Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Were You Doing in 2001?

I know I did stuff in 2001, but how much of it will I remember for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge tonight?

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Do you recall what you were doing in 2001?  Family, school, work, hobbies, technology, genealogy, vacations, etc?

2.  Share your 2001 events in your own blog post or in a comment on this blog post, or write a Substack post, Facebook Note, or post in some other social media system.  Please leave a comment with a link on this post so others can find it.

Well, at least now I know how Randy is able to give so much detail about events from many years ago.  I, however, have never written a newsy annual letter, for Christmas or Chanukah, telling everyone what I was doing during the year.  And my recollections are pretty scant.

In 2001 I was living in Oakland, California.  I bought the house and moved into it in 1993, so by 2001 I was pretty well settled.  I think I had four pets:  Cody (dog), Kirby (dog), Hank (cat), and Sassy (cat).  I may have still had a housemate.

I was working at the Seismological Society of America (SSA).  My business card said I was the Junior Web Geek, but I don't remember what title I came up with for Publication Assistant.  The latter meant that I copyedited Seismological Research Letters, the monthly journal that was less of the hard science and more news and history, and I did administrative work for it and for Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, which was hard science, physics, geophysics.  Junior Web Geek meant that I assisted our contract computer person with maintaining our online presence.  I also helped with general administrative work in the office and at our conferences.

I do recall that our annual conference that year was held in San Francisco to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  I don't think I stayed at the hotel, but rather went back and forth every day from Oakland into San Francisco.  I distinctly remember taking BART at way too early in the morning on April 18 to be at Lotta's Fountain for the annual ceremony held there in remembrance of the quake.  I dressed in my finest vintage attire from the period and wore it for the rest of the day.

I might have attended one or two conferences during the year related to my work at SSA.

I was at work on September 11.  I don't remember how we learned what had happened.  I think we found a television and were able to watch some coverage.  When I went home, every TV station was showing replays of the same films from CNN except the Food Network, which had a slide expressing sympathy, and Comedy Central, which was airing an episode of The Daily Show with They Might Be Giants as guests.

In gaming, I probably attended GenCon that year, which was still being held in Milwaukee (it wouldn't move to Indianapolis until 2003).  At least I think I was still managing to go at that time.  I might have gone under the aegis of Reaper Miniatures, as I no longer worked full time for a game company.  I probably didn't make it to Origins, though.  I was still going to Strategicon events, so I'm pretty sure I went to OrcCon and Gateway; maybe I went to Gamex.  According to the list of credits I compiled for my own satisfaction, I did editing that year for Citizen Games, Fast Forward Entertainment, Grey Ghost Press, and Hobgoblynn Press and created indices for Alderac Entertainment Group, Reaper Miniatures, and Steve Jackson Games.

I started volunteering at the LDS Oakland Family History Center in 2000, so I'd been doing that for about a year.  My 6-hour volunteer shift was on Saturdays.  I enjoyed helping people with their family history research (and still do!).  And that's all I can think of for genealogy that year.

That's about all I can come up with.  I tried looking through my e-mail archive to see what it might tell me, but I had forgotten that I started my Gmail address in 2004, so it has nothing for 2001.  I think I was still using AOL then, and those messages are long gone, so nothing to look at.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Extreme Weather or Natural Disaster Experiences

Yes, I'm late, but at least I finally have some time to write a post!  I'm trying to catch up on my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges from Randy Seaver and decided to start with weather and natural disasters, from less than a week ago.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)?  In what way(s)?  How did you find this out?  Describe one or more of the extreme weather experiences in your own life or in your ancestors' lives.

2.  Share your information about your or your ancestor's extreme weather or natural disaster experiences in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.

I have previously posted about my family's experience with a hurricane, specifically Hurricane Eloise on September 23, 1975.  Eloise convinced me I much preferred earthquakes to hurricanes.

I had already been through one major earthquake at that point.  My family was living in Pomona, California during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, which I blogged about for the 50th anniversary of the event.

I returned to California to live after graduating high school.  The third major quake I have experienced was Loma Prieta in 1989 (also known as the World Series earthquake), when I lived in Berkeley.  I wrote about that experiene, which I remembered much better than Sylmar, for the quake's 35th anniversary.

Between those two I was in another big earthquake:  the Whittier Narrows earthquake of October 1, 1987.  While it was "only" a 5.9 earthquake on the Richter scale, because it happened in the heavily built environment of the Los Angeles basin, damage costs were fairly high.  Fatalities were low in number.

I was actually at work already when the quake hit.  I used to go to work early so I could leave early for band practice (for The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, otherwise known as the USC Marching Band).  I remember that I felt the earthquake in the office (of the French and Italian Department) and had no question about what was happening.  I could tell that it was pretty strong from what I felt, so I figured it wasn't too far away.  I remember learning that the earthquake occurred on a previously unknown fault, so it came as a complete surprise at the time.

I don't recall any damage at the office or on campus, and we didn't have any damage at the house I was living in at the time.  So I wasn't affected much by it, but I have always remembered that a wall collapsed on the California State University at Los Angeles campus and killed someone.

So that's two natural disasters for my family as a whole and two for me as an individual.  I have not learned of such events for any of my ancestors prior to my parents.

Wordless Wednesday

What Happened in June 1964?

