A 1985 Pontiac 6000, cream-colored (they may have called it "Champagne"): I'd bought it after nine years with my uninspiring and not always reliable but still utilitarian 1976 Olds Omega. The 6000 was one of the few American cars of that era, other than sports cars, that I liked the look of, and I had a good time driving it. My first impulse was to take it on a long trip, and I persuaded my friend Dave Stewart to join me in a drive to visit Gloria and her family and also Estie in Santa Monica, right after the spring semester ended.
I'm sorry to report that for the second time I've found a gap in my slide collection. (The first was a missing box from my 1983 visit to Greece.) My numbered slide boxes take us from 1984's European trip to a 1985 midsummer visit to Ohio and from there to Ontario, skipping over the photos I took during the drive out West, along with any photos I might have taken during yet another trip that summer to see friends in South Carolina. Maybe they will turn up somewhere someday and I will publish them--for now I'll just give a very brief summary of the Western trip. Our first stop was Boulder (where Dave, a native Coloradan, had relatives); then we drove through the Rockies on I-70 and visited Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks before heading on to Santa Monica. After our L.A. visit we did a marathon drive (leaving the Garvins' in Santa Monica around 1 am) to Santa Fe, where I got to see a performance at the famed Santa Fe Opera House (Richard Strauss' The Love of Danae). Then (if I'm recalling correctly) we did another marathon drive back to Sheboygan.
But my car photo at the top of this post was taken at my mother's condo in Brecksville, Ohio, and the rest of this post will be mostly Family Photos (and yes, will feature the Pontiac too). I took that pic when I was getting ready to drive to Niagara Falls and Toronto with my mother, sister and nephew, Jay, who was a little under 2 at the time. The photos that follow, unlike most of my documents of travel, are very much about people rather than places; in fact, I'm not sure about the location of the shot below of me, Ellen and Jay, except that I think we were along the Niagara River:
(Ellen had attended Ohio U.--hence the shirt.) My first shot of the Falls is sadly blurred, but I'll include it anyhow for its glimpse of a rainbow:
But here are two shots of Jay enjoying himself in an outdoor cafe:
And here are some of those Family Photos at the Falls:
I did take one photo of the Falls themselves, and one of a boat below them:
We spent a few days in Toronto, but I took only three photos: one of Jay standing in front of City Hall, as if he had proudly built it:
And two more family shots that include the skyline as seen from the island-park facing it:
Back in Cleveland we took Jay to the annual Rib Cook-Off (or Burn-Off) downtown. As usual, Jay seemed happy to pose for photos, though he rejected a sample rib:
That fall, back in Sheboygan, I see that I drove up to Two Rivers State Park with Jean Tobin and Sallie Melgaard (and maybe their spouses, but they don't show up in the photos). I think the shots of Jean and Sallie in a meadow near Lake Michigan were taken at Haven, north of where Whistling Straits Golf Course is now located:
I hadn't gotten tired of photographing my Pontiac. Here (I think at Two Rivers Park) are two more shots:
You'd like even more car shots? Here are two more of the 6000 in front of my house, and a third with Dave, who had helped drive it on the inaugural trip out West. I include all these shots partly as a record of the maple tree that used to be in front of the house:
I'm very puzzled by the "license applied for" plate on the car: surely I wouldn't have driven to California and then to Ontario without a regular plate? And how long could it take to get a plate? These shots must have been taken in early October.
The next shot was taken inside and shows the other maple tree in front of my house. The cylinders placed in the windows, I'm guessing, were cannisters of 16mm film that Dave, who was studying in the Film School of UW-Milwaukee at the time, put there for a pattern of straight and round shapes. He's seen with my cat, Kitty, in the shots that follow:
I don't remember but I assume that he wasn't really napping with Kitty but pretended to do so for the first shot.
As usual, I spent Christmas break with the family in Ohio. Here are (yet) more shots of Jay:
The siblings and cousins usually played board games after holiday dinners, but Christmas '85 we are clearly playing charades. In the shots below, taken at my brother's house, you see Cousin Judi, her then-husband Allen and my sister. Anyone care to guess what any of them are acting out?
It turns out that Jim and Mary Hicks were visiting Cleveland that holiday season as well--here they are inside the Cleveland Museum of Art and (I assume) outside the building with their younger son, Jordan:
Finally, here are some in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree pics of Mom, Ellen, Jay and me in Brecksville:
Actually, I do have one more photo , a sunset that could be Ohio but more likely is back in Sheboygan:
In January I flew out to L.A.--just half a year after my previous visit, and my first time in Southern California in the winter. That trip included a visit to Yosemite, but I'll save those pictures for the next post.
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