Between my first trip to Spain in June 1987 (see preceding four posts) and my trip to Austria and Germany with the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra in June 1989 (see future BOXES) I didn't get abroad, or even beyond my usual hangouts of Wisconsin, Chicago, Cleveland, and the vicinity of New York City. Making digital scans of the slide photos I took during this two-year period, I've disappointed to see how many of them were poorly focused or framed, or over- or underexposed. It seems I was getting lazier in seeking out the best settings with my SLR Nikon, especially when taking pictures of friends and family. At least I found a few photos I'm pleased with, including the above one of a vigorous snowfall in front of NY's Metropolitan Museum in January 1989. As for the rest, there are quite a few I value for the people shown--especially my very first photos of my family-to-be--and others that at least try some unusual approach. As usual, I'll include all but the most pathetically inept photos in this post.
A couple of weeks after getting back from Spain I met my friend Maria, who was attending UW-Milwaukee, and some of her friends to catch the Great Circus Parade through downtown Milwaukee (a not-quite-annual event under the auspices of Baraboo's Circus World Museum). I took quite a few photos of Maria on this occasion, enough to make me wonder if she was taking a photography class or seeking a portfolio for some performing arts project. Here, first, are pictures we took of each other. (These and the ones that follow were on the roll with the last of the Spain pictures, and as you may have seen in the previous post, the color has faded. At least I don't have to blame myself for this particular defect--the color loss might have even improved a few photos.)
Here are further experiments (though the cutoff face could have been an accident of framing):
And here are some simply playful photos, including one with another friend whose name I don't remember (nor do I remember what Maria's hand signals were about):
By far the two best photos of this group, especially since they connect to the circus, are the following:
Here's one other, with Maria standing in front of the crowd awaiting the parade:
And here are two of the parade itself:
Dave Stewart (also at UW-Milwaukee at this time--see previous posts) was with us as well:
And here's the last shot from that afternoon, of the Milwaukee River and buildings beyond:
That fall I took more pictures of my cat, Kitty, on a ladder in the back yard, and one of Ellen Luebke, who had dropped by:
And I took a couple of photos of my side and back yards, apparently to document how decrepit they were looking that fall. The first one shows an old couch that I'd pushed off the sun porch/balcony at the back of the house. It had been on the balcony for a while, but bees had built a nest in it, and I was now awaiting help to further break up the wreckage and haul it to the dump.
Others who dropped over that fall included Anne and her daughter Michelle (the other kids must have been in school). These are the first photos I have of my future wife and stepdaughter!
That school year I had a fellowship at UW-Milwaukee that provided me an office at the Center for 20th Century Studies. Here is the view from my office window:
I spent lots of time in Milwaukee that year, sitting in on conferences and classes but also exploring neighborhoods. Here are two shots I took of the at-the-time fairly wild and unvisited Riverside Park near the UW-M campus:
At some point, probably the end of September, I went to Madison and on to Spring Green for a production of the American Players Theatre on their open-air hilltop stage. I see from my photos that I met Cameron Stewart, Dave's sister, in Madison:
In the four photos below you see the crowd wending its way toward the theatre; a picnic area beyond the stage; me with another friend, Jan Bergman; and Jan and Cameron:
Back home, I took more pictures of Kitty, and I see that Michelle visited again, with Kitty quite an armful for her:
I'll throw in this photo of Holy Name Church on my corner (one of many over the years) even though it's badly out of focus, just because I like the colors and don't have another of that twilight time when you can see both the sky and the church windows lit up. That winter I spent Christmas, as usual, with my family in Cleveland (more precisely, at my mother's condo in Brecksville). If you've followed my posts you'll recognize my mother, my sister, Ellen, and my nephew Jay:
Scanning this box I see that the Hicks family visited us at Mom's place, but those pictures are so dim that I'll draw the line at including them here. I have no more photos for the next nine months or so, until what looks like the end of September 1988, when I went with Anne and the kids to an apple orchard--no doubt the one in Gibbsville, which used to sell caramel apples on a stick. Here are Becky and Aron in their first appearance in these slide boxes, along with Anne: it's not a good photo of any of them, but the apple tree comes across ok:
Here's a much better one of Anne, followed by one of Michelle, Becky and Aron on some orchard equipment:
Here are a couple more of the kids:
The next one, with them jumping off the cart, would have been good if I had managed to get the older kids' heads in the frame:
And finally, two more shots: an apple-laden tree and Michelle among orchard rows:
That fall the kids acquired a kitten they named Stony. I have no idea why the photos I took turned out so dim, but I'll include them as souvenirs from that occasion:
Ellen Luebke acquired a new pet that fall as well, a dog named Molly. As you can see, these photos turned out much better, as did one of Stony, who was apparently placed on a tree branch for the sake of the photo:
Stony shows up again among some pumpkins we carved that October:
Back in Ohio that Christmas I took more family photos, but not around the tree this time. Here's my nephew Jamie in a fancy T-shirt:
And here are some "art" photos of the snowy scene:
Ellen and Jay had an apartment in Brecksville:
After New Year's I visited friends in New York before going back to Sheboygan. I don't remember where I was exactly when I took this picture of Manhattan buildings:
I see from my slides that I visited Lyall Memorial Federated Church in Millbrook, NY (east of Poughkeepsie). during this trip: I have no recollection of it, but I must have been visiting the Hickses at Jim's latest pastoral post. I usually took pictures of him or the whole family standing in front of their church and again in front of their house (see several previous posts), but here are only the church and house standing alone:
I also caught a sunset and a view of an abandoned girls' school (I discovered recently thanks to Internet research), its windows lit by the sunset reflection:
On that NY trip I visited, as I usually did, David and Pat Hartwell and their growing kids, Alison and Geoff, in their Pleasantville house:
Down in Manhattan I took pictures of a snowfall on 5th Avenue:
That last photo shows the steaming fountain in front of the Metropolitan Museum. I also tried taking photos of Central Park through a window inside the Met:
My last photo from this trip shows Sheridan Square in the Village, presumably the same evening, considering the fresh snowfall:
The following summer, as I mentioned at the top of this post, I took part in the Sheboygan Symphony's tour of parts of Austria and Germany, followed by a driving trip with a friend though Austria, Hungary, northern Italy and Switzerland. I'll report on that trip starting in the next post.
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