Sepia Saturday #165 The More the Merrier

This is our latest prompt photo for Sepia Saturday. Wow, what a tiny little family this is. Mother, Father and only one child. It made me think of some photos in our archives, of families with a few more members.

Now this is what I'd call a normal size family. Mother, Father and 5 children. How perfect.

This family was probably trying for a dozen, but only got 10.  What a tired mother and father. And the children don't look too happy either. Except for the boy second row, left. I'll bet he went on to lots of success. Although, it's been scientifically proven that the oldest child in a family usually has the highest IQ. The oldest boy has a suit on and looks like he could have a high IQ, but his happy brother looks a lot more self assured.

This family believes in "cheaper by the dozen". And I think having this many children killed off the mother. She's not anywhere in sight. And the father looks as if he's reaching for his gun and saying, "I'm coming Elizabeth!"

Polls have been done asking people how many children they'd like to have. The average seems to be 2.5. Don't ask me how you get 1/2 of a child. And an article I read said that the trend currently is for larger families - of say 3 children. Huh? You call that large?

When I see families of the size of the one above, I always wonder how they possibly could feed that many kids. Especially if you don't have much money. It seems as if KFC and Kraft Foods have the answer:

And if they can't afford these super sized items, they might try this, the perfect solution for large families.



No problem. Whether 2.5 or 11 kids, they're not going to go hungry.

Check out other family photos whether big or small here:  Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday #164 Turtle Vs. Duck

Our prompt photo this week shows a soldier and his pet turtle. When I was growing up, I didn't have a pet turtle. But my sister, Barbara did. She had one of those little turtles that you win at the county fair.

She loved her turtle...and I was jealous. Why didn't I have a pet turtle? But that was soon remedied. I didn't actually get a pet turtle, but I did get a pet.

Remember when I wrote about our babysitter Ann? The one that I was a flower girl in her wedding? I was about 5 at the time. I got to wear a beautiful long dress with a big sash. It was my shining moment (until I asked the bride where the bathroom was right in the middle of the ceremony!). Barbara was jealous that I got to wear the pretty dress, so my mother had to make one for her too (can you tell there was a bit of sibling rivalry between us?).

Here we are on the big day ready to go to the church:

After the wedding Ann presented me with a gift (she probably purchased it before the wedding, before I asked about the bathroom!). And now I had my pet. It wasn't a turtle, it was a duck, it was none other than Donald Duck.

You can see Donald situated among some other favored toys. But Donald was my new pet. He was my favorite. And guess what? I still have him. He's about 66 years old now. But I still love him. He was my first pet after all.

Now I have a pet dog named Tootie. Tootie and Donald are a little jealous of each other, as most pets are. But they manage to coexist.

Here is 66 year old Donald:

He's aged pretty well. A few scratches of the paint, but still bright-eyed and happy.

He loves to drink from Tooties water dish:

and read books

He and Tootie like to look wistfully out the window

and explore the yard together

even take rides in the car

After a long day, Donald likes to be tucked in and ready for a good night's sleep. He is 66 after all.

Barbara's turtle died at a very early age. But I still have Donald. Who's the winner of this sibling rivalry?

Check out other turtle/soldier/pipe stories here Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday #163 Snow Job

On another Thursday afternoon (Tony's previous post), a meeting of the Southern California Chapter of Sepia Saturday bloggers met for their first annual awards ceremony.

The distinguished panel consisted of Sepians Nancy Javier, Barbara Finwall and Helen McHargue. 

Our gala event was held at Magee's Tavern and Pub in Fallbook, California.

Our award winners were all shamelessly Sepians. Thus, the Snow Job.

Here you see Nancy awarding "Best Blog" to Barbara of Banar Designs, Barbara awards
"Even Better Blog" to Nancy of Ladies of the Grove and Nancy awards "Supreme Blog" to Helen of Guacamole Gulch. We decided that the quality of our blogs deserved our own respect and admiration. 

As we drank our Bass Ale, we toasted Alan and Tony and thanked them for initiating Sepia Saturday awards and giving us an excuse to wile away a Thursday afternoon drinking and laughing.

We hope this will spur on more regional visits of other Sepians and look forward to their awards ceremonies.

For more snow stories see Sepia Saturday.