I think this is the only time I saw my dad wear a tie at his parents' farm house in Glen Valley, PEI. Gram and Grandpa were not formal people. In fact, Gram still welcomes us with a warm embrace no matter what we wear in off the street! The livingroom in which this photo was taken was rarely used. My cousins and I used to play here after Sunday night dinner and the Wonderful World of Disney. The room was usually cold and dark at that time; the heat of the wood range in the kitchen was saved for where folks usually hung out: around the kitchen table or by Grandpa's couch under the kitchen window.

If my uncles and aunts look somewhat stressed in this photo, it's for two simple reasons: 1) Getting together for a family photo was not something we did very often and; 2) I suspect everyone in this photo knew at the time that it would be the last one with Grandpa. They were right. Here's a snap where everyone was obviously hamming it up a bit.

I'm not in this picture, and I'm not sure why. I asked Dad about it recently. He said I was probably out in the barn with cousin Lynn "getting into trouble". We used to take old tractor tires and climb into them, then roll down the hill from the house to the pasture below. Great fun, and no one ended up in a wheel chair.