it's ALWAYS the 1st saturday in may. duh.

I have a lot of pictures of my mom when she was a little girl. They are some of the best pictures you could ever see. She’s like a little doll that you want to pick up and carry around. There are pictures of her in frilly little dresses. And there are “farmerette” pictures of her out in the field looking at cows or holding her dog (I think all their dogs were named “Lady”). In honor of Kentucky Derby weekend here are some family photos.

For awhile my mom lived in Louisville as a child. My papaw was a helicopter instructor for the Army at Bowman Field. This was my birthday party the year I turned 7. My mom made a “pumpkin” piñata out of orange crepe paper and my dad hung it from a tree in our back yard in Louisville (The Highlands). In that same back yard we’d watch the hot air balloons float low to the ground over our house as part of the Derby Festival. Magic! Sarah Loper (a friend from church) is holding the stick. The other girl, also named Sarah, lived down the street from me. Her family was catholic and she had lots of siblings. I don’t know who the boy in the middle is. I think the kid holding the bag (literally) was my friend, Matthew. We were in the same 1st grade class. Our relationship was purely platonic at that age. So when we came up with the idea that Matthew should come to my house for a sleepover we didn’t understand why our mom’s said no. Everyone has an Olan-Mills family portrait don’t they? Love my Dorothy Hamill haircut. Mom let me wear lip gloss. Is that a panda on my brother’s jumper? And here is one of my mom being really really cute. I need to see a picture of my mom being really really cute to combat the sorrow of the Delta Queen beating the Belle of Louisville in the Great Steamboat Race. Icky.