Pictures

Another gorgeous day. It was foggy for quite a while this morning, which made the sound carry. In fact, as we walked at the park this morning, we clearly heard the school office paging all 7^th and 8^th grade students who were having school picture re-takes. What a rite of passage in the fall!

We always had our school pictures taken shortly after the start of school. It was always fun planning what special new clothing you would wear for that annual event. You always wanted to look your best.

For Mom, guessing the date of school pictures sometimes made for a delicate balance. You see, as soon as school was out for the summer, Mom would chop my hair off very, very short. She would keep it that way through the summer, until it was nearly time for school. Then, there was the race – would my hair grow enough that she could give me a fresh perm before school pictures?

We usually made it, but there were some close times. I'm not sure if my memory is totally clear on this, but it seems there was one year that school pictures were done so early that she ended up perming my hair the night before. I don't recommend having your photo taken when your hair is that freshly permed! You can end up looking like a cartoon character who has been frightened.

Mom and Dad took me to school the year before I started for my first “official” picture – it was black and white. By first grade, we had color photos. The dress I wore for my first grade picture was so special to me. Mom's cousin Frances Brunscher made my dress on her new sewing machine; it was turquoise in color with a white monogrammed “B” on a pocket flap. That made it special enough - but when you factor in that Frances had a houseful of kids of her own, her taking the time to sew for me was pretty doggoned special!

I think second grade was the year of the night-before-pictures perm. It was a hot, windy day. My hair was pretty wild and windblown, and I attempted to get it back in place.......which didn't work too well, because I'd never brushed my own hair (that's a whole other story). The teacher attempted to fix my very mangled hair, resulting in probably the worst school photo of me.

My bus driver ran two routes for quite a bit of my school career. For the first few years, our route was second and there was ample time after school for us to play on the playground. The night before 4^th grade pictures, a 5^th grade boy from my bus and I were playing tetherball while waiting for our bus. He was unwinding the ball between games, horsing around because there was no teacher out there with us, and swung with his closed fist. He didn't mean to hit me in the eye. The photographer the next day didn't notice the mouse under my eye, and I was too shy to say anything. But if you know where to look, it's visible on that school picture.

Mom kept a 3x5 of each year's photo, in the cardboard frame, and paper clipped the frames all together across the top of the piano. A salesman or something came into the house one day, looked at the piano and commented on how many kids Mom had. I had to work hard not to laugh at him, and I don't think Mom considered him too bright......I didn't change that much over the years, and I couldn't imagine anyone honestly thought there were eight or nine different kids!

My favorite school photo is the one that “didn't count” - the one they took my senior year. Since we were having our senior portraits taken, we didn't buy the school pictures. But, I still have all those others – fresh perm, black eye and all!