Are You In My Photo?

When you gather around the Thanksgiving table, are you carrying on family traditions by eating the same foods that your grandmother and great-grandmother served? Or are you starting new traditions? What foods are going to be on your table this Thanksgiving?

Halloween is coming and it’s time to get out the spooky movies and enjoy a good scare in the safety of our living rooms. But have you ever seen or heard a ghost in real life? Have you ever gotten goosebumps for no apparent reason when you’re alone? Was there a “haunted house” in your town when you were growing up? Tell us your creepy or unexplainable story and let us share your shivers!

If you could go back in time 15 years and talk to your past self for an hour, what would you say?

One of my friends had a high school crush who wouldn’t give her a tumble because she was a couple of years younger. She wrote a memorable note in his yearbook, and over 40 years later he read it, and looked her up (through an internet site!). They got together, instantly fell deeply in love, got married and are living very happily ever after. That’s my favorite high school romance story. What’s yours? Did you have a high school love, requited or un? (And if not, what color is the sky on your planet?) Have you seen him or her since? Would you like to?

One of my nicest memories of childhood is playing games like freeze tag, statues, hide and seek, and hopscotch out on the sidewalk or, when we were more daring, in the street. One of my favorite games was something we called “Mexican Ring,” which involved making a large circle out of a hose or rope and trying to get in or out of the circle through ways I no longer remember. There were also short bouts of Red Rover, which we soon tired of after everyone’s wrists and arms got sore. The best times for playing outside were on summer nights when it was warm but not too hot, and the moonlight made everything seem so much more exciting. What kinds of games did you play outside? If you played hopscotch as a child, would you still remember how to play it today? If you have children, do they play outdoor games?

One of my coziest memories of family TV time was of the five of us gathering in the living room to watch “Get Smart,” a new show that surprised and delighted us all with its silly humor. We sometimes made watching it even more of an event by getting takeout Chinese food and eating it from TV trays. The days of family TV seem to be almost gone, now that cable offers hundreds of shows for every niche market, and TiVo allows us to watch shows at our own convenience. What shows did you watch as a family when growing up? What shows do you watch together now?

My husband recently posted two WWI photos from his mother’s archives–one showing his grandfather in a group of POWs in a German prison camp, and the other showing his grandfather’s brother in his Seaforth Highlanders unit. It seems remarkable to us that we can actually look at these images of times and places that seem as remote as an almost-forgotten dream. Do you have old family photos of grandparents, great-grandparents, or even more distant relatives? What kinds of scenes do they depict? Happy family gatherings, stern portraits, picnics or outings? Share some of the stories of these photos and of the people in them whose lives, losses, trials, loves, and triumphs helped create the family you have today.

While I was growing up my mom was always correcting my grammar and telling me not to use certain expressions. “Don’t say ‘gypped’!” she would scold. Or “don’t say ‘not that bad’, say ‘not VERY bad’,” and so on. I can’t say that I took any of these scoldings to heart, but it’s amusing to think back on the kinds of things that offended her generation. Not counting swear words, what were you scolded about saying?

As Father’s Day draws to a close, I got to thinking about the TV dads we grew up with. Did you ever wish you had one of them as your own father? Sure, some of them were portrayed as lovable idiots, but a lot of them were idealized as wise, kind, and always having the right answers. Who was your dream dad when you were growing up?

Come on, we all had one. My first was Rowdy Yates on Rawhide. The show debuted when I was only six, so it must have been at least a few seasons in that he won my prepubescent heart. When I was 12 I fell for Illya Kuryakin on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And shortly after that I was head over heels for the aloof but oh-so-sexy Mr. Spock on Star Trek. What about you? What t.v. character was your first major crush?