Category Archives: family

Old-Timey Tuesday: cousins

DeBordieu Colony, Georgetown, South Carolina, 1985

Over the weekend Jon and I drove to the coast of South Carolina for some quality beach time with my extended family. My family has been going to this spot with my dad’s cousins and their kids since 1981. We went every summer in some capacity until people started going to college, and we resumed our trips about seven years later when the youngest of us were nearing the end of college.

Every year we cousins lined up in age order for a group photo. In the above photo, there are cousins from five families — mine, and those of each of my dad’s four cousins we went with. This year we only had four representatives of what is now the middle generation — and only two of us are Poe by blood — so we didn’t even think to take a picture like this. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to take one with the whole gang in it again.

Old-Timey Tuesday: Tubby

Atlanta, at home after my brother’s McDonald’s birthday party, November 1984

I don’t even know what to say.

Old-Timey Tuesday: swimmin’ hole

Kingsport, Tennessee, July 1960

It’s been so damn hot lately I thought these were appropriate photos to share. These are two of my mama’s three younger brothers — but I can’t tell you which ones, or one of them might come after me. (Or, even worse, I might get sent to the back of the line at this coming weekend’s family feed!)

Old-Timey Tuednesday: Almost-birthday baby

Fourth of July parade, the Brittany neighborhood, Atlanta, July 4, 1984

Tomorrow’s my birthday (the big 2-9), and as many funny birthday pictures as I could dig up, I wanted to post something holiday festive. Our old neighborhood always had a big parade on the fourth where the kids would dress up or decorate their bikes, hence my stroller festooned with streamers and balloons. That’s my sister behind me in the awesome stripey dress.

Later on in the day I spent some quality time in my playpen. Was I cute or what?

Year Two

Now that it’s been a month since our second anniversary, I should probably post about it, huh? Last year’s celebration was a multi-day hit-and-miss affair; this year we decided to keep things low-key (and relatively inexpensive), particularly since it fell on a school night, so to speak.

Because Jon is forever a little kid when it comes to presents, the day started out with exchanging gifts. It’s possible I was still in bed when Jon brought me mine. The traditional gift for your second anniversary is something cotton; I love the challenge of sticking to a theme. Jon gave me a band t-shirt, and I gave him seersucker pants and a gift card toward a custom dress shirt. (I later noted that we each got the other their favorite form of cotton clothing. Good job us!) I also got Jon this awesome card: (He studied saxophone in college and now plays for the dog on occasion.)

That night after work, we got fancied up and had a lovely dinner at Empire State South. They didn’t have an appetizer I had seen and lusted after on the online menu and our waiter was kind of pretentious and inattentive, but the food was delicious and the meal didn’t totally break the bank; we counted it as a win. Besides, any meal that ends with phatty cakes is bound to be a triumph.

Pleasantly full, we left and drove around the block to the W Midtown, where we had lodged and afterpartied the night of our wedding, for a nightcap. As we entered the lobby, the doorman said, “Welcome back!” How did he know?

We ordered drinks in the lounge area then went in search of the secret cave beneath the staircase where we and our friends had spent a couple of hours once we left the clubby bar. I forget now who discovered it, but we were apparently quite lucky to have landed it that night, I was recently told; normally it’s a first-come-first-serve battle for those in the know. It was somewhat less lively with just the two of us, but it was cool to be back in that space and confirm that it was not merely a figment of our collective imagination.

Once we finished our drinks and marveled at how frickin’ weird W hotels are, we headed toward home, stopping on a whim at our friendly neighborhood Kroger to buy some scratch-off lotto tickets. None of the $10 worth of tickets we bought was a winner, alas. I’m gonna start playing our lucky/magic/sentimental numbers in the real lottery and see where that gets me…

But I digress. It’s hard to believe our amazing wedding was two years ago already, and that we’re, like, old married people. I was 26 when we got married! Now I’m almost 29!

Where does the time go? I have no idea, but I’m glad I get to spend most of mine with this guy.

Old-Timey Tuesday: summer primaries

DeBordieu Colony, Georgetown, SC, summer 1986 or 1987?
East Pond, Smithfield, Maine, summer 1989?

