Tradition!

They say everyone has their 15 minutes of fame.  Mine was many decades ago when I was 6 months old.

Back in those long ago days proud parents took their children to a photographer to obtain a keepsake photo. It was an event for which you planned, and scheduled, primped, and dressed up.

My mother dressed me in a pretty blue dress over a pretty blue slip.  She combed my hair. (For years I asked her why she cut my hair in a crew cut. She told me she didn’t cut my hair, that that was just my hair.  Explains a lot, but that’s another story for another day.)  She put sturdy white shoes on my feet.  Then she and my father trundled me off downtown to have my photo taken.

Upon our arrival the photographer adjusted lights while my mother sat me on a blue blanket she had knitted.  back in the olden days pictures were all in black and white so the colors didn’t really matter.

Who knows if I took hold of my feet in order to stay upright or I just reached for my feet because when you are 6 months old feet are pretty amazing.  But in any case I did. And the photographer thought this was a fabulous.  He loved the picture.  He colored it, changing the blanket to pink, because I was a girl I presume, and he added some color to my cheeks.  And then he put his colorized rendition of my photo in the window of his studio. And thus my 15 minutes of fame.

My mother saved the dress and the slip and the blanket.  And when each of my daughters turned 6 months old I dressed her in the blue dress with the blue slip, put sturdy white shoes on her feet, combed her hair and trundled her off to the photographer.  Hubby and I sat each daughter on the blue blanket and we did our best to pose her looking at the camera while reaching for her feet.  We loved the pictures. But the photographer did not put them in the window of his studio.

Oldest daughter now has a daughter, getting close to 6 months old. The dress and slip and blanket are ready.  Daughter may take the picture herself.  No window of any studio.  No 15 minutes of fame.

But much better than 15 transitory minutes of fame. we will have three generations of little 6 month old girls, wearing the same blue dress and blue slip, sitting on the same blue blanket, and in the same pose.  We will have Tradition!