8/29/14

Contrary to what many people might have expected, Monique was actually more than happy to borrow mother-in-law Elizabeth's fur wrap for the Thatchy Mound Golf Club Dinner Dance. But the hood would have to come off...

After this badminton training session with Steffi, Edgar found out the hard way just how long the stem was on his favorite pipe. He had no idea he'd ever have that much of it in his throat!

After their piping hot pizza arrived at the dorm, Jim, Gene and Freddie set out to prove to one another which of them had the tongue most scorched from the steaming sauce and cheese!

A happy time for most people, Petey found Easter to be a strangely threatening experience,especially when he was told to wait at home base during the Dippelman Shopping Center Easter Egg Hunt while the younger kids got a head start...

Scamp was never one to pose for photographs until his owner Velma, a leather craftswoman, began concocting various smart-looking harnesses for him to model. From that point on, he was never too far from a camera.

File photo from a very rare 1960s experiment with backseat, kid-friendly airbags, which didn't end up working toward protecting youngsters, but did make volunteer Judith Ann happy that she'd offered to test them.

8/27/14

Yes, there were plenty of sneers and jeers and attacks on his manhood, but Theo didn't need to prove anything to anyone by bagging a ten-point buck. He was fully content with the miniature ram he'd caught in the backyard...

The blizzard of '46 kept many a child at home and out of school, but Shirley Jane was industrious and, with the help of faithful Scout, was able to arrive at the classroom every morning on time by way of "dog-sled."

Barbara had bellyached so much during the school board inauguration about Cliff and his inferior education policies that finally he turned on her and told her to call someone who cares. So, wasting no time, she did!

Though it didn't look from the size of her packages that it was going to happen, Inez' fondest birthday wish was for a new, lower-pile rug that offered less resistance against the legs of her walker.

Until such time as Davey took his nap as instructed, Mandy threatened him with a face full of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee at the supper table. Unfortunately, as time wore on, he began to look forward to it!

It wasn't that Virginia and Ozzie didn't appreciate their son Greg's gift of new artwork. It's just that they worried whether the black frame dominated their living room wall and, perhaps, clashed with the already crowded display of floral plates.

8/25/14

Meredith had already burned through four prior accompanists who didn't seem to understand the tempos she was going for in her set of American folk standards and, frankly, it looked as though Dolly wasn't going to make the grade either!

Being raised in captivity among the surprisingly-advanced Chippewa tribe wasn't quite the horror that Roger expected. The only real down-side was the headache that came after a Friday evening social filled with tom-tom drums and cigar smoke.

Brett reveled in the fact that he was top salesman of Polaroid film at Irv Finkelman's Camera Shack. What he never revealed was how adeptly he demonstrated the wonders of instant photos by taking select customers into the back room for a quick flash!

And so it was that Mr. & Mrs. Topplemeyer bought the story of how the slide in the backyard pool "just broke."  That is, until the day when they got these pictures back from the shop of Cliff, Fallon and Laila's little display of horseplay the day of the breakage...

The first day of school for Enrique held every promise of being spectacular, for he not only had a fresh body wave in his mullet and a new jacket from the Victory Tour collection, but he also had won a lucky rabbit's foot at the recent St. Angelo Festival!

While Mopsy and Flopsy presented absolutely no issues at all, Carol was left with no choice, but to cover the love seat in plastic thanks to Bud and Sprinkles...

8/22/14

And so, though it took ages to develop before anyone found out about it, Mary Ellen performed the very first recorded "photo bomb" during this serious shot of Stanley, third assistant lifeguard at Salty Ridge Beach.

The birds could sing all they wanted to and the sun could peek out to its heart's delight, but Sally had no intention of emerging from her tent until her curlers had dried and she could greet the world in her own usual, spectacular fashion...

Unable to speak, Clarissa couldn't warn her family of the abominable two-footed creature heading their way at the wedding. Fortunately, it merely turned out to be the mother of the bride in a particularly odious confection of a dress.

Harold hollered for all three of the kids to look into the camera and express their true feelings about the above-ground swimming pool he'd assembled that morning.

Having perused the Sunday TV program supplement thoroughly, Herbert informed Evelyn that there was absolutely nothing on worth watching and that they'd better figure out something else to do that evening!

Knowing that Judy had a pair of the largest ears her parents had ever seen, they took her to the zoo in an effort to make her feel better, but when she removed the bonnet, even Lucy the elephant was stunned and felt puny by comparison!

8/20/14

Although Eloise was handling the incoming call load to Tomlin & Associates pretty well on her own, it still rubbed her the wrong way that her coworker Madge chose to read Peyton Place while on the clock.

Bonnie Rae enjoyed showing off her new curly-que for a quick photo until the pull cord on the retractable window shade caught hold of it and jerked her up near the ceiling!

Celeste was having a whale of a time rifling through the "gay cafe curtains" (on sale for a buck apiece) until she overturned the wrong one and there was Christopher all wrapped up inside one!