These are three photographs that were developed in June 1964.  The date on photos indicated when they were developed, not when they were taken.  I believe they were taken in front of my family's home in La Puente, California.  The first two are of me, while the third is of me, my mother, and my sister Stacy.

What's that, you say?  You don't see my sister in the third photo?  Ah, but she is there.

If you'll note, my mother looks rather pregnant in the photograph.  And even if these photos were taken in, say, April or May and then developed later in June, that means Stacy is there, because she was born on June 16, 1964 in La Puente.

So this may be the earliest photo of Stacy that my father ever took.  Happy birthday, Stacy!

A Photo of My Mother for Mother's Day

Myra (Meckler) Sellers, Janice Sellers?, Sam O'Connor

It's Mother's Day today, so I went scrolling through the great photo bonanza to find a new (to my blog) and interesting photo of my mother to post, and I came across this one.

As usual, with all the photos taken by my father (and I'm sure my father took it, particularly because it is black and white), it is unlabeled and unidentified.  But I recognize my mother on the left, and I'm now pretty sure it is Aunt Sam on the right.  I think the child looking goofy in the center is me.  My estimate for the year is about 1967.

This kitchen appears in several photographs from the bonanza.  I think it's in our house in La Puente.

The photo appears as though it could be torn on the left side.  As I do not yet have the originals (subtle hint to my sister), I can't verify that.  It's possible that the big white void could be a refrigerator or freezer.

There was probably no occasion or special event.  Sam happened to be visiting and my father simply liked taking photographs.

My mother has something in her hands, perhaps a small box.  Maybe it was some kind of pills, such as aspirin.  She's laughing, as though she thinks it's funny that my father is taking a photo of this scene.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday, Mark!

It's my brother's birthday!  And I've managed to put together a short (random) timeline of photos from over the years.

July 1963

Circa 1964-1965 (with me)

1967 (with me)

1971

1990's

2001 (with our father and sister)

Early 2000's (with our stepnephew)

Circa 2010's

Circa 2010's (with our father)

2016

2018 (with his son, wife, daughter, and me)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

 

New Year's Eve 1968

Among the photos in the scanned photo bonanza I received from my sister, I found some photos that pretty clearly are from at least one New Year's Eve party.  Obviously, New Year's Eve is a great time to post them!

These four all seem to be from the same party.  I'm pretty sure this was our house in La Puente.

This photo is why I think it was New Year's Eve 1968.

This is my mother in what kind of looks like a Gypsy costume.

That's my mother in the middle.  No clue who the other two people are.

Maybe the woman on the left is Aunt Sam?  No idea about the other woman.

And this one might be from a different year.  It looks like New Year's Eve with the hats and the garlands but doesn't seem to be the same mix of people as the other four.  I think this is also in La Puente.

My mother and father are the two people on the left in the front row.
Some of the other people show up in other photos,
but I don't know who any of them are.
Usually my father took photos; I wonder who was
behind the camera for this one!

Christmas 1967 (Maybe)

As I have noted previously, my father did not identify any of the many, many photographs he took.  So while I have been reveling in the photo bonanza that my sister's niece scanned, I am still trying to identify somewhat accurately the photos therein.

I have gotten much, much better at recognizing the people who appear in the photos, including my mother and father when they were significantly younger (although I still sometimes am not sure if a given photo is of my mother or her mother).  But getting the years right is more difficult, I have discovered.

These photos all seem to be around the same Christmas, although I'm not sure about the chronology.  But what year?  My sister Laurie doesn't appear in any of them, so I am pretty sure it is not 1968.  But is it 1967?  I would be about 5 1/2, my brother Mark 4 1/2, and my sister Stacy 3 1/2.  Or is it 1969, and we're all two years older?  I appreciate any insight into our ages and if the order looks right.  And I don't know who two of the people are!  I don't think the little girl toward the end is Stacy, because she's not wearing glasses, but I have no idea who she could be.  And the woman in the next to last photo is a mystery to me.  I think the last photo is our Aunt Sam.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

A Chanukah Past

It's Chanukah!  I cooked a lovely dinner last night:  Italian Chanukah fried chicken and yummy latkes.  The chicken recipe is my riff on one that, if I remember correctly, came from Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar.  It was traditional in Corcos' family for Chanukah.  I can't find my copy of the recipe anymore, so I've been winging it for the past couple of years.  Everyone raved about this year's version, so I have to try to remember how I made it so I can repeat it next year.

Since it's Chanukah, I went looking through my photos for some to post.  The only ones I could find for my own family were these two, which had to have been from 1968, which is when my sister Laurie and her mother, Mary Lou, were living with us in La Puente, California.

According to TimeAndDate.com, the first night of Chanukah in 1968 was December 16 (coincidentally the same date as today!).  So if I'm seeing the candles accurately in these photos, the first one was taken on the evening of December 20 (I see five candles) and the second one on the evening of December 22 (I see seven candles).  Does anyone see a different number of candles?  And that, of course, assumes that my mother did the correct number of candles on the appropriate days.

I can't figure out what the thing is next to the menorah in the first photo.  Maybe some strange kind of tabletop Christmas tree?  Or, as my mother commonly said, a Chanukah bush?

Myra (Meckler) Sellers, Laurie Sellers, Janice Sellers,
approximately December 20, 1968, La Puente, California

Laurie Sellers
approximately December 22, 1968, La Puente, California

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday