My daughters joined me to visit teaching colleagues on July 2, 1979. They had some sparklers in preparation for the July 4th celebrations. Of course, the girls wanted to play with them. It was getting dark as evening neared. The camera needed a longer shutter speed of a half second or more. The pictures turned out much better than I expected. Sparks flew and burst into small branches before dying out. What fun we had.
In 1985, the Chicago Tribune Magazine ran a photo contest. People were invited to submit photographs with the theme ‘Lines‘. These two pictures came to mind from six years before. I submitted this top photograph in the color category. In October I got a big envelope in the mail from the Tribune with a framed certificate inside. I won second place and $250.
Fast forward to today. These beautiful daughters have children of their own. Some are the same ages as in these photographs. Much has changed in our lives. A few things are the same. I hope they will be able to look back a generation or more and see some of the lines that connect their past to what came about later. I hope they will be lines full of happiness and not much sadness.
Our View From Iowa 
Reblogged this on JAR Blog….
Great picture and wonderful sentiments. My thoughts are that these connections are more likely to occur when their children have flown the coop and they have time to slow down and smell the roses…though I have run into a person here and there who has shown an interest in these type of connections at an early age.
I was just having a conversation the other day about how these connections show up with the things our children do with their own children. When you see them carrying on a tradition that you had with them…it’s a connection. Too many happy lines!
Missed the spelling error and it totally changes the intent…to many happy lines! 🙂
Thank you. I agree about having the time to reflect. One daughter has 5 kids, the other 2. It is non-stop action in both households. Their days will come when things slow down.
The families of my siblings are pretty close. There are lots of traditions and events they remember as kids. They want to continue them for their own kids. Those are good things.
Thanks for you nice words.
Great pictures. . . I can see why you won a prize. The activities related to various holidays can provide the basis for wonderful memories.