Life of Wry

Mom and I called this guy today… it was his 59th birthday (I’ve always loved that she had a baby on labor day):

Calling Thailand is not the easiest thing, but it’s doable. Should be a lot easier than it is, but for time changes, Jay’s constant movement from southern to northern Thailand, and, in addition, a pretty robust travel schedule. My Verizon plan seems not to include international calls (huh? in this global era?) and mom’s phone is weird. But eventually we worked it out and had a long, wonderful conversation.

Jay’s very up on current news and events, so we had a lot of fun talking about the presidential race and what folks in Thailand, including the ex-pat community, think about the dangerous and unhinged man who just wants, with all his might and ego, to be ruler of the world. We talked about the year of presidential campaign-turned-reality-tv and the sorry state of union. At one point I thought to myself, wow, this conversation is taking place among a once registered republican (me, and yeah, it was a long time ago) a former republican and now independent, and a still-registered republican who just can’t go there. And once again, if the damn republican party can’t get itself together and begin to recognize and serve a diverse and evolving citizenry… it doesn’t deserve to lead. Ever.

It was a fun conversation. But I digress.

It was Jay’s birthday, we miss him and look forward to seeing him in December.

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On the subject of vintage photos, here are the others in that series.. taken in 1963 by the Marvin Hankins studio….

Matty (1, who mom said cried for a year, including during this entire photo shoot; maybe they used the equivalent of photoshop to erase the tears and drool, and wow, he sure looks like dad here):

Chris (Mr. Suave, even at 4 years old):

Moi (7, doing my best imitation of a starlet):

And the whole collage, which sits framed in the window box in my former bedroom:

Buncha toeheads!

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And on the subject of Marvin Hankins’ collages.. here’re the five Hesse girls (Fritz hadn’t yet come along), this series done in 1962..

Darling!

Clockwise from the top: Karen, Lauren, Vicki, Leslie and Lisa.