#5 of 52 : EILEEN STEINER, MAUREEN MUELLER, & JOSEPHINE MUELLER

External Photo Clues:
Printed on “KODAK VELOX PAPER”

Imagine:

Photo taken by Imogene Steiner, age 9

When I was 6, my father was killed in an industrial accident.  My mother, Eileen Steiner, received a settlement from his employer plus a life insurance policy payout.  Although we had plenty of money to live on our own, she decided to move us in with her two older sisters, Josephine and Maureen Mueller.  She was too sad to stay in the house we’d shared with my father, and too scared to raise a child by herself.  Aunt Jo and Aunt Reeney were happy to have us, and we settled into the big old house they rented together.  The sisters had grown up on a farm, but their parents had died long ago and they sold the farm for a tidy profit, so although we weren’t rich, we were always comfortable.

The house we lived in was a lovely old Victorian place, but the landlord was terrible at keeping up with repairs, so there were a lot of issues.  But we all loved the house so we put up with it.  That changed the evening the landlord cornered Aunt Reeney in the alley behind the house and made a pass at her.  She refused his advances, so he gave her a black eye and a split lip.  Aunt Jo got a strange look in her eye and said she would take care of it.  Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 5 →

#4 of 52 : LARRY AND DARLENE

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
“Mule” stuck fast. Larry hated it and his friends were never bold enough to drum up his sister’s nickname in front of him, but Larry knew that was what the town was calling her. It could have been worse and he supposed there was at least a little bit of sympathy that passed when the name left their snickering lips. They all knew that Darlene wasn’t always like this, a five year old child in a twenty-two year old body.

But he stuck by her all the same. Even after high school ended and his friends left for big cities or for the 17^th Parallel in Vietnam, he stayed with her. Even when the old vets threw him sour frowns when word got around he’d asked for a draft exemption, he stuck with her. He did it because he owed her a debt for the one night when it was Darlene that had stuck with him. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 4 →

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:

Box 3, Photograph #16

Always the life of the party, this is a photograph of Lorne Hughbert doing his best Red Skelton impersonation.  I took this on the evening of December 31, 1958 at my New Year’s Eve Party celebrating the ringing in of 1959. We were in the basement room at my home on Chautauqua Avenue.  Lorne attended the party with my friend Paul Noth, who is in the dark suit, laughing along.  At midnight the boys pretended to dance a tango together, Lorne with a long silk rose in his mouth. Everyone laughed at the antics of these confirmed bachelors.

Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 3 →

External Photo Clues:
PrintStamp – 6/54

Imagine:
“And that,” Ava dealt the photo onto the Duncan Phyfe tabletop like it was the final card in a high-stakes game of Twenty-One, “is a reeeaaal Southern agriculturalist, taking a fine-weather day from his crop-tending to catch some fish!  He was so kind to let us take his picture, would you just LOOK at that cane pole?”  She peered over her reading glasses at her bridge group assembled around the table.  They stared intently at the photograph as though it were unlocking the mysteries of life and they should take care to soak in every bit of magic it had to offer them.  It was Ava’s turn to host, she had made the refreshments, and they were determined to act interested.

Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 2 →