Then and Now ,,,,,,,,

I am sitting here listening to some then and now music from freddy fender to some unknowns that are on the radio these days (unknown to me as Freddy Fender is probrably unknown to you LOL)

Listening to all this nostalgia of course puts me in a nostalgic mood so ,,,,,,,
Here are some then pics ,,,,,,,,

Try to figure out who these
"thens" are

compared to the "nows" pictured below.

Ok, pic # 1 is my Dad "Jay" around the time of WWII. He served in the Army in both the European and Pacific theater of operations. The "now" pic was taken shortly before his death a number of years ago sitting next to my Aunt. Pic # 2 is of Judy who is my last most special significant other 8). She is pictured with her twin sister Debby while they lived in South Carolina as Navy brats. Thier Dad was a submariner and mom was just that, thier mom. The "now" pic is of her sitting on the rim of the Grand Canyon where we had lived back in the early '80's in fact our youngest "Ashleigh" was born there.. and just for the record that young lady is entering her third tri-mester with her first. Pic # 3 is moi standing on the porch with my brother Randy and Dad Jay. The "now" pic is, well it is what it is, what more can I say it was a great day. The pic was taken by Ashleigh as her and her husband Dan and I were headed for an island to have lunch. It was a great day.

One more ,,,,,,,

Lets see if I can get the story straight. This picture was taken in 1844 of my Great x ? Grandfather. He had just came to Texas from the Northeast and met his 16 year old bride-to-be. I dont remember thier names right now but the pic. is cool and if not for them there would be no me, and as such no ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

oh, and if you look at the now pics of Judy and I you can see I was always right when I said I had better taste than her. LOL

All roads lead to ,,,,,,,,

well, not Juneau Alaska LOL
As the locals know there are no roads out of or into Juneau. You can drive 40 miles out to Berners Bay which is a really nice drive but then you turn around and come back. Reminds me of when I was stationed at KMCAS in Hawaii way back when. The most exciting thing when I returned to the mainland was being able to get in the car and going somewhere in a straight line forever. 8)
Sort of like last October when my daughter Amanda and her family was moving to Montana. They were selling all thier stuff for the move when I had an epiphany (if you dont know what that is dont worry I am guessing on both the meaning and the spelling LOL just had to use my big word for the day) I thought heck it would cost more for them to replace thier stuff than if I drove it down there and besides I could get out of here for a week or two and drive somewhere.
So, I rented a U-haul (this is called "product placement" which if in the movies would net me big bucks so if U-haul reads this you owe me) trailer, let them load all the stuff they had left into it, grabbed Sammie (7 years old then) and headed for Montana. It weas an amazingly fun trip. Sammie was old enough to stay awake, notice stuff, and talk non-stop for over 2,000 miles. At one point we were driving through the mountains just past Muncho Lake in a pretty decent snow storm. I was driving maybe 35 in 4 wheel drive on a narrow twisted mountain road when we were passed on a curve by a motorcycle loaded with backpacks and one warm looking person. I dont know which was more surprising the fact that a motorcycle passed this big 4x4 truck in a snowstorm or that a motorcycle passed this big 4x4 truck in a snowstorm on a narrow mountain road at midnight. But a great trip that Sammie remembers as much as I do.
Did I ever tell you about my trip down there last July? Amanda's mother was visiting and I showed up unexpectedly and surprised everyone. Well, we were all riding around doing what girls and their mothers seem to like doing more than me, SHOPPING. I dont care if they were spending thier own money, geez, how many stores can you shop in, in a day. So, anyway, I was whining about it and wanting to look at motor homes while down there so between stores Amanda pulled into a motorhome dealer and Sammie and I got out to look while they talked (and planned more ,,,,,,, shopping)
Sammie and I looked at a few and each had our favorites. On the way back to go ,,,,, shopping we stopped in the office to ask about the three we liked best. The two I liked were in the $120,000 range. I use to complain about the price of a nice truck saying it doesnt even have a bathroom, well these had bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms but wow $120k for something on wheels. ( and just think I live in a Mobile Home that sort of like a motor home minus the motor right?)
Sammie asked about her favorite one and I almost fell over at the $379,000 price tag. I turned and saw Sammie heading for the door and asked where she was going. She said "to get your checkbook grandpa and tell mommy I am riding home with you." 8)  Oh the beauty of youth.
Anyway, I digress (another big word), I am in the process of building a 16 x 8 storage shed along side my dumpy mobile. Today Jessica was helping me when she stopped and said what's that.

