15 October 2010

Time to Fly or Long Island Here We come

Six years is a long time when you are ten. I had spent a lifetime in this green house on Bliss Road in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. My best friend, Allyson, lived right across the street. Allyson's little sister, Tina, was best friends with my little sister. Moving felt like the end of the world.

 
Eventually the big day came and the moving truck arrived. I remember feeling really angry at the moving men as if it was their fault that we had to leave. I didn't take a lot of photos that day, but I did document that truck in front of our home. Wish I could remember if I was more interested in getting a picture of the truck, or the house, or the fact that the truck was in front of our house...taking our stuff!
1976 April, Longmeadow, Massachusetts


Whatever the reason, the picture exists and I am thankful to my ten year old self for taking it and also to Bubba for buying me the camera and insisting that I always take pictures. Who is Bubba, you ask? Well, in our family he has become in memory almost a mythical figure and definitely a guardian angel, but that is a story for another day. Today is just about a couple of pictures and the story that results when you put them together.


The picture of our departure from Longmeadow is only one half of the story. There is a second picture that tells the other half of this 'moving' story and here it is:
1976 April Northport, Long Island, New York
How cool is it that I took this picture too? The big truck has arrived at our new home. Some things I love about this picture are that it shows that the new house is green just like our old house. The loading ramp is visible on the front steps just like in the first moving picture. It is clearly much woodsier here, which reminds me of another story for another day. Finally I love this picture because it completes this moving story for me, but it also leaves open a myriad of possibilities of new stories in this new place.


What do I do when I have a story to tell? I don't usually write about it...this blog is really a stretch for me, but I want to show how ancestry, photos and scrapbooks come together in my work. Someday this story will be part of my descendants' ancestry. They may wonder, how did Great Great Grandma end up in Long Island for a year? Why did her family live there such a short time? These are questions that frequently arise as part of genealogical research. Creating scrapbooks is my method for answering these questions for my family. It is a way to document results of research in a way that is appealing and interesting to family and friends.


Here is a scrapbook page I created last week as part of a phenomenal online class called Fun with Fabric with a wonderful artist named Donna Downey.  If you ever have a chance to take a class with her, grab it!


This page was fun to make, as I learned some new tricks (painting on canvas and using dimensional glue) and used some photos I love, but there are several key things missing to make it a good page displaying genealogical information. Lots of unanswered questions. Any guesses?

1 comment:

  1. And the questions I have are...
    Who moved?
    Why did they move?
    What were the addresses of the homes?

    Do you see any more?

    ReplyDelete

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