Today, Lily, 9 and I play with the concept of Throwback Thursday, a Facebook activity. People post old photos of themselves on a Thursday. We’ve given it our own twist: welcome to Flashback Friday!

 

Here is our subject:

 

 

Lily, what do you see?

 

That picture is at least 2 years old, probably 1972. Ann, Dad, Clover and me. We’re at home on the deck. Mom must have taken the picture because she’s not in it. My shoes are so ugly!

 

So you’d be twelve, Ann 14, Clover 8 or so, and Dad. . .9, what’s 1972 minus 1924?

 

Wait a second. . .forty-eight!

 

 

Forty-eight. They sure made dads older looking in those days than they seem to now. Looking back, I think having two girls at those ages was pretty hard on both our parents, and that was only the start.

 

What do you mean?

 

You’ll find out soon enough. What do you remember about Clover?

 

She’s part border collie and part German shepherd. Her mother’s name is Amy- –

 

A family out at Fort Worden owned Amy, and Clover’s grandma is Mitzi. Mitzi is the Lindquists’ dog.

 

Ann took Clover to dog 4-H. They won grand champion in obedience at the Jefferson County Fair.

 

Some people thought Clover would bite them, but she was just smiling. You could tell, because she’d wag her tail, too.

 

Good memories. What else do you see?

 

Looking at the sky, it’s probably late spring or early summer. It’s not hot yet because I’m wearing that horrible white poncho and Ann has a shawl.

 

Plus, Clover looks pretty shaggy, so she hasn’t shed her winter coat.

 

The white shoes are a giveaway, too. No one would wear those in the winter.

 

Maybe it was Easter? That fell on April 2^nd in 1972. We were definitely dressed up for some sort of event. What do you think about the lamp showing through the window to the right?

 

I think it’s beautiful! The gold cherub in like something royalty would have.

 

Fast forward 53 years- -it’s still there, in the same spot, though the table is no longer covered with gold and red cloths. Ann and Glenna- –

 

Who’s Glenna?

 

She’s our niece. She was born in 1985.

 

Weird!

In concept, 9, but I’m sure she’s an exceptional person.

 

Now that Mom has left us we have some decisions to make about the house and its contents. Ann and Glenna have grown to hate that lamp for its gaudiness, but now they’re not sure they want to let it go because. . .well, you know. Sentimental value.

 

Or perhaps it’s the key to a portal to 1972.

 

No thanks! Being twelve once was plenty.

 

Pictures are funny. They freeze us in time as if there’s no before and no after. Looking at Dad gives me pause. In that picture he’s seventeen years younger than I am now. It’s true that his side of the family goes gray prematurely, but. . .Somehow, he made it through another 21 years.

 

Flashback Friday. A moment to pause life’s continuously forward flow and rest in a moment gone by. Family, home, a yard in the background that is now shaded by taller bushes and trees. The deck rebuilt twice since then and repaired many times. A living room that still looks out on Port Townsend Bay and Admiralty Inlet.

 

That river you can never step into twice.