"I save everything. The problem is that when I want to find something, I can't."

I'm the same pack rat you are, but I've learned archival techniques from volunteering on such a committee for years...I just have to put them into personal use!

Great pics both of them!!!! You and Karen created three beautiful and wondrous children with your looks and genetics. That's gotta be worth something!

Pearl:

Our three beautiful children are worth... everything.

Karen, so BEAUTIFUL, looks like a 1960's commercial for Breck shampoo. Robert, what are you talking about? You are adorable...with that Mona Lisa smile and big brown eyes...of course Karen fell for you!

Randi:

Just for the record, Karen did not fall for me until sixteen years later. But thanks for the kind words. As for Karen's Breck shampoo look, there's also a bit of Annette Funicello in that flip, don't you think?

yep...she can advertise peanut butter too!

I have to say that my parents took picutres and they are plentiful. But, there is always one picture as a child that you hate, but cant seem to stop laughing at and must preserve. My picture was me and my skinny bones, you can literally see my rib cages, and there I am posing for my mom in a Speedo bathing suit in front of a tree. I was about to go swimming and this would have been the first of a collection of me in bathing suits. Do you know what that does to you when it rotates through my friends, and family? I ended up ripping the picture up about 6 years ago and regret it every time I think of it.
Right now, my son is 2 1/2 y.o. and we keep everything online, neatly preserved. From almost day 1, to date.

Simon:

Too bad you tore up that picture. We'd love to see it.

Those are REALLY good pictures, both of them! : )

Irina:

Thanks so much, we aim to please. Any chance we can get your picture at about this age for our contest?

Sorry, my scanner isn't working at this time... But maybe if you have later contests, I'll be able to contribute! : )

Irina:

Too bad. Thanks anyway.

These are such beautiful pictures. Karen is gorgeous and Robert, you sell yourself short. You were adorable. You have great eyes!

I love pictures. They are worth 1,000 words.

Stacey:

Thanks so much.

I only know a handful of girls who looked so good in eighth grade. None of them were Jewish. I can see why you loved her.

What's w/ her hair, lol? was that the style back then, LOL. Other than that I like her radiant smile and wide mouth, you however look dorky and dim-witted, lol.

Jobber, yes, that was the hairstyle back then. And personally, without taking a general poll, I figure that Robert looks far from dim-witted, contrary to your observation...or joke? There is an acute, if latent, mischievousness in that look of his -- and as we later discover, a brilliant sense of "vision."

Ugh, Jobber, how rude (and how wrong). I would have to believe that you either do not understand the words that you type and or are just plain mean. Both Robert & Karen look adorable. If you cannot see that, then fire your optometrist (and theasaurus).

All the best,
Rachel

Yep, that was the style...Karen obviously knew style and class, even at the young age of 14. And, Robert, the gleam in your eye says it all...you will be an award winning writer with a future blog that will allow all types of people to express themselves...even people who feel a need to lash out. But that's okay...because you got the beautiful girl in the end...and dim-witted people don't usually win Emmys.

Pearl, Rachel, Randi:

Thank you all so much for your kind words and for your eloquent defense.

Karen: a knockout.
Robert: adorable.

Every woman has to speak up when it comes to points of fact of age. I was 13 in that picture. As to my hair, it took hard work, and I mean hard, as in sleeping on rollers, to get that flip. In those days, hairstyles changed every six months. They had names, artichokes, Vidal Sasoons, page boys, page boy fluffs. I have no idea if hairstyles have names today.

Karen, my apologies about the age...you just seem so mature, I assumed you were 14!

Randi:

No problem.

Actually Karen, some hairstyles still have names. Take mine for example: "The Wasteland."

Jake -- I like that. You're on to something there. Contact Vidal Sassoon and see if you could name a few contemporary hairstyles being born in his international salons.

In the sixties, my neighbor used to do my hair for me and finish it off with "kiss curls" -- the equivalent of peyis or sidelocks. In the seventies, I sported a hairstyle that was called "a Gypsy." Where do they come up with these bizarro names, I wonder?

Pearl,

I'm going for a haircut now... it will be the most relaxing 3 minutes of my day.

Being bald is actually okay and sometimes better than okay. Here's a little something I wrote about it for literary magazine this year: http://www.ducts.org/12_05/html/humor/novak.html

So Jake, before I even read your bit, I have to say, "Hair today...gone tomorrow".

I think I have to be afraid too, even though I'm female. Male pattern baldness runs in both the maternal and paternal sides of my family.

This story, and the way you tell it, is so beautiful. I read it and it brightens my day.

Neil:

Always happy to make the sun shine for my friends.

Simon, yes you save everything with the first. But as Erma Bombeck said years ago, it's hard to explain to your third child why the only solo picture you have of her is 8th-grade graduation.

We kept ours out in large rolodex-type holders. There are ten now, each covering about 3 years. They are very useful in reminding children who relatives are just before gatherings.

Robert, though my story is not yours, I certainly understand yours. I fell in love with Rabbi Handler's daughter in 1962, but she moved away.

If you're going to put all this into book form, it's not going to sell unless you can get reviewers to use the word "quirky." If you can manage that, you'll get your foot far enough in the door to get "heartwarming," and "a celebration," and all that good back-cover stuff. So think quirky.

Dear AVI:

Since you are my emissary from the Village of Chelm, I take what you say very seriously. Thus, I am thinking quirky. Quirky. And quirkier still. And yet, I'm not really a very quirky kind of guy. But I will try, oh, yes, I will try.