It looks as though an "everyday" blog has become a once in a while thing....such is life. Here is an old photo of me in 1955, I believe.

Wide-eyed, about 11, in my winter coat that reminded me of "Heidi", and one of the infamous perms that were part and parcel of my pre-teen years. How funny that these photos have come back into fashion....used to be 25 cents to get them done.

Another family heard from!

Just for a change, and because I am thinking of all the Liningtons today, Peter found me a photo of his Mother Cora at the Breezy Point Surf Club in Rockaway, NY, at the mouth of NY Harbor in 1938 or 1939.
From the left, around the umbrella, is an unknown friend, then Cora, nee Smith, then her friend Doris Hanenberg Lynch, an attendant at Mother and Dad's wedding in 1940, 4th is Erna Linington Evans, (Joe's older sister), and last, is Alva "Wu" Linington Persike. Oh, those happy days at Breezy Point!

A month later? Really?

Well, here I return, almost a month since my last posting, but things have been a bit busy for us. 

These beautiful ladies are the Myers girls, my father's mother and her 3 sisters. from the top center Jude, then my grandmother, Jane Myers Dayton, then Sister Babe, and sister Beatrice Myers Rogers. Wouldn't you have liked to know them then? I can see where the curly hair was from! I need to do more research on them, but Aunt Bea's home in Orange County, NY was turned into a community college some years ago. Judy and I have fond memories of a great formal dinner there, some 60 years ago. 

Monday, September 19, 2011

This envelope is yielding some interesting gems.....this is one of them.
Typed (!!) on the back is "The 'Myers Girls' at the Winchester Va Apple Blossom Festival, May 1949"
I know that these lovely ladies are my paternal grandmother, Jane Myers Dayton, in the middle, her sister Beatrice Myers Rogers, is on the left, and her younger sister, "Babe" is on the right. I know that Babe's maiden name was Myers, but I'm not remembering what her married name was. I know we went to Thanksgiving Dinner at her lovely home, and she had a daughter named Rosamund. I don't know if great-aunt Bea had any children, and I believe that she was married to a lawyer....one of them was, anyway. Time to dig out the family tree and see if I can unearth any more info.
Jane was born in 1871, I was named for her, with the a and e in my name moved to make Jean, and I have her engagement ring, now more than 110 years old.
She was a delightful, interesting person, who introduced us to her version of Waldorf Salad, always called Apple and Celery Salad in her home. We still have it every Thanksgiving. I wonder what those marvelous grins were about, and who picked those hats??! Gram's looks as if it is about to fall off her head!

A new view, and a bonus photo

My sister Judy had improved on the earlier photo of our Dad that I posted, and sent along one of him with his older brother, Richard.....here they are!

Saturday, 9/17/11

I tried and failed to get a video on the blog, so back to photos. I have a large manila envelope beside me with photos from the Dayton side of the family, and have randomly chosen....one of my Grandmother, Jane Myers Dayton, in the white hat and lighter swim suit on the right, on the East Coast Oak Beach. There is no date on the photo, but it looks to me that my Dad, Val, and his brother, Richard, are seated on the sand in the front, right, and middle. The curly hair identifies them for me. Dad looks about 5 or 6, making it around 1908 or 1909.  That hat on the left is a doozy, no? Not sure who the other ladies are at all, sadly.

September 15, 2011....halfway through September?

I am getting old....the days are flying by. We are very busy here in Ashland, and the season goes on through early November, but there is a "Fall" feeling to the air, and the evenings are cooling down to great sleeping temperatures. A few trees are starting their color change, which reminds us that Summer is almost over.
Here's a photo from 1928

taken in Santa Monica, CA. My grandfather, Edmond Dayton is on the left, grandmother Jane Myers Dayton on the right. No idea of the identity of the center couple....or the cute doggie!
When I think of my grandparents in CA in the late 1920s, almost 100 years ago, it is a bit mind-boggling. The trip alone must have taken more than a week, and could have been harrowing. They must have been in their 50s, and I love my Gram's fun dress! She's the only one who looks like she might enjoy a day at the beach!

Oh dear....

Looks as though my plan of a photo a day has not worked out....too much happening lately, and I'm a bit lazy when it comes to committing to an everyday post, I admit. Anyway, here are 2 from the archives...Gregory and Andrew at G's 30th birthday party in 2003, and Peter and me at our friends, Marcia and Barry Cohn's, in Malibu, around the same year, I think.
I love this photo of G&A, since they look very handsome, loving and both a both tipsy.It was a great party at the Zacarias home in Northridge, CA, with more of Gregory's friends in one place than seemed possible.
The Malibu photo was in the Cohns' new meditation garden, and Peter wanted to help rake the stones. We were at a great barbecue there, featuring grilled fish that Barry had caught in Alaska, I believe.
Happy SoCal memories.

I've forgotten which day it is....

But it is the end of the day, September 10, 2011, I do know that! We have had a hot end to the summer in Southern Oregon, but the lovely cool nights that make sleeping a great joy.

