A big feliz cumpleaños goes out to my baby sis, Peggy, who turns 60 today.
While I’ve had a high old time acting the fool, heaping shame upon the family name and running my mouth in public to no particular purpose, Peggy has worked quietly and anonymously to extend the helping hand of the State to folks who need one.
Whenever some knucklehead brays that government is the problem, not the solution, I think of my sister and smile.
Happy birthday, Sis.
Mad Blog Media 
Now THAT is a classic photo. Diggin’ the tie and the kind of “double breasted” sweater vest. Very haute couture for the time. Well done. Aren’t you glad you still have photos like that? My parents didn’t “do” photos, or very rarely, so I’ve got like two pictures of myself and my sisters to my name.
Just call me Bozo Brummel.
My folks were good about shooting pix when we were still small and amusing, in Canada and Texas. Later on, not so much. Peggy may have more pix than I do, but my collection pretty much peters out circa 1964 or thereabouts. A few short years later I was uglying up right smart, pretending to be a hippie.
Thank God nobody wanted to take my picture during 1971-77. I recall one costume that involved a black, flat-crown Resistol hat with a concho band, a U.S. Air Force-issue Alaska greatcoat, a white Levi’s shirt with “Mickey Rat” embroidered on the back by some long-forgotten half-a-girlfriend, the usual unkempt jeans, and knee-length moccasins. Also, and too, braids, beads and aviators. Looking good.
The old Ronnie Ray-Gun quote comes to mind. Funny thing about the Rethuglicans, as soon as they get elected they start proving their claim that government doesn’t work. We’re in for a huge dose of it starting in January when Il Duce II takes over.
It’s Christmastime in Washington
The Democrats rehearsed
Gettin’ into gear for four more years
Of things not gettin’ worse
Republicans drink whiskey neat
And thanked their lucky stars
They said, “He cannot seek another term, They’ll be no more FDRs”
I sat home in Tennessee
Just staring at the screen
With an uneasy feeling in my chest
I’m wonderin’ what it means.
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now
There’s foxes in the hen house
Cows out in the corn
The unions have been busted
Their proud red banners torn
To listen to the radio
You’d think that all was well
But you and me and Cisco know
It’s going straight to hell
So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barracades are goin’ up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We’re marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
very nice Steve O.
Happy Birthday to your sister, Patrick! PO’G II in birth order, only!
What a great tribute to your sister and a wonderful photo. Great expressions and your dog is included, too. Decades ago many adults were loathe to ‘waste’ film on a pet. A kid with a camera would always take a photo of a pet!
Thanks to a great uncle who was a photography buff we have some great photos from my childhood but still there are huge gaps. No one else in our family had a camera until my father gave one to my mother for Christmas when I was 10.
Happy Birthday Peggy!
Wow..so you had one foot in Canada eh? Just think if you would have stayed you might be PM now. Then again they might have a birther movement too. Well consider yourself the Prime Minister of Sort of Lefty Leaning Cyclist Who Need Cheering Up Nowadays.
Happy Birthday, Peggy!
Ottawa is in Ontario, not Quebec, Patrick, but you can see it from there
Jaysis. Thanks for the catch, Tim. I’ve forgotten all my French along with which province we lived in.