She Kept A Parrot
A Journal For Charlie
The Fuzzy Foto
A MOTHER’S KEEPER
For a long time, I’ve wanted to have a place to put photographs. Just odd photographs that don’t fit into my blog. The other night, I decided to create a drop-box file for my favorite photographs. About two-o’clock in the morning, I hastily created The Fuzzy Foto. If you’re interested, I’ll be dropping my fuzzies and an occasional sharp one into the Fuzzy Foto box. My mother’s urn that sits on the living room mantle is one of them. I always liked this photo, but I never used it here.
My mother is so much a part of who I am that I am not sufficiently objective to talk much about her. She lived in a separate house across the patio from our house. She lived there for over twenty years before she died. Our life together is a long and, I think, an interesting story that I might be able to tell in episodic fashion. I will think about how to do that. It is not an easy story to tell.
Mother wanted the two of us to have a portrait. That was a few years before she died. This is a photograph of the print on canvas that hung in her house. She liked it. I smile every time I look at it because I can hear my dad saying, “Wait until your mama puts on her hat!”, every time we left the house. That’s what he called the outrageous wig she wore because she thought she didn’t have enough hair. This was a particularly awful one. Her hair was fine like a baby’s hair and as white as the wig … the resemblance ends there unfortunately. During the last years of her life, I cut her hair very short and dispensed with the hat. It was pretty hair. I am sorry that I lost all of my snapshots of her when my computer crashed a few years ago. I remember them, but I no longer have a print record.
I called her “Lucy”.
49 Comments on “The Fuzzy Foto”
Comments
She Kept A Parrot 
Having a place for Fuzzy Fotos sound like a capital idea – I’ll have to check them out. Old photos have a way of getting to me – how about you? If they’re of folks I never met that’s one thing. If they’re old photos of folks I did know – and who have passed away – I always feel like I’d like to talk to them once more … you know, to tell them how I’m doing, and to ask the same of them. I always think, if I had the chance to speak to those who have passed, that I’d surely come up with the cliched thoughts … such as ‘I never really told you how much I appreciated you.’ Perhaps I’d be better at thinking on my feet if I had the opportunity. I’d better stop there – suffice it to say that your Fuzzy Foto idea is a good one. Thanks again for all of your attentions at Pairodox. I’ll be sure to check the Fuzzies! D
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Lovely photo of the 2 of you. I look forward to meeting Lucy again
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nice..I like the name Lucy, it makes me think of I Love Lucy, which always made me smile….
🙂
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Thanks, Gail. I still call her “Lucy”. I also use it as a term of endearment for people whom I like! So I suppose you are a “Lucy” too! 🙂
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now, that really makes me smile 🙂
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Love this story, George. So sorry about the photos. I’m still sad about accidentally erasing all of the photos of the first mother/daughter trip that Bea and I ever took just the two of us–to the Southwest.
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But you and Bea have the pictures in your heads. That’s some consolation. I do too. That’s really all that matters to me. Thanks. I guess it takes a loss or two to inspire us to back up!
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Oh, yeah! I load pictures onto my computer, and back them up on a Time Machine. This last time, after doing that, I took the memory chip to a camera store and had them copy it all onto a couple of DVDs. Then I am keeping the memory chip and using fresh ones, so I also have the photos on the chip. That seems extreme, I know, but I am not taking any chances on losing all those precious memories. The photos often trigger memories for me, and help me remember, and I want them to do the same for my kids and grandkids too.
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I would enjoy reading more about your relationship.
I am finding that writing about adventures with my children dredges up other long forgotten stories. Like cairns on the trail, these stories can mark what the lost pictures cannot.
Sometimes relatives may have photos to let you scan as well.
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OMG! I thought it was a hat until you ….. It looks like a hat.
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Ha Ha. That’s precisely what my dad called her wigs. She had better looking wigs, but doncha’ know she’d pick this hat for the portrait. Poor Lucy. I shouldn’t shame her like this. She loved her wigs so I did too. 🙂 A perfect example of how we never stop embarrassing our children! 🙂
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It is a precious thing indeed to have experienced a love like that with your mom. I would love to read your stories about her.
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Thanks, Colline. She was a remarkable woman. Aren’t all mothers? 🙂
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A wonderful post, George. I just love seeing this photograph of you and your mother. I’ll look forward to reading more about your story. Do you have pictures of your mother when she was a young woman? What color was her hair before it was white?
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It was brown, I think. I only have one photo of her when I was an infant in her arms. I think I posted it. I lost all of my photos. She refused to be photographed for most of her life. Me too. 🙂
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Thank you, for dropping by my blog. I loved this post.
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I enjoyed my mom so much that the “hat” endeared her to me! You understood. Thank you.
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I think she is simply beautiful. (I treasure my mom) and p.s. I had to re-follow your blog! I wondered why you disappeared….
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Other people said that too. I dunno. I figure WP discriminates against old people.
Thanks. She was a beautiful lady. She reminded people of Queen Elizabeth. I certainly did not. Ha Ha!
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I like to say that fuzzy photos are my specialty, even when I’m not trying! Love the “hat” story, the important thing is it made your mother feel good, even if it was eye-rolling for everyone else. My mother occasionally wore a wig, but she was into wearing real hats to church. I thought some of them were crazy, others beautiful. I sort of miss those hat-wearing days.
