Growing Up

Jane Ann and Mary Pat Peasley 1944

When I was visiting my mother over Thanksgiving, I left Creston with a zip lock bag full of photos.  My mother wanted us to go through an enormous box and take the photos we wanted (she is trying to get rid of things), but my brother Larry pointed out that many of them might be of interest to more than one sibling. Instead he suggested the photos be scanned and shared, and I volunteered to make a start on the project.

At the Knudson House 1949

I began scanning the photos last week and, to my surprise, became fascinated with them.  Some were pictures of us kids when were small, but the most interesting pictures were those of my mother from the 1940s when she was a girl on the farm in LaHarpe through her high  school and college years, her marriage to my dad and ending with her life as a young wife and mother. Somewhere along the way she stopped being Mary Pat and became Pat (doubtless more fashionable).

The photos chart her evolution from a plain teenager squinting awkwardly into

Pat Peasley and Don Hall 1950

the sun, trombone in hand, next to her pretty younger sister, through her first two years of college at a girls' school through a summer job at the Knudson House, a resort in Wisconsin, through library school at the University of Illinois where she met my father. A photo booth picture shows a young couple radiant with glasses glare and happiness. By her account, she loved library school and enjoyed some extracurricular activities -- there is a wonderful

Pat Peasley at the U of I 1951

picture of her as Bing Crosby with three male library students in drag.

Some people (not very many) are born lovely and stay that way (Angelina Jolie and Ron's sister Susan come to mind), but most people grow into their looks and, like my mom, are most attractive in their 20s, when, often, they marry.

There is at least one benefit to middle age though -- I'm past my peak attractive stage and am not too worried about how I look. Frankly I like it -- feeling this way frees up a lot of time and money.

I sure wish that I had taken more pictures from my mom's house though -- I'm already done with the batch I took!  I need to get back soon.