I’m posting late again, and since today (Wednesday) is the summer solstice, OTT is all about summer. Apparently back in the mid- to late ’80s, primary colors were all the rage for the season, whether you were beach people, like my family, or lake people, like Jon’s.

Old-Timey Tuesday: Mailbox no. 1

Since today would have been my maternal grandfather’s 91st birthday, I’ve bumped this week’s Old-Timey Tuesday, which is drawn from the Abernathy archive, to Wednesday. When we were in Tennessee over Memorial Day for a family feed, my mom and her brothers were given a shoebox full of letters and photos from their parents that their cousins found while cleaning out their late parents’ home. It’s another goldmine, of course.  The coolest find is the letter Grandpa Fred wrote to his mother sharing news of his engagement. Below are scans of the pages and the text of the letter. It’s pretty much the best thing ever.

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Sept. 15, 1946

Dear Mother,

As I told you when I called today, I’m now engaged. Her name is Jean Reeves. She’s twenty years old, 5 ft 1¾ inches tall, weighs 101 lbs., brown hair, brown eyes, and a beautiful smile. I took some pictures today and will send those along as soon as they’re developed.

Her home is Taylors, S.C., about 8 miles from Greenville, S.C. Her father works in a textile mill there. She has one brother, younger than she is. She graduated from Winthrop College last June and came to work here on June 24. I met her a couple of weeks later but didn’t start dating her until Aug. 14. Since that time I’ve seen an awful lot of her. She rides to and from work with me and we eat breakfast out at the cafeteria every day.

We got along wonderfully right from the start and last Friday night [things] came to a head. I haven’t gotten her ring yet, but she’s wearing my pin, which means just as much to me as a ring. Guess those are the main facts about her. I know you’ll have a million more questions, and I’ll try to answer them as soon as I can. No definite date has been set for the wedding as yet and won’t be until we can find a place to live. That’s going to be a problem since there’s still a housing shortage around here.

I hope we’ll be able to get married on my vacation and if we do, we’ll come to Oklahoma on our honeymoon. We’re going to Greenville next weekend to meet her family. Wish you were close enough so I could bring Jean home some weekend. She’s a wonderful person, and I know you’ll like her very much.

A few more facts about her — She’s a Methodist, too; she is the secretary to the asst. division supt of my division. However, her office is quite a distance from mine. Dal and all the rest of my friends here approve of Jean very highly, and she’ll fit into the bunch wonderfully. Guess the most important thing is that I love her very much and she loves me. We both have about the same likes and dislikes, the same tastes in food, clothes, and recreation. I wish so much that Daddy was still alive so he could know her. I know he’d approve very highly. I hope you can be here for the wedding, but if you can’t, we’ll be home right after it. I’ll let you know as soon as the date is set.

I know you’re going to [be] real proud of me for picking a girl like Jean, Mother, after you get to know her. Guess that’s about all for right now. Any questions you want to know, fire away, and I’ll answer them the best I can. Give Frank my congratulations on pledging. I’ll write him as soon as I can.

Your loving son,

Fred.

Old-Timey Tuesday: Anniversary edition

Atlanta, Georgia, May 22, 2010

Today marks two years since we got hitched. Two years! Noots! In honor of this momentous occasion, I borrowed an idea from Matt Miller of Our Labor of Love and made a video of all 600+ Smilebooth photos compressed into about three minutes. It’s kinda super awesome. Please enjoy my hilarious friends and family:

all photos copyright Our Labor of Love

Old-Timey Tuesday: Mother’s Day edition

Kingsport, Tennessee, April-June 1948; Somewhere else, July 1950

Those first three photos are my Grandma Jean holding my tiny baby mama at ages 3.5 weeks, 2 months and 3 months. Grandma Jean looks so very Judy Garland to me… maybe it’s the hair. The fourth photo is my adorable mama at 2 years and change walking with her grandma. Hooray for mamas and grandmas!

Old-Timey Tuesday: Opposite Day edition

Today’s Old-Timey Tuesday post has been replaced by a New-Timey Tuesday, because one of my best friends had her first baby in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. (Sans drugs, at that. Ouch!) Baby McKenna is only 12 hours old here. Lindsay is only the second in my group of closest friends to become a mom, so this is still a novelty to the rest of us. Welcome to the world, sweet McKenna!

photos by me and Josephine McCune