Old Man Winter showed up sometime last night to pay us a call here in Utah. Since last night it’s either been raining or snowing, giving our roads up here in the hills a slushy reason to pull out the old winter boots. It’s the kind of day meetings get canceled, and planned outings to the gym seem hardly worth the effort. We are planning to venture out for a movie this evening–a free pre-screening of Morning Glory (Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton & Rachel McAdams) that is scheduled for theaters November 12. It’s always nice to see leading movie characters nearer our ages with wrinkles and droopy eyelids just like us. (If I think it’s good, I’ll let you know.)
I really don’t mind snowy days the beginning of winter; it’s just later on I begin to cry Uncle, around January and February, when I’m just plain sick of snow and slush and long underwear. Today it gives me a good excuse to get caught up on a few household chores, after which I began digging away at more old stuff stored in the unused cabinets in the bar downstairs. As always, when I get into this kind of busy work I find things I’d completely forgotten, then spend the rest of day getting lost in old memories. And things to move to the donate pile. Naturally I brought up the old photo albums to scan and organize in my picture files. The one I chose to do today were from a farewell lunch (for Hubby from Battelle in Columbus) in February 1993, just before he transferred to Battelle in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We moved to Knoxville a few weeks later.
Now that you regular Wintersong readers have gotten to know Hubby from his guest postings during my cancer treatments, I thought you might enjoy seeing this picture that turned up in that file. It was near the end of lunch where everyone has finished making roasting speeches, and the honoree stands up to thank everybody, then somebody calls out Speech! Speech! And he has to make a speech no matter how much it embarrasses him to be the center of attraction.
Is that not the cutest dimple you’ve ever seen? As I look at it, I think what a hunka hunka burning love! But it isn’t Elvis he reminds me of here. It’s Jon Hamm, who plays Don Draper on Mad Men.
I’m pretty sure I was still his barber that year. For years I pretended to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Not only did I cook and bake, but I cut his hair as well because he insisted he liked my cuts better than the barber’s. (I think it was because I was cheaper!) I had to give it up not long after because arthritis started to show up in my hands and made the task more difficult. So I showed these pictures to Hubby and bragged on my hair cutting prowess. I told him he looked like Jon Hamm (back then). He knows how handsome my next door neighbor and I think Jon Hamm is, so he laughed at me and said something equal to you’re crazy! We were both in our late forties at the time. All of were younger–Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, and I don’t think Rachel McAdams had even been born yet.
So now I’m sneaking this picture into this post just to see how long before (and if) he notices. And hope I don’t get into trouble.
Humm! On second thought, I think he looks better than Jon Hamm. Don’t you think so? ‘Gotta get busy now. There’s three more old albums to scan. Maybe I’ll find some pretty(ier) pictures of me in them…one is our wedding day in 1969. Meanwhile, it’s still snowing.
Back later in the week with another first India impressions post.
My Wintersong 
Better than Hamm and that says a lot because I think Don Draper is gorgeous but the dimple and the way he has his head turned down also helps make him look adorable. Isn’t it amazing how I can look at photographs taken just a year ago and remark how young we look in them! It’s bizarre. But watching Tin grow up by the second it almost makes the passage of time make more sense – we don’t sense we are aging because most of us get stuck at a look – a haircut, a way of dressing, a way of smiling and it doesn’t change that much sometimes for a decade – but if you look at the photos I always have less lines around my eyes and mouth and only one chin (I swear!).
😆 I think it’s funny how I look at my old pictures and think “wasn’t as bad looking as I thought at the time”, yet look at the one taken yesterday and think “yuk.” Next year it’ll look pretty good to me. I compare the 3 pics I have of Tin and see the baby and the boy and hints of the man to come. All the same, yet different people. Where did that baby disappear to? I think that’s why I love looking at old photographs so much.
I love old photos, the people and clothes they were wearing. I also love the photos of the younger generations where I see likenesses to those who have gone before.
So do I, Grannymar. Unfortunately for me, there are NO old photographs of Hubby when he was a child. The youngest I have of him is at age 17. There was a portrait in my MIL’s cottage in Madras (story to come in a later post) of his father as a young adult. It was a dead-ringer for Hubby. I was hoping it might filter down upon her death so that I could get at least a scanned or photo-copy but no such luck. I have no idea what happened to it. Perhaps different cultures have different value systems for things like this. What’s really probably sick, though, is that if I were to come to visit you someday, I’d be so pleased to spend lots of time looking through old pictures you might have stashed around. No wonder my daughter became a psychologist, huh? Still try to figure out her mother.
I’m one of the lucky ones who have seen “hubby’s” dimples in person and your not a kidding. He is a hubba hubby. sue
You’re so sweet to mention it, Sue. We were all in our prime in those Connecticut days and just didn’t realize it at the time!
Love the pictures, especially the first one. And I feel the same way, looking at old photos: I wasn’t so bad looking then. Don’t like to think about now.
Y’know it’s funny Ruthe. When I look at older women (not myself, but others) I look for the young woman inside and most of the time I see her. And she’s (usually–the older version of her) infinitely more interesting! As a child I mentioned that I wanted to be a nice old lady like my great-grandmother. Her reply was that I should begin by being nice at every age. I haven’t always adhered, but I never forgot the advice either. It’s true that you and I have never met, but what I read and see between the lines of your writing is how beautiful you are, and no doubt always were.
Much better than Hamm….but then again, I like beards. Looking forward to the next India post. 🙂
I was thinking about that beard thing and you! I seem to remember a bearded G in many photos in Postcards! Sometimes I tease Hubby that I helped make him the good looking fellow he became. I’m the one who encouraged him to grow a beard in the first place. Except for a very brief period after our first daughter was born and once when he was required to do it in a nuclear plant site to avoid contamination, he’s had one ever since. I still prefer beards on most men.
I’m still scanning pictures of my father, so I understand your enthusiasm for tidying piles. You get a second note because I changed my picture. Let’s see if this works.
Looks like it worked. ? The one I’m seeing is nice.
Great post. I “enjoyed” the same yukky Utah weather right along with you, but had to go to work. I so want to hunt and peck through boxes o’ stuff and organize old pictures and swoon over my cute hubby as you have yours. Someday.
My husband’s current physical condition reminds me more of MAD MEN’S Roger! Have to say I LOVE John Hamm and MAD MEN, too.
I was in the work force in a public relations position in Pittsburgh during some of the period covered by Mad Men. It’s interesting to look back through the series and see how naive we women were. I can’t believe how much sexual harassment I endured without even knowing what it was. I’ve yet to find a female who knows who he is that doesn’t enjoy looking at Jon. Brad’s too young, and so is Jon, but we’re not too old to enjoy eye candy. 🙄