BOXES 198-199: Mostly Sheboygan.

It looks like the Farmers' Market had opened in Sheboygan by 1995, because that's very likely where I bought these glossy long eggplants, lying here on top of a placemat I haven't seen in a long time. After Anne and I got back from our January trip to Belgium we didn't travel 'abroad' until we went to Hawai'i in the summer of '96, but in May of '95 my usual short trip to Manhattan included an excursion to Jersey City, and soon after, Anne and I took a driving trip with Aron to St. Louis, as I'll show in the following post. Otherwise, my slide photos of those months are mostly a record of teenage activities: Aron dressed up for high school dances and Michelle performing in a local theatre troop and having her bat mitzvah.

The first of Aron's occasions (a spring prom?) called for him to be in a jacket and tie--I recognize the tie as one of my own. He thought he looked like a businessman, and posed with the briefcase I used to take to campus:

Here he is with his date for the dance--named Wendy if I recall correctly--and with another couple as they posed inside and outside our house:

Unconnected to any occasion, I took a photo of a little fish-shaped table--made in Haiti, I think, a present from Dick and Kathy Flannery--with a hibiscus next to it:

My friends Ed and Elaine (who have appeared in several earlier BOXES) had been living in a 19th-Century townhouse in Hoboken, but as costs became exorbitant in that town they had sold their house and each bought a place in much more affordable Jersey City. Here is Ed sitting on the stoop of his new townhouse:

Jersey City in 1995 was a dramatic mix of old and new architecture: high-rises along the Hudson and old brownstones and brick townhouses like Ed's farther inland. These 19th-Century homes tended to be either newly spruced up (gentrified, if you like) or on the verge of collapse. On a walk through one of the more traditional neighborhoods, with some lovely squares, I took photos of the blossoming trees:

That summer Aron got a job with the Student Conservation Association that called for him to spend several weeks on projects at the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. It was arranged that he would be picked up in St. Louis with other youths and driven down to the park. Anne and I decided to make a bit of a vacation of it, by taking a leisurely drive along the Mississippi to St. Louis (a city Anne had known during her last year of high school). My first photos from that drive are of a place I had totally forgotten we visited (and still don't remember, though the evidence is in the slides): Burlington, Iowa, which boasts a Snake Drive that is quite comparable to San Francisco's Lombard Street:

Somewhere along the Mississippi, maybe at a park, I took this photo of Anne:

I do remember our stopping in Hannibal, Missouri, where we were entertained by all the Mark Twain connections. I recall a Huck and Jim Motel, and we saw the Becky Thatcher Book Shop, as well as Twain's childhood home:

When we got to St. Louis we naturally stopped at the Gateway Arch:

I had been there on my second drive out West, in 1979 (see BOXES 129-131) but hadn't seen the rest of the city. On this trip we spent a couple of nights and visited quite a few attractions, including the renovated Union Station:

Sorry my photo of a part of the interior came out in soft focus--as did a pic of the famous Clydesdale horses we saw in their stables, with a dalmatian, when we were taking a tour of the Budweiser plant:

We visited the extensive and beautiful Missouri Botanical Gardens on a hot and humid afternoon. I'm surprised that the only photos I took were of the hedge maze, which we were clearly enjoying:

And those were the only photos I took in St. Louis. On the way back home we took I-55 through Illinois and stopped in Springfield to see a Frank Lloyd Wright residence, the Dana-Thomas House:

I'm puzzled by the next two photos, showing Michelle holding up a picture of Bob and Tripit's wedding in Hawai'i, which we all attended in 1992: if it's a salute to Bob and Tripit, why is a big salad prominently displayed on the kitchen table?

The next photo shows a souvenir from St. Louis: at the Botanical Garden gift shop we'd seen a hibiscus tree full of blossoms, at such a low price we couldn't pass it up. It barely fit in the back seat of our car (and lost a lot of blossoms by the time we got it home), but we gave it a prized place in our back yard. (We later moved it to our campus, where a new Commons building provided more light and space than we could give it indoors.) Note the other flowers and leafy plants that Anne added to the garden:

That same summer Michelle appeared in a Theatre for Young Audiences production that Deb Sabol-Williams directed. It was presented under a tent at the Sheboygan lakefront, near the Y. I can't tell you the title or plot, but Michelle remembers playing a sheep. It looks like she was presented with a bouquet after the performance.

These next pictures of Michelle, in the kitchen with her friend Amanda, could have been taken later that summer or really any time before June 1996, the date on the box of slides where they appear. The girls were making banana pancakes from one of Anne's cookbooks. I like the photo on the left for what it reveals about our kitchen: the old cupboards and window from before our remodeling, but apparently the same stove as now, 26 years later. Also the same: the Cuisinart (a wedding present) and the espresso pot (a Father's Day gift).

For some years Anne and I had a big Easter dinner for friends and family, with a long table set up in our living room and our holiday dishware. It looks like we had some sort of carrot soup that Easter:

In the second photo Jean and Jim Tobin on the right are in sharpest focus, while on the left you see our friend Jinny plus Michelle and Anne. That could be Ellen Luebke hidden behind the tulips, but I don't remember the person seated farthest back.

That year Aron went to another spring dance, this time with Brandi. I don't know the house where the next photos were taken: I assume I drove Aron to place where his friends were gathered and then took these pictures:

The guy with the top hat and vest is our family friend Chris Scholke; if I get the names of others in the group I'll add them to this post.

There was yet another formal occasion for Aron that spring, and this time he rented a tux. Here he is posing as the butler from Upstairs, Downstairs:

And here he is with Brandi:

I see from the third photo that we already had the lineup of pitchers (later moved to the piano), and I'd already put together a collection of videotapes. Sometime soon after this occasion Brandi hurt her foot or ankle, but Anne and I and Michelle went with them to Milwaukee, probably to the Zoo, where Aron and Michelle think the next two pics were taken:

The restaurant in the third photo could well be the Milwaukee branch of Ed Debevik's, though I don't remember graffiti on the walls. As for the pic of me after a rain, I'm guessing it was taken because of the ducks on my right.

One other big event of the season was Michelle's bat mitzvah. I took quite a few pictures, including these inside the Sheboygan synagogue:

And here she is in the daylight with Anne and with Judy, her grandmother:

Here are two more outdoor photos taken at the side of the synagogue:

The second of these just happens to feature my car at the time, a Ford Fusion, in the background. Finally, I have no idea of why the last slide in the box is a close-up of Michelle's shoes--I presume she, or possibly Anne, wanted a picture of them. The next slide box is a record of our trip to Hawai'i that summer, but I'll save writing about it for the next post.