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You’d look wonderful in a hat. Join a black church and you can wear one to everything they do! Miss Sarah paid big bucks for her hats. I’m going to do a post on her one day. I have a couple of hilarious photos of her in her hats. I love the bling that black women carry off so damn well. I’d look the fool…
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I used to visit a black baptist church when I lived in the DC area in my single days. Talk about having some style! Loved it.
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Dear George, I am so sorry about the lost photos. My husband once accidentally erased a whole trip that my daughter and I took–our first really big mother/daughter adventure– to the Southwest, thinking that he had backed it up. Since that time I don’t even erase a memory card until I have it on my computer AND on a disk. I love the photo and the story, and look forward to your fuzzies too!
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Beautiful photographs… I am so sad for the pictures that you lost… I hope and wish you can find some of them. Thank you dear George, love, nia
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LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
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Thanks, Rosy. I did love that Lucy! We had such fun too. The portrait is comic, but she liked it so I did too! 🙂
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Priceless nostalgia Photographs. those photos tells a lot drama and stories. Cheers Nonoy Manga
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Hi, Nonoy! I always recognize you from your clever Gravatar. Yes, I loved that Lucy. There are many tales in that urn. I’ll get around to telling some of the stories one day. Thanks for coming by! I appreciate you.
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Love the picture George; it looks like she was a very sweet and inteligent woman.
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She was. And interesting too. Aren’t we just gorgeous! I laughed at that thing. She liked it though. Can you believe I wore those glasses? I can’t either. Thanks, Pablo!
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I know how it feels to lose those precious photos. At least you have this one, hat and all 🙂 Look forward to seeing the Fuzzies George 🙂
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And, besides, I’m so lovely too. Man! We were a comic duo in that one. She loved it though so I loved it right along with her. As I did everything else she enjoyed…except the newspaper. She thought I was irresponsible and illiterate because I wouldn’t read the local rag of a newspaper in our town. She went into by-pass surgery at ninety (on a nitro drip) talking about the upcoming election and family violence problems in the country! She was something else. I like my Fuzzies. 🙂 I’m laughing about that too. Faked out a few real photographers who wasted time checking it out. 😉
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You are wicked 🙂
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🙂 🙂
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Ah! The nightmare of everyone, a computer crash is so unfortunate. I hope you keep your files in several places these days.
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Mozy in the cloud. And a backup drive. You don’t like my urn composition? ha ha, Victor! I got one approval out of you. That has to be some kind of record from the master. I knew you’d like the trumpets and the walkway since it was decently composed. You KNOW how I pay no attention. I snap what my eye sees and I like close-up detail. Tell me when you see something that works, please. I don’t mind if they don’t work technically. I do forget though. I laughed at the crooked bunch of trumpets on the crooked corner of the pergola. That was about the worst composition I ever saw! I posted because I liked the blossoms! I’m incorrigible and shameless too, you know! I think of you every day and wonder what in the world you’re getting into! Behave and focus the OCD on having a helluva good time! 🙂
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You were fortunate to have had her for all those years. And that you had this portrait made.
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I was one lucky daughter. We had such fun along the way. And, this comic photo. Lord, Jonel, it’s just awful, but she loved it. I’m just shameless enough to post it. Neither of us is photogenic, but this was particularly ridiculous looking. I can’t believe the GLASSES. Did I really wear that? 🙂
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I’ll definitely be checking out The Fuzzy Photo. 🙂
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Hi, Lori. How have I been AOL from your funny and clever place? I gotta get on over there! Your profile photo reminds me of a gorgeous movie diva sitting with The View girls for an interview. Look at it. You look exactly as if that’s what you are doing! Gorgeous photo. Just like mine with lucy… 😉
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(grinning from ear to ear) 🙂
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I Love Lucy 🙂
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Me too…hat and all. None of my family told me how gorgeous either of us looked. I really can’t understand it… Lord, how ridiculous, but she loved it so I did too. I’m not surprised to hear you day “I Love Lucy”. It would be you who thought of it, of course. You are just too clever. I thought about you and your mom on her birthday. I bet that was fun knowing how good you are at having fun! She’s a lucky mother!
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Awwwwwwww, Thank you 🙂 We did have fun 🙂
I just love that picture of you and your Mom…there’s just something about it…I’m really glad that you posted it…I’ve been busy this week, getting a bit party together for my HUSBAND’S birthday, which we had Saturday…
I told my daughter that I had lost all of my “GO” by the time Friday rolled around…so no posts…..but we had fun and now I’m going to get back to having fun with you all 🙂
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Good! Have I missed the book?
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I need to check with Amazon…if not available now…just a few more days 🙂
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Hot Dog!! 🙂
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I didn’t want to post that awful picture, but Lucy liked it so I posted it. She did have wigs that looked like real hair. Lord knows why she got that hat on for the photo. I never printed my photographs for some reason. So, they are lost. I’m glad you liked the photo. She would have been pleased. She was two months shy of ninety-six when she died. We had a good time together for years.
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That is very sad, that you lost all your pictures when the computer went down… But certainly some were printed… and others were sent to friends and family. It would be good if you could recover some of them. I like this photo of you and your mother very much. The wig does look inappropriate. I’ve known quite a few women who wore wigs, but one has to learn how to match them to the person… Your smile in that picture looks delightful.
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