Fifty years ago (holy crap... please don't quote me.. I mean... this is what I heard happened.. I wasn't really there was I?) my brother Tom graduated from Williams College (Class of '65)... I had just finished my freshman year at The Colorado College (sort of like THE Ohio State University, but without the 9 returning varsity football players) and, in a moment somewhat redolent of a distant, different era, I'd managed to make my way from Colorado Springs back to New England. (I shared a ride with sophomore Gayle Heckel, an adorable sandy blond from Cincinnati) and then thanks to a CC friend - Nick Campbell, who knew some guy that owned a Lear Jet, I managed to hitch a ride from Cincy to Laguardia on the gentleman's Lear. It's the kind of thing you cannot even imagine happening anymore (let alone hanging around the General Aviation terminal, just asking if someone in their private jet is headed where you wanna go....) I then managed to somehow make my way north to Williamstown, not sure just how I got there, but Tom was ensconced at the Kappa Alpha house, after hanging around for a day, I took his ChevyII Nova and drove around New England, I'm sure in search of some kind of interesting pictures, none of which did I really manage to make.
I do remember, having been for a whole year the official photographer at the NHRA sponsored Bonneville Dragway in Salt Lake, that there was a strip in a little town known as South Glen Falls. I found my way there, having slept in the car a night or two, punctuated by the definitive sound of mosquito buzzing, in and out of my ears. I arrived in the rain, and, with no fences up to say no, took the car up to the starting line of the track, imagined the xmas tree lights going Yellow-Yellow-Yellow-GREEN! and raced down the track at what must have been a mind-numbing 64 mph. No records were shattered. Later that week, Tom's class was officially graduated, in a ceremony which injected the alternative politics of the main speakers, Adlai Stevenson, and Time Inc. founder Henry Luce. It pains me to see how crappy my pictures were. Pentax H3v, 55mm lens, with optional Spiratone 200mm, Trix and a lot of scratches which were the result of an anxious lab guy ( me! ) trying to squeegee-finger the photoFlo off the film too quickly. I made a few pictures which, 50 years later, have taken on more meaning (see what I mean about taking pictures of your OWN life -your family, your friends, treat them ALL like Burmese villagers who you would spend many rolls of Kodachrome shooting.)
After the graduation, the family gathered up in a car, drove to Boston for a couple of days (Bunker Hill, Paul Revere's Old North Church...) thence to New York. Our reservation was for 3 rooms at the Holiday Inn on West 57th st, near the CBS building, but when we got there, they claimed that they didn't have those rooms (oh, those rubes from Salt Lake!) and ended up giving us a half dozen roll-a-way beds in their Coliseum Suite, a garishly decorated conference room, big enough for a bowling alley, weird enough for Outer Limits. We kind of had the feeling it was the first time a familial party of about 9 of us, had occupied this room. I wish I could provide the details pertaining to this image of my mom, holding a copy of Playboy, but there she is, looking pretty damn good for 47! It did capture that puckish sense of humor which she endowed her kids with. I'm not sure this would be a favorite picture of hers, but really, the only thing that matters, is that WE think it's a favorite.
I do remember, having been for a whole year the official photographer at the NHRA sponsored Bonneville Dragway in Salt Lake, that there was a strip in a little town known as South Glen Falls. I found my way there, having slept in the car a night or two, punctuated by the definitive sound of mosquito buzzing, in and out of my ears. I arrived in the rain, and, with no fences up to say no, took the car up to the starting line of the track, imagined the xmas tree lights going Yellow-Yellow-Yellow-GREEN! and raced down the track at what must have been a mind-numbing 64 mph. No records were shattered. Later that week, Tom's class was officially graduated, in a ceremony which injected the alternative politics of the main speakers, Adlai Stevenson, and Time Inc. founder Henry Luce. It pains me to see how crappy my pictures were. Pentax H3v, 55mm lens, with optional Spiratone 200mm, Trix and a lot of scratches which were the result of an anxious lab guy ( me! ) trying to squeegee-finger the photoFlo off the film too quickly. I made a few pictures which, 50 years later, have taken on more meaning (see what I mean about taking pictures of your OWN life -your family, your friends, treat them ALL like Burmese villagers who you would spend many rolls of Kodachrome shooting.)
After the graduation, the family gathered up in a car, drove to Boston for a couple of days (Bunker Hill, Paul Revere's Old North Church...) thence to New York. Our reservation was for 3 rooms at the Holiday Inn on West 57th st, near the CBS building, but when we got there, they claimed that they didn't have those rooms (oh, those rubes from Salt Lake!) and ended up giving us a half dozen roll-a-way beds in their Coliseum Suite, a garishly decorated conference room, big enough for a bowling alley, weird enough for Outer Limits. We kind of had the feeling it was the first time a familial party of about 9 of us, had occupied this room. I wish I could provide the details pertaining to this image of my mom, holding a copy of Playboy, but there she is, looking pretty damn good for 47! It did capture that puckish sense of humor which she endowed her kids with. I'm not sure this would be a favorite picture of hers, but really, the only thing that matters, is that WE think it's a favorite.
2 comments:
Damned fine photo of your mama. And she's modeling one fine slip from the days when slips were slips!!! And all that joy on her face - fabulous.
Damned fine photo of your mama. And she's modeling one fine slip from the days when slips were slips!!! And all that joy on her face - fabulous.
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