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Saturday, January 3, 2009

Photo Memory: First Day of School after Our Big Move

For a Christmas present to my parents, we scanned over 1000 slides from about 10 slide carousels. They covered the time period from my dad's early twenties through my parents' early married life through the births of seven children and continued into the late 1980s when we moved to Utah so my dad could go to law school. 

It has been a blast to me to find photos that we really haven't seen for years. I think in the last twenty years we've pulled out the slide projector and slides about five times. In other words, they've rarely been seen. They are so much more accessible digitally like this. We spent the Christmas holidays watching the two DVD slideshows we made out of all of those slides. 

Here's one photo that marked a huge change in our lives. 



The photo above is from the first day of school after we moved to Utah in the mid-1980s. We had moved exactly six days before this picture was taken. Dad and Mom sold our little farm, packed up the house they had lived in for 16 years and moved their seven children to a different state so Dad could go to law school at the age of 40. They certainly had guts. Or at least a desire for a little adventure? Dad went to school full-time, Mom started working full-time and we all changed schools and friends. We were lucky enough to live with a widowed aunt and her three kids for those three years--all in one house--so there were thirteen people living together under one roof. 

This photo is how I think of us when I think of those first years after our move. Ric and Rus were in high school, Adam and I were in junior high, Matt and Megan were in elementary school, and Brock was just two and still hanging out at home. I was nervous and scared this day to start junior high and also to start at a new school. I'm sure everyone else had butterflies too. We'd left our whole lives behind us in Idaho. The only home we knew, all of our friends, our grandparents and cousins and life on a little farm. Everything had changed. And nothing would ever be the same again. 

I'm still in awe that Mom and Dad had the guts to take such a leap. 

I guess with the new year upon us and thinking about goals and traditions and the trajectory of my own life, I'm hoping that I have the courage to leap towards the stars myself and grab my own dreams, no matter how crazy they might seem. 



5 comments:

Goose said...

Got to love the 80's. I didn't realize your mom worked outside the home when you moved. What did she do?

Megan said...

Not outside the home that first year Uncle Ward, just downstairs in the basement.

I love my look of sheer terror. I remember sitting outside the office that first year while Mom registered Matt and me. The terror must have started early that morning. I'm pretty sure I cried when Mom left me.

Beverly said...

Eden,
I LOVE reading your blog! You are such a great writer! I'm wondering how you scanned the slides - did you guys pay someone, or do it yourselves? So interested, because my parents also have boxes and boxes of slides I'm dying to get a look at! Let me know.
Thanks - Beverly

Cissy said...

I love this picture and I love this memory.

Eric and Rozanne said...

This is exactly how I remember you all. It's fun to reminisce about those fun, carefree days of childhood that we had together hanging out on the trampoline and eating egg salad sandwiches in your kitchen. This marked our transition into the teenage years. Happy New Year!

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