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I love photos like this - a little slice of life, a random moment frozen in time. I’m not sure why it was taken, but the people sitting around my grandmother’s Formica table are very familiar to me: my aunt Janet Ross, Jerry Kowalczyk, my grandmother Ruth Ross, my grandfather Vance Ross, me, my uncle Ken Ross, and my grandmother’s friend Ada Shumaker. It looks like we are celebrating something because there is a cake on the table, along with some Nescafe’ Instant Coffee, and an empty punch bowl. The photo says February 1972, but it looks like there is a Christmas wreath in the window. Maybe it was Janet’s birthday, which is at the end of December, or New Years Eve. I’m thinking the photo was taken in 1971 and the film was developed in February of 1972. This photo leaves me with so many questions. Like, why did Nana have summery paper plates on the table if it was winter? Why didn’t she make a real pot of coffee or was instant coffee all the rage? Did we drink the punch or was she getting ready to make some? Who took this photo? Did I cut my own hair?!? One thing I’m guessing is that my Grandfather was reaching into the refrigerator to grab a Coke. Or maybe he was getting some Half and Half for that instant coffee. I guess we will never know. |
This barn adorned with a painting of an elephant sits along Route 40 between Scenery Hill and Washington and I pass it every day on my way to work. I have never stopped to take a photo of it, never asked anyone about it, or ever heard anyone discuss it. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t wondered about it as I whizzed past. Why an elephant? Usually, the barns around here have a “Mail Pouch” ad emblazoned on the side, but not an elephant. Recently, I was looking in a book Westward of ye Laurall Hill when I stumbled upon a picture of the barn. The author Helen Vogt drew the photo in the book, w hich focuses on Washington, Greene, and Fayette counties during the period of 1750-1850. There it was on page 327, in a chapter titled “Horse Racing - Red Fox Chasers - Picture Barns - Horses.” She maintains it was painted for the Triangle Oil Company, ca. 1940. “Another weathered grey barn at the side of the National Road west of Scenery Hill has the rather startling painting of an elephant
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