Thirteen puppies!

Take a walk with me down memory lane for just a minute and observe the picture to your left. Let's call it a ghost of Christmas past. Mama finally let me borrow some of her old family photo albums so I can make copies of some pictures, and I found this little gem. Actually, I found enough blog fodder for the next two years, but I don't want to get kicked out of my family, so I'll have to be choosy about what I post. This picture of me and SuperCop makes me smile. This is around around 1972 or 1973. Our Irish setter, Shannon, had her first and only litter of puppies several weeks before Christmas. She had thirteen puppies! We ended up with only twelve because the runt of the litter didn't make it. I'm not sure if he just wasn't strong enough or if he got mashed in the crowded refrigerator box/bed we made for Shannon and her puppies in the warm basement. We loved those puppies and wanted to keep them all, but mama and daddy said no, so we hugged and squeezed them and dragged them around until they went home with new owners. I was sad when each one left. Aren't they sweet? And isn't SuperCop cute with those cheeks and red hair? This photo just screams the 70's don't ya' think? The potential for laughs is all over the place.

First of all there's the pretzel pants I'm wearing. Stunning. I loved those pants. It was one of many fashion faux pauxs I would commit over the years. And look at my crooked bangs. I could never sit still when mama trimmed my hair, so I walked around with crooked bangs a lot. She used to lay a piece of masking tape across my forehead and cut it off, leaving what was supposed to be a straight line of bangs. It never worked. It wasn't her fault that I wiggled like a worm in hot ashes. Check out the artificial Christmas tree with homemade snowflakes. I loved cutting snowflakes out of paper. I was a regular litter bug at Christmas, leaving a trial of paper scraps behind me wherever I went. My very favorite part of this picture, though, is the cardboard fireplace. Now, I remember these being very popular back in the 70's, and I felt pretty uptown because we had one. I especially remember hanging our stockings on it and digging in them Christmas morning for goodies. It's certainly not something the editors of Better Homes and Gardens would publish today, but back then it felt pretty chic. We've come a long way baby, since the 70's, but I have a feeling that in about twenty years when we look back at photos of Christmas 2007, we're going to get the same kind of chuckle out of lawn inflatables, dancing Santas and fiber optic trees. Keep that in mind when someone takes your picture this holiday season. Now, let me see a show of hands. Who had the cardboard fireplace? Come on. It's okay. There's no need to be ashamed. Repeat after me...my name is (insert name here) and I'm a victim of the cardboard fireplace.......