The picture today is one of my father, Val E. Dayton, taken in about 1905, I believe.  He was born on December 21, 1903, the day the Wright Brothers first flew, and died at 65, on November 5, 1969.
I remember that he hated his curly hair, and his mother told us a story about him telling a little girl who was complimenting him on his curls...."Well, you can HAVE them." He would have loved the Internet, I think, because he was always an "early adopter"....we had one of the first remotes that I remember for our TV and garage door, and he loved to splice film and create his own movies. You are missed, Dad.
This is one of those photos that I need to have restored, so this is a good reminder for me.

for September 11

I was not in NY for the attacks on the World Trade Center, but in La Crescenta, CA. Peter had left for work around 5 a.m., per usual, and, not as usual, called me to tell me to turn on the TV, since he had heard that something strange was happening there. I did, and was appalled to see the uncut early video of the terrorist attack there. I remember calling Andrew and being on the phone with him when the towers fell, one after the other. The rest of the day is a blur to me, but I now feel relief and awe at the new structure that is appearing on the site of the Twin Towers. The link is to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum http://www.911memorial.org

Day 6, September 6, 2011

Happy Back to School for many! This was a day that made me feel nostalgic when I stopped teaching, but now, I am amazed that I could get myself prepared to face so many first days of school.
Here's the first from the bulging "Dayton" folder of photos that are on my desk. It's my Mom (Mac, or Florence) and Dad (Val) on a beach, looking like summer personified. I had written "c. 1943" on the back, the year that they were married. I imagine that it's probably Jones Beach, with that beautiful white sand. I really have few memories of my dad at the beach, but Mom took us multiple times each summer, and then always in the Fall to see the mums display there. The cry of "I see it! The water tower!" comes to my mind immediately, and stopping for Carvel on the way home, bathing suits bagged out with sand from being tossed around in the surf. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a beautiful childhood near the ocean.

Day 5....

Had to post this photo today, since I just heard that one of my bridesmaids has passed away.  Jean Cushing, who is behind me, next to Judy. She became a well-loved teacher in Connecticut, and I had lost touch with her after our August, 1969 wedding. Sad but true....the internet is wonderful for finding people.
My other bridesmaids were cousin Shawn Gebel, dear friend Meri Bourgard, cousin Sue Brown, Jean, and sister Judy. this was taken in our parents' bedroom (!), just before our wedding at St. Paul's Lutheran in Amityville, NY. I was really hung over from too many champagne cocktails after our rehearsal dinner at Unqua Yacht Club the night before. Suddenly, the 11 a.m. service was just too early for me!! Luckily, I made it through, but I remember asking Peter to get me an aspirin in the limo.

Day three.....
A day of blackberry picking and fun with our friends Jim and Sandy Benton almost led to being too late for this one....getting in under the wire. This photo was actually from Peter's desk, but it's close to mine.

It's of my cousin, Mark McDermet and me at Aunt Lilly and Uncle John Brown's 50th anniversary party in Virginia. (Maybe Andrea can help me with the date....I think it was in 2000, no?)  We hadn't see each other in at least 40 years, and it was great to make this connection at such a happy event. I couldn't believe how TALL he had become, since I remembered him as such a little boy.
Being the eldest of 28 grandchildren has given me many cousins to share memories and growing up times. The fact that we all lived within driving distance of each other on Long Island until the 1960s was quite a gift, especially given the distances that separate us currently. Our McDermet family reunion in May of 2010 in San Antonio was an event that I hope we get to repeat in a few years.

Day Two....

How can it be day 2 already? Well, I started all this yesterday, took me until this morning to suss out all the blogging stuff. (Adding a photo, right side up, preferably, etc.) I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget within the first minutes of successfully posting.

Here's a random photo of handsome Peter, at work on his Android in our dining room. The photos on the wall are of me as a newly engaged 24 year old, and an OSF photo from an early production that Gregory was in. We never expected to be using our Androids so very much. I think this was taken BEFORE I realized that there was a plastic film over the lens of mine. February of 2011.

From my desk, day one....

A friend of ours (Rollie Dick) sent us an invitation to his blog, which inspired me to think about putting some of the photos that are on my desk, and nearby, with some of my stories about them. I would welcome any additions and corrections to these memories and look forward to strolling down Memory Lanes (mine and yours) with you.

Here's the 1st photo, one of my sister Judy Lee, sometime in the 60s, outside our home in Harbour Green, Massapequa, NY, with our Mom's new T-Bird (not sure of the year, it was the 1st of 2 that my mom owned, both convertibles....both yellow?) We had some great times in this car, the second convertible that Mom owned. (First was a Buick.) I remember riding home from Jones Beach, Judy in a sweatshirt that she pulled up over her head while we were stopping at what seemed like every stoplight on Merrick Road. I was mortified, Mom just laughed and refused to stop Judy's antics. This memory may have been in the Buick, seems like I was in early years at  MHS.