on his shoulder. Could have been in SoCal but more likely in Oak Ridge Tennessee. No idea what the baby is thinking but it looks pretty precarious to me.

1983 - Grandma and Grandpa with Danny

Taken at Leisure World probably during a visit by Sandy in 1983 (approx). My son Danny maybe 18 mths? with Harold and Betty our grandparents. Everybody is looking pretty happy despite their (esp grandma's) reservations with the whole adoption deal.

Where are those painting? I remember them all very clearly. Does Mom have them?

1950? - Nanny and Poppy

Nanny and Poppy (our grandparents) around 1950 with our cousin Mary Ann in New Haven CT maybe on their front porch on Norton Ave. I'm struck here how much younger my grandmother looks and how hard her life was. She was born to genteel wealth and then experienced poverty during the depression. They never recovered financially.

This was an iconic picture for me (Sandy). This picture was in a frame in the central part of the house. My mother showed it to me often "This is Nanny and Poppy". We lived in California, very far away from New England in the 1950s. When they came to visit, they walked in and said "We are Nanny and Poppy" and I ran to the picture and pointed to it "No, no! THIS is Nanny and Poppy"

2007 - Anderson Gardens Pictures

Some of the good ones ...

2007 - Japanese Garden

This is the first of a series of Ginsburgh family pictures. The year, subjects and series will be noted on the labels.

One main idea will be to use the slides of the 1960s and early 70s as sources. Please make a comment on these pictures as our memories are all different. I'm still at the airport making this first entry.

This pictures was taken by Charlie on August 4, 2007 at the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford, IL. Shown is Sandy, Teresa and Pam. We were enjoying ourselves quite a bit at the garden, the most beautiful place in Rockford, IL. It was humid but not too hot but sprinkling, thus the umbrella. The grounds, colors, water, fish, foliage and design were restful and stunning. If something can be both restful and stunning concurrently.