Flashback Friday

This is a repost of a few years ago.  This is the last of the reposts for awhile, I'm still lazy from the holidays.  The next few months will be new old stuff, I promise. (fingers crossed)   

Reaching back to the old days, these pictures appear to be possible pictures for one of Marj's homemade Christmas cards.  This was an annual ritual where we would be forced to get dressed up and be directed into several poses.  Here we have same night - different places for the sitting.    

Things of note about this picture:

• The picture hanging on the wall was a French street scene in an impressionistic style.  It was interesting in that the street seemed to move with you in the room.  At least that was what drew Marj to it as well as the earth colors that permeated this version of the living room.  In what was interesting as I recall this picture is that it was a somewhat hard board painting which really seemed at odds with what Marj usually bought for her home.  It looked pretty good, but it was by no means a real painting or a faux canvas work.  Hmmm.  Maybe it was expensive, I have no idea. 

• Mark and I are wearing different designed socks.  Strange that Marj would have allowed this.  A rare slip up by the usually fastidious photographer.

• The pooch is Archie, named after Archie Moore, the boxer.  Archie had an incredibly long life and was the best in so many ways.  A boxer mix, she guarded us through our childhood and into young adults.

• The couch was a period piece so prevalent in the 60's.  Simple, Danish, this style was sleek and typical of the times.  It would grace the room for many years then give way to a Oriental looking plush couch that would anchor Marj's Eastern period.

• This was no doubt discarded because one person seemed to be glancing up instead of dutifully looking at the book.

• This was the age when there were ashtrays wherever they needed to be.  

• Phillip and Archie were always photogenic and would pose just as Marj demanded.  The twins, however…

• I don't have a clue what that cabinet is in the back room.  Doesn't ring any bells, but  we are sitting, or rather squeezed into, the matching seat to the sofa.  Scoot over, dammit. 

• Here we are posed in front of the Yamaha organ that we had forever.  She was a great organist who even scored a gig at the Oak View Country Club every so often.  I'm not sure about Phil, but she forced the Wombie and I to go to organ lessons with Ila Mae Keilman for years.  Phil got out of all sorts of things because his egg didn't split in the womb, I guess.  As far as the organ lessons, I'm afraid it was wasted money. Ila Mae lived a nice long life so very pleased we didn't contribute to an early death.   I have thought about getting one of those keyboard players to work on it again, and I can do a reasonable "We Shall Overcome" today but I need a lot of work to get back to where I was at one time.  

• That was a matching table lamp to go along with the floor lamp in the first picture.  Oddly, I don't remember much about them, except for the neat wooden inserts in the legs.

• That fireplace wasn't used all that often, but the folks would eventually convert it to gas and we used it more often, then.  We would take the end poker and brush tools and play sword fights.  Also revamped later, they would put a mantel or shelf all the way around the upper wall above the fireplace.