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capri0mniA couple of old photos of Mother, that I'd like to preserve, so I scanned them. Unfortunately, neither have any indications of a definitive date. Which I would especially like for the second photo.
Audrey thought that, because that second photo is clearly an official event, the historical information must be around somewhere. And maybe I could try looking online. (What she doesn't realize is that Philipstown, NY has been pretty much run with all the professionalism of a private hobby for the last 130 years, or so...).
Good News: The City does have a website! \o/
Bad News: The dates posted on all city blog posts are from 2009. /o\
What do you think my chances are of talking to an actual human being who can answer my questions, if I try calling the town clerk and asking someone to look up information on something that happened close to 30 years ago?
Yeah... Not getting my hopes up.
That second photo: does it look more like 1980, '88, or '90, to you guys?
Audrey thought that, because that second photo is clearly an official event, the historical information must be around somewhere. And maybe I could try looking online. (What she doesn't realize is that Philipstown, NY has been pretty much run with all the professionalism of a private hobby for the last 130 years, or so...).
Good News: The City does have a website! \o/
Bad News: The dates posted on all city blog posts are from 2009. /o\
What do you think my chances are of talking to an actual human being who can answer my questions, if I try calling the town clerk and asking someone to look up information on something that happened close to 30 years ago?
Yeah... Not getting my hopes up.
That second photo: does it look more like 1980, '88, or '90, to you guys?
no subject
Date: 2012-10-09 03:58 am (UTC)I would think that a place that small would have a better chance of having a human being who would remember. The Julia Butterfield Library (from the official website) might have an older librarian who would help you out.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-09 04:22 am (UTC)It's my mother cutting the ribbon at the foot of a newly-finished wheelchair ramp on the Philipstown Town Hall.
She'd been on them for years about it, because it's the one building where you must go for all city business, and it was absolutely inaccessible to anyone with mobility impairments.
I remember it being quite a bit of a political battle, because city officials were arguing that it's an historical building, and they didn't want to "deface it" with a ramp.
And when the ramp was actually built and finished, Mother was invited to come cut the ribbon.... And they got to congratulate themselves on how progressive and forward thinking they were, in having the ramp built.
(One reason why Mother is grinning so broadly there is that she thought it hilariously funny that the ribbon matched her skirt -- almost like it was planned... the truth is, mother just thought that was her best looking skirt)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-10 03:31 pm (UTC)Well, then you are the person most likely to remember something about it, sad to say. Did you keep journals or write things with dates on them, during high school, where you might have said something about the surrounding kerfuffle? If you spend some time remembering events from that block of years, it might stir up other memories that will frame the event.
I still stand by my dating of the clothes. My dad was a snappy dresser back then, and he stopped wearing his camel coat with the patches and houndstooth-checked polyester slacks prior to we moved houses in 1980. I was 8 when we moved.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-10 06:03 pm (UTC)Well, you know, any good mystery has nearly as many red herrings as actual clues.... ;-) (in this case, actually red).
Unfortunately, I was never the "Dear Diary" type -- I was doing a lot of daily writing, back then, but it was nearly all poems with mythological themes, and short stories with plucky heroines' encounters with selkie and other members of the Fey.
Furthermore, I moved away from my childhood home 16 years ago, and when my dad died six years ago, whatever I couldn't take to fit into this house, or claimed by cousins I kinda know but am not close to (i.e. they would have no knowledge or context for this event, either) was hauled away by a salvage company and burned... my old homework assignments with the lot.
I'm pretty sure this would have been after 1977, since Mother and I had taken part in some of the local demonstration rallies in support of Section 504, and I'm pretty sure she was spurred on by that to start elbowing the town government to get with it and obey what had become national law.
I was 16 in 1980, and part of my memory says that I was, in fact, 16 when this event happened. But another part of my memory includes my mother saying that she had the idea to fold the ribbon before she cut it -- to give it that decorative "swallowtail point" -- from seeing it done at so many other official ribbon cuttings. And the thing is, she went back to college herself, got a degree in journalism, and became a local newspaper reporter/photographer when I was in my twenties.
And the two halves of my memory have been arguing back and forth over whether she attended all those other official ribbon cuttings as a local environmental activist (earlier), or as news photographer (later).
My dad was a snappy dresser back then
Yeah... that's the thing: I don't have much faith that the older gentlemen in this photo could be classified as "snappy dressers." ;-)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 02:00 am (UTC)You were freaking adorable. ♥ And there's definitely a serious brain behind those big Bambi eyes.
*reads other reply thread*
Okay, I was going to say something about how the ribbon and the skirt were the same tartan, but apparently not deliberate. Huh.
I am sure that someone in Philipstown will know when that building got its ramp put in. From a quick googling it looks like a rather small town, even if it calls itself a city. I'll bet you could call city hall and ask if anyone could look up that information.
If not, my next bet would be to see if you can find anyone else who lobbied for the accessibility features, if they're still around, or their kids.
Argh, don't get me started on heritage buildings. There's a hoity-toity neighbourhood in Toronto that was in the news last year because a guy was severely renovating a historic house. The reason? His wife had MS or something and used a wheelchair. I don't think it was even a heritage designated house, just a nice old house on the street, and the outward appearance would be changing so the Stepford neighbours were all in a snit. Urgh, the rich and their things that are more important than people.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 02:54 am (UTC)From what I remember, Mom was the head of that protest, if not the sole person beating the drum on that ramp.
And I wouldn't try to pin the year too tightly to her style, because she really loved the funky/folk/hippie/eccentric look. Also, if she liked a piece of clothing, and it still fit, and in good repair, she would still wear it comfortably, even if it were "dated." (Her general philosophy was that carriage and attitude was the most important element of style -- and that if you want to look good, the most important thing you could wear is a smile).
But the general consensus to the earlier date is helping my "I was 16" memory win out over the "or was I 24?" question... Also, my being 16, and being required to use that building more as I approached adulthood, would definitely have shortened Mother's fuse with town politics and adhering to "tradition."
The reason I really love that picture is that it epitomizes, visually, Mother's relationship to established political authority... >;-)
One reason I really love
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 08:57 pm (UTC)Indeed.
That, my friend, is what "Pwning* the Patriarchy" looks like.
*I know, technically, that 'pwning' is supposedly said aloud like "owning." But in my head, it's a variation on 'pawning,' so that makes the above phrase alliterative...
no subject
Date: 2012-10-12 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-12 03:44 am (UTC)I saw the word in use online before I knew its origin as a mock misspelling of 'Owned'. And my first thought was that it was a misspelling of 'Pawned!' -- as in: not only owned, but sold/traded (also, the link to pawn as in: the usually weakest piece in chess).