Circa 1962

Oh the things that I find. Or should I say, the things that find me. For some unknown reason, last night I did a search on Ebay for my Aunt Ollie's (my father's sister) business, White House Sightseeing. Low and behold, there were several items that came up. I am simply amazed.

My Aunt Ollie, who was the oldest of the siblings, moved from Sherman, Texas, to Washington, DC where she married. Her and her husband, quite the entrepreneurs, started a sightseeing business. She then called on my father to come up and go to photography school when she saw there was a shortage of "tour group" photographers. He did just that. And so, I was born into quite a family of businesses. My brother runs the photography business to this day.

Anyway, I would say this staged shot is circa 1962/63. I look to be around 2ish. These are two brothers (my oldest brother aleady gone and in the Air Force), my mom holding me and my father "filming" us at the U.S. Capitol. My aunt, who had an artist's eye, set us up in front of their sightseeing bus and took many photos to make into postcards. And so, this is what I found on Ebay last night. Look here. How funny is that? There are actually two postcards being sold by two different vendors.

This is from my father's photo album that I put together for his funeral in 2001. You can tell the left photo is color, but the top right is hand tinted, probably by my Aunt Ollie. The two bottom items are the post cards themselves. The photo at the top is in my mom's flat. Check out my brothers' clam diggers! haha. (You can see my brothers have changed their clothes a couple of times.) My mom still has this little pink dress that I wore. So sweet. This whole shot brings back memories of growing up and "helping" my dad. The Capitol was nothing special to me. Just a backdrop for pictures. I remember fondly running around the grounds, feeding the squirrels, walking over to the Botanic Gardens where I would hang out if I got bored, or hot. One time, I even wandered off and got lost in the Capitol itself! ha! I wandered down into the subway system in between the House and the Senate and then back up to the private offices before a security guard found me and helped me find my way back to the West entrance to the lawn where my dad was. He never even missed me! Boy, things were different back then. In more ways than one.

Of course, I don't remember these photos being taken, I was too young. But I do remember them being sold at the office. We were employed at quite a young age, my brothers and I, selling souvenirs at the office. I remember I could hardly add when I would be behind the counter helping my brother Jim and John bagging the items for the customers. As I got a little older (but not much) I learned how to use that huge cash register and also knew how to add 4% tax to the total cost (I used a chart) and how to make change. I thought it was all a lot of fun!

It simply amazes me the things you can find out there. Or as I said, they find you. Who knows why I happened to do this certain search last night. I guess there was a reason for me to go back to my childhood and remember, fondly, my "first job."

Which will, of course, lead me to my next post.........

Peculiar indeed.