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Jan. 2nd, 2006 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyOver Christmas I raided one of my Nana's photo albums, encountering wonderful things like this: 
This one's from 1914 or '15, and one of the only pictures of my great-grandfather Oscar and Nana Kinch. Why Oscar's doing an anachronistic W.C. Fields impression, no one knows. The woman on the right with the piercing stare is Edith May Palmer. That's the only thing I know about her. But those eyes! I wish I knew more.
More pics behind the cut:
My grand-uncle Herbert is the little boy in the front seat. He's sitting on the lap of Nana's Uncle Frank, who couldn't look any more like a gangster if he was slugging Dick Tracy.
Mom's high school graduation picture. Damn. Just....damn.
Mom, Nana and Uncle Robert, sometime in the '70s. For the record, this is the funkiest I have ever seen my mother look.
My sister and I, ages 1 and 5. I still have that Bugs Bunny, though the ears are gone and Nana encased him in a protective corduroy 'bodysuit' a few years after this picture was taken.
Me, last year of high school/first year of college-ish.
This one's from 1914 or '15, and one of the only pictures of my great-grandfather Oscar and Nana Kinch. Why Oscar's doing an anachronistic W.C. Fields impression, no one knows. The woman on the right with the piercing stare is Edith May Palmer. That's the only thing I know about her. But those eyes! I wish I knew more.
More pics behind the cut:
My grand-uncle Herbert is the little boy in the front seat. He's sitting on the lap of Nana's Uncle Frank, who couldn't look any more like a gangster if he was slugging Dick Tracy.
Mom's high school graduation picture. Damn. Just....damn.
Mom, Nana and Uncle Robert, sometime in the '70s. For the record, this is the funkiest I have ever seen my mother look.
My sister and I, ages 1 and 5. I still have that Bugs Bunny, though the ears are gone and Nana encased him in a protective corduroy 'bodysuit' a few years after this picture was taken.
Me, last year of high school/first year of college-ish.
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Date: 2006-01-02 10:02 pm (UTC)Were you always so funny or did that develop as you got older? I am curious because Oliver tries to be funny and often fails miserably, while Arthur cracks us up without even trying . . . So far my only recommendation to Oliver is to watch more Marx Brothers. But I am wondering if it is genetic rather than learned?
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Date: 2006-01-02 11:54 pm (UTC)I remember trying to be funny as a kid; mostly what I remember are the times I totally failed, or succeeded accidentally. The first time I remember ever trying to be intentionally funny and succeeding was in 6th grade, when we were all assigned a freestyle two-page creative writing assignment. I turned in a story about aliens freezing everyone on a school bus and trying to make sense of the things they saw going on; the teacher read it to the class, everyone laughed, and suddenly I was The Funny Guy.
Two other big formative things happened that year: I discovered 'The Doctor Demento Show' on the radio and suddenly had a weekly source of parodies and stand-up routines and just plain odd songs; and one morning Lena Murch interrupted me halfway through a story to say, with scorn, "You've told me that before." I was crushed. And for a long time after that I tried really, really hard to NEVER tell the same story twice. (These days, though, I'm an uncle. Uncles are required by law to tell the same story 39 times.)
The thing of it is, there are different kinds of funny, and some can be learned and some are totally inherent. There's storytelling, like
If Oliver's as smart as I think he is, he's already observing what works and what doesn't and moving closer to a style that'll get him laughs. The Marx Brothers is a great idea because of the wide range of comedy styles they do; another thing you might consider is maybe a variety show like, oh, just as a random example, Doctor Demento. You'll see; he'll find something that clicks.
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Date: 2006-01-05 08:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:05 pm (UTC)I love that last pic of you. I *totally* would have dated you in High School.
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Date: 2006-01-02 11:05 pm (UTC)*five minute pause while I consider how little has changed...*
Where was I...oh! It *is* a good pic, though, isn't it? Somehow all the photos from 7th through 10th grades ("The Acne Years") seem to have disappeared somewhere.
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Date: 2006-01-02 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:34 pm (UTC)Must find those albums again next time I go to visit my gran!
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Date: 2006-01-02 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:45 pm (UTC)And your mom's a cutie!
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Date: 2006-01-02 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 11:58 pm (UTC)da-aaamn.
i SO would have dated you in high school. but you're probably a ton cooler now.
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Date: 2006-01-03 01:45 am (UTC)And you're right, man... those eyes in the first picture... just woah.
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Date: 2006-01-05 04:06 pm (UTC)Y'know, I have some theories about that...none of them good, unfortunately.
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Date: 2006-01-03 02:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 02:51 am (UTC)I'm not gonna reveal which t-shirts I *did* have, because I like to believe you respect me. And if I was dumb enough to tell you that my first album was Mr. Roboto, there's no way you'd......d'oh!
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Date: 2006-01-03 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 04:59 am (UTC)(It's Lana in IC guise. I forgot to switch nicks and am being lazy)
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Date: 2006-01-03 02:27 pm (UTC)There's an Edith M. Palmer listed thusly in 1910 (Levant Town, Penobscot County, Maine):
French, Eben P, Head of household, M, W, 54, 2nd marriage, born in Maine, parents born in Maine, occupation: general farmer
French, Alice J, Wife, F, W, 56; 6 children, 3 living; born in Maine, parents born in Maine
Palmer, Edith M., Step-daughter, F, W, 33, Divorced; 4 children, 3 living; born in Maine, parents born in Maine
Palmer, Lanorie A, Step-grandchild, F, W, 11, born in Maine, father English Canadian, mother born in Maine
Palmer, Roy E, Step-grandchild, M, W, 5, born in Maine, father English Canadian, mother born in Maine
In 1920, there is a divorced Edith M Palmer listed in Eddington, Penobscot Cty, Maine, living as a servant with brothers Arthur E and Elmer H Shorey.
By 1930, though, Edith was living with son Roy back in Levant Town:
Palmer, Roy E, Head of household, M, W, 26, M at age 21, occupation: general farmer
Palmer, Mina J, Wife, Wife, F, W, 26, M at age 21
Palmer, Charles S, Son, M, W, 6
Palmer, Byron E, Son, M, W, 4 and 4 months
Palmer, Edith M, Mother, F, W, 52, Widowed (which is a change of tune),
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Date: 2006-01-03 02:52 pm (UTC)How far back do you think some of her pictures go, B?
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Date: 2006-01-05 04:07 pm (UTC)photos
Date: 2006-01-03 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 04:09 pm (UTC)We didn't even know the term "goth"...by dint of being in the drama club I automatically became a Pib, a "Person In Black". My favorite t-shirt was a black shirt with a little white question mark on the chest.
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Date: 2006-01-07 06:15 am (UTC)