I am going to insert this picture as large as it will allow me. This is my favorite family portrait and, to the best of my knowledge, the only one that exists with my brother, both sisters AND my parents when they were still married:
Most families would go to Sears or Penney's for the family portrait, but because I was raised in a small gold rush town in the Sierra Foothills, we went to Columbia where you could get Old Timey pictures like the one above. We have several in our past, but this one is my favorite.
First, I didn't remember this picture until last summer when I was in my Grandmother's house. She passed away in 2006 and since then her house has been vacant, a refuge for mice and dust mites. My aunt Irie (pictured above, young women at center left), has tried to get the family to empty the house of all relics and memorabilia so she can rent it. When I was there last summer and spied this picture, she encouraged me to take it.
As I wrapped it carefully in my clothing to make the trip back to Seattle, I remembered posing for this picture. At least, a little. More like a feeling of the picture and what going to Columbia, the historical town where this photo studio still operates, meant to me.
My aunt Irie and her husband Doug (tall man, back center left) took me there often to ride the stagecoach and drink frosty sarsaparilla at the Douglas Saloon. I panned for gold, walked the mining labyrinth, kicked dust on my sisters' shoes.
Or the time when my father, Tom (back, stage right) took me, my sister Beth (the little frowny girl on the bottom left) and my brother Aaron (bugle boy) to the Columbia Candy Kitchen at Christmas. We were there to learn how to make enormous candy canes. The candy came out of the oven, hot and pliable, and you had to rapidly braid and bend it into a hook before it cooled. Aaron and I both succeeded in reasonable canes, but Beth dallied, and was dismayed by her immovable and rock hard candy STICK, straight as could be. Of course we teased her and she cried, but we had to reason with her: we each had the same GIANT length of candy to savor, smash, lick and cherish for a full year. We were lucky kids.
I am the eldest of three daughters, so my mother is holding my baby sister, Laura on her lap. I am the unhappy Little House on the Prairie runaway to the far right. Thick red braids and a sad face. The photographer told us not to smile to be more authentic. Beth may have won the prize for best face, but I think I ultimately win for retaining a copy of this amazing family history.
PS: Try to ignore the ghostly arm reflection. Taking pictures of pictures is HARD.