When Sandra's husband was designing her dream kitchen, he was smart enough to install a window over the kitchen sink to accommodate her bullet bra as she did the nightly dishes.

Robert Knievel's mother took a moment to photograph her daredevil son on his new tricycle, never dreaming that this afternoon's folly would ultimately lead him to take the first name "Evel!"

Each of the gals had a different way of enjoying their Trini Lopez albums. Gail liked to follow along with sheet music, Roxanne broke out her guitar and Selma developed her own challenging dance routines.

8/18/14

Richie noticed the sign above the whirlpool at The Shady Culvert Motel which read TOPLESS BATHING PROHIBITED and figured he ought to hedge his bets just in case!

Holly Marie was so pleased that Mort offered to watch little Jack in the evening while she resumed her position as chief cocktail waitress at The Salty Barnacle and knew that he'd phone her there if anything went wrong...

In hindsight, one of the greatest decisions Larry ever made was installing an in-ground swimming pool and taking an early retirement while all his neighborhood pals still had to report to the office each morning.

Lynda had perfected the art of looking happy and natural each time a car drove by as she dragged Mrs. Nusbaum over to her family's five and dime store prior to opening in order to force her to unlock the safe!

It was at this precise moment of the family reunion, when she was shown her remote seating assignment, that Hilda realized just how little her husband Lawrence's family cared for her...

No sojourn to Gatlinburg's Christus Gardens was complete without an overnight stay at Dos Jesus Moter Lodge and Cheese Barn as Rita knew from years of experience.

8/15/14

Adelaide's first day back to school was bittersweet for even though she loved getting to see all her classmates and taking part in recess activities, she also knew she'd miss hanging out at home with her little brother Benjamin...

When hiking in the Pabst Mountains, Charmaine always found it a little easier going up than coming down, possibly because her friends usually celebrated reaching the top by cracking open a case or two of beer!

Mr. Shetpantz had had no luck keeping the neighborhood children off his lawn, so he tried a new tack... allowing them onto the property and then popping out suddenly in his trusty Sickie the Clown costume!

Patrice was really taken aback by the surprise baby shower that her fellow tellers at 6th/4th Bank threw for her during an extended lunch hour, especially because to her knowledge she wasn't even pregnant! The next day, she headed to Victory Lady Spa to price memberships.

It wasn't until the roll of film with this snapshot on it came back that Mrs. Hackel finally figured out why little Ella's clothes were always yellow-tinged and covered with spots of gray every time she went to her bridge club and left the baby with her husband Carlton and his brother Winston.

In the end, Alice had experienced such a memorable time at The Mad Hatter's tea party that she opted to come back the following week and help him set up for a garage sale....

8/13/14

The arrival of little Trina into The Bitmore's home caused no small amount of consternation for Bertram, who, in only one of his many trials, lost a favored spot on his owner's lap. As a result, Trina's mother was left to wonder why her newborn somehow always seemed to wet herself on the outside of her baby clothes!

The eleventh time proved to be the last straw for Chip as he was forced to listen once again to how Jerry almost caught the foul ball that Catfish Hunter knocked into the stands at Oakland-Alameda Coliseum...

Though Gypsy intended from the start to share her birthday cake with her owners, the darn thing tasted so good that by the time she'd finished her first three bites, all that remained was the little ring of frosting around the perimeter of where the layers once stood!

Though it had been on his "bucket list" for years, when the day finally came for Allan to venture out into the Bronzed Hills Nudist Colony, he was beyond tentative (and suffered from two pulled biceps the following morning!)

All the delicious Christmas treats and all the delightful gifts in the world couldn't get Sherilyn to shake off the feeling that something amiss was brewing behind her back between her husband Mike and her mother Trixie.

Though the occasional visitor might scoff or sneer, Howie thought his decision to mask the TV antennas by placing them inside a deer statuette was sheer genius!  And after all, it was only in the summer months, when tree foliage was at an all-time high, that he had any trouble picking up channel 5.

8/11/14

On those rare days when neither Sabina nor Adelaide was grounded, Grover wound up having to share the garden swing with both of them, leaving precious little room on the seat...

Shown here with their owner Thom are Wolfie and Tag, on that tentative, yet hopeful, night prior to the experimental surgery that would ultimately separate the first recorded Siamese dogs.

It wasn't enough that Red ate dollops of peanut butter in front of Bartley without sharing any, but his breath reminded the dog of it all evening. A later series of incidents in which Red's socks had the toes chewed out of them was unrelated...

One of Ben's favorite pranks was sneaking up on Tammy while she was reading The Exorcist and trying to turn her head around 360 degrees.

...And so with considerable trepidation, Lung Yen decided to find out why Gary's swim trunks had been bunching up that way during their afternoon at the beach...

Though he always felt that strong winds had more to do with it, Kelvin's hair was nonetheless blamed for knocking over one of the new fiberglass patio umbrellas at Strongwater Falls Community Pool.