Each year we drove from our home in Grayslake, IL to Phoenix, AZ where my grandparents had relocated...it was Route 66 all the way! This picture is in my grandparents' living room. See the matching lamps, the bowl on the coffee table and the cylindrical lidded container (for storing cigarettes) on the end table? My grandfather made those - woodworking was his hobby. The lampshades were overlaid with my grandmother's crocheting. I've got quite a few examples of my grandfather's beautiful wood work strewn about my house. And those lamps, sans the crochet encrusted lampshades, now belong to my daughter Mindy.
On the rocking chair is my mother with my little sister Debra. On the sofa is my father reclining (you can't really see his face) with his feet on my lap while I try to read the newspaper. The leather slippers under the table are his. He was really bugging me by shaking my paper with his toe so I couldn't concentrate; no doubt it's the reason why I have a somewhat irritated look on my face. My dad always had to clown around. The leg on the far left is attached to my sister Cathy the Dragon - one of the better pictures of her that I have in my possession.
I loved visiting my grandparents, but they lived in the retirement community of Sun City so I had a lot of idle time on my hands. This was the beginning of my voracious reading habit and it was also where I secretly purchased my first "racy" paperback and read it by flashlight at night. I felt pretty sophisticated after that particular Christmas.