I answered I wasnt sure so she uncovered it a bit more we uncovered even more and was becoming shocked, amazed, astounded what did we have here It looked like, oh my, it seemed loke (I am so excited I cant type) wow, a baby T-rex. A very well preserved baby T-rex. I told Jessica we had to call in the sceintists, those that work on such things whether they be Archeologists, Anthropologists, or whatever one of those *gists types followed by a PHD in their name. She said why and picked it up. She actually PICKED UP this well preserved baby T-rex. I looked for the well preserved baby T-rex but she had sat it on the fence where it had fallen into the neighbors yard and thier dog got it 8( So now all I have is this impression of a baby T-rex in my yard.

Tomorrow, no wait thats Sunday. Then Monday, no wait thats Alaska Day, well poop, one day soon I am calling those PHD types and telling them about this hysterical (did I spell that right LOL) find in my yard.

I have stopped work on the shed due to this now being an officially declared (by me) Archeological "dig" and historical site.

It's both exciting and a shame because now my garage still looks like this . Oh Hi Ashleigh. She has a nice story about us pulling the engine on Dans truck over on her blog. She forgets to mention that I had ordered pizza's and wings and then went to get Root Beer. When I got back there was Ashleigh standing beside the Meat lovers and Hawaian Pizza's and munching on the wings. Did I forget to mention she ate ALL the wings. LOL

Baby cribs or should I say crib.

Well, it seems that my youngest daughter posted photos of "Inspirational Baby Rooms" last week showing some pretty impressive professionally decorated baby rooms. I was impressed, but then I am impressed by a well built shed so my being impressed probrably doesnt mean as much as her and those that commented were impressed.

The first picture in the series was of a really nice room but what impressed me (and others) was the crib. I (as well as Ashleigh) like old stuff and this crib has an old look to it. She even said that she liked it so much that she would pee her pants to have it.

Well the challenge was made, the guantlet thrown down, I had no choice but to find this crib. I mean, I even asked her if she liked it so much she'd pee her pants in public and she said YEPPERS!!!!

So, I searched high and low, left and right, long and wide, I searched the internet using search engines I havent used in years, sources I had forgotten about, inventories of stores that were as small as one room in backwoods little towns across America. I even searched antique shops and those that shop yard sales throughout the mid-west where antiques are known to pop up. I even tried NASA to see if maybe just maybe, I thought I had hit paydirt by accessing a little known movie set supply house in Hollywood but all was naught. I did find that I wanted and all metal, Sun Bonnet Baby Crib from the 1920's. So all wasnt naught but not far from it.

Well you've heard that ol saying you can find anything on E-bay? Well, guess what, after all that, I was skimming e-bay motors as I do quite regularly and thought what the heck and entered Sun Bonnet Metal baby crib in the main search bar. And ,,,,,,,

What did I see? Well it wasn't 8 tiny reindeer but not far from it at least as far as my excitement meter was concerned.

A 1920 Sun Bonnet All Metal baby Crib sitting right the on E-bay. Not NASA, not Hollywood, not midwest antiques, not yard sales, not even cribs galore located in my mind back in the dusty corner of the last storage room down that last hall, last door on the left. but on E_BAY. Pretty cool if you ask me (was going to put Moi but couldn't speel it) Just pretty darn cool.

One 1920 (90 years old) metal baby crib made by Sun Bonnet sitting in a little antigue shop in Minn. Price wasnt much more than youd pay for a really good quality new one. Shipping? Now thats another story. Probrably could have driven there to get it. LOL Actually shipping was a bit more than expected but not bad afterall it is all metal. But 90 year old metal.

It will be shipped to Ashleigh's place next Tuesday and THIS TIME it is actually going to HER place so I dont have to deal with the box 8).

I had a blast looking for it, was so excited to find it partly because of all the effort doing so and partly because it,,,,,,,, is ,,,,,,,,,,, well ,,,,,,,,,,,, just plain ,,,,,,,,,COOL. And I know the kid will enjoy it just as much.

I told her there is one string attached to it. When she is done with it, it will be put away and kept in the family only. Afterall it's starting out as 90 years old with us so we may as well see it when it's 100 years old or Sammies, or Taylors, etc. child can use it when it is 110 years old. Kinda cool, dont cha think..

I AM SO STOKED !!!!!!!