This is the latest picture that I have on my desktop. It is usually Botticelli's work "The Birth Of Venus." Would you believe that way back in the 30's-40's they used to have a "clock man" at Marshall Fields in downtown Chicago? He was always setting and checking and winding the old clock. How cool is that? My grandparents and parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, even me and my family (for a short time) lived in Chicago for decades. Both of my parents families owned businesses down there. My mother's parents owned a glass shop and business on Lincoln Avenue for years and her family (which consisted of 5 girls) lived above the shop in an apartment. All the girls learned how to work on glass as they grew up. My father's family owned a variety/toy store. I'm not sure what street it was on but they had a separate residence I believe. Anyway, I always look closely at vintage Chicago pictures with any people in them. Could they be related to me? Chicago history is one of my passions. I even published a book when I was in art school containing all kinds of old family pictures. My grandfather was in a barbershop quartet, my grandmother was in the Sweet Adelines, my great grandfather was a good humor man, and my Great Aunt Clara was a nanny for the Fields family that donated the lions to the Art Institute of Chicago. There is all kinds of bizarre and fascinating facts about my family and their relations to the city of Chicago. I was born in my house in my room on Monticello Ave., on purpose. Then we lived next door to our cousins while we were small and for a few years before we moved out to the suburbs. Do you have any fascinating family facts? What's on your desktop right now? Is it something you love or just a computer logo?
7 comments:
Hey, I just realized that I see the O of the Oriental Theater Sign in this photo, so cool.
On my work computer that I primarily use, I have the yawn-O Windows logo. On the "boys" computer downstairs, it's a picture of our really cute puppy after a haircut because we let his coat look like a Rastafarian.
Hmm, interesting family facts-
My great Uncle Ernie Waxman was Paul Simon's childhood piano teacher.
My dad's side of the family were famous puppeteers, worked on the Electric Company and other PBS shows back in the 1970s.
That is so cool Martha. Paul Simon's piano teacher? Even moreso, puppeteers? It's so interesting to me what interesting family facts people have to share. Thanks Martha!
My laptop opens with a delightful picture of the beach--taken on the steps of the beach house we rented last summer. Almost like I could walk right down and put my toes in the sand.
My family? Just good ol' country folk form the NC coast...may or may not be a pirate in there somewhere, but I'd never tell!
I'm fascinated by family history! What an amazing story you have, Val!
My beloved dog simba is on my desktop, same shot as my avatar, actually.
And I loved the line about how you were born at home on purpose. I was the first of four children and the only one born in the hospital - I grew up thinking it was normal to have babies at home and not good to go the the hospital. (My mom had a bad expirience with me, hence home birth.) Give me a doctor and pain meds if I ever give birth, tho!
Hey CW,
My mother also had a bad experience when she had my sister in a hospital which is why she wanted to have me at home. Seems back in those days, the hospitals called all/most of the shots when it came to when you could see/breastfeed your baby, who could visit, and they kept making my dad leave my moms room. She then decided to have me at home. It was an assisted birth with the Chicago Maternity League. Having had a baby by section and no choice to do it otherwise, I would soooo love to at least have a vaginal birth, no meds sounds fabulous after you have had every med in the book and it makes you feel worse than no meds/vag birth. Think I'd like to be at a birthing center at least, near a hospital, just in case?
I have "The Birth of Venus" in my bathroom and as a magnet on my fridge--love that painting! I saw it in person when I studied abroad in Italy, ahhhhhhh. Take me back!
I have the "little Buddha" pic of Bean as my desktop background.
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