There’s Sis with her super red ’75 Subaru GL-10. Circa 1986, just before she got married.
Last month I lost my beloved mom, LaVerne, who died peacefully at age 90. After her long, slow decline, our whole extended family is feeling relieved, grateful, and blessed. In addition to being a great parent and friend, Mom also indulged my car-craziness from a young age. My first toy was a Matchbox 1926 Morris Cowley and my last was her actual Volvo 850 (when she gave up driving). In an age before cell phones, Mom snapped photos with a cheap Instamatic camera that she kept near the back door. It was about the size of an ice-cream sandwich and captured images on a small rotating disc. Nevertheless, when Mom was itching to get pictures off to the developer, she would say, “Go stand by your car so I can use up the end of the roll!” Lately, in the strangeness of going through her things, I’ve been happy to find these driveway dunk shots. They’re not the best quality images, but that’s part of their charm.
Shopping list: two-stroke motor oil and some lefse.
There’s me a few years earlier in my ’68 SAAB 96, with a two-stroke engine and plenty of panache. Same driveway, but looking south instead of north.
Me clowning for Mom, June 1975. Notice the waffle-stomper boots and rebellious ragged jeans.
Going back even further, there’s me and my 1950 Buick Super. This was a hand-me-down from Grandma Babe, and it sat motionless in our driveway for many years.
This ’81 Rabbit went on a long strange trip after I sold it but didn’t clear the title. It came back to me TWICE after being abandoned by some Deadheads who took it to the East Coast and back.
There’s yours truly with an awesome VW Rabbit and some unfortunate facial hair. This was taken in the mid-’90s at Lake Samish by my Mom, who was always behind the camera and almost never in front. At least having to do with cars. Sorry there aren’t more shots of my sister.
Clark Griswold, eat your heart out.
Jerking back again to the mid-’80s, there’s me with my mom’s 1978 Audi Fox GTI. It’s a bit hard to see, but that’s one big-ass Christmas tree on the ski-rack, courtesy of a U-Cut tree farm near Mount Baker.
Me in my ’72 Volvo 144, circa 1988. Going, Going.
Finally, let’s end this madness and use up the end of the roll.
Gone.
Thanks Mom! Love you.
Nice story. Thanks for sharing it.
Condolences on the loss of your mom; but it also sounds like this was one of those inevitable events in life that really turned out as well as possible for all concerned. In that sense, congratulations for a life well lived and well experienced by those around her.
I absolutely love the idea of taking photos to “finish the roll!”. I haven’t heard that expression in ages, but it was often said in my household as well. Even better in your (and your mom’s) case that there developed a theme for those pictures. I’d be willing to bet that some of these toss-away shots are in fact some of the best in the family photo collection…or at least ones that will be the most treasured as they show progressions through the ages.
I think it’s hard to have reached this age and having owned a VW Rabbit, that didn’t incorporate “abandoned by some Deadheads” somewhere in its history.
Great post!
“I’d be willing to bet that some of these toss-away shots are in fact some of the best in the family photo collection…or at least ones that will be the most treasured…”
Absolutely! A lost source of treasure now, as we all delete the ones we don’t recognize as just that.
What a beautiful post. Thankyou for it.
Here’s to your mum.
Great shots! Each pic, a timepiece for their era. Even if clues to a specific time are very subtle. Your mom was just wonderful!
The third pic, from 1975, I had a similar pair of jeans. The deeper flaring was going out of style by then. Fraying at their ends. And lighter denim was popular. Mine were Sears Toughskins. I had an equally similar well-worn baseball glove. Mine was a standard outfielder’s glove, as well. Not a trapper. My dad usually bought me a new glove every May. He usually saved $10 by purchasing the Canadian Tire store brand Mastercraft gloves. In ’75, they were around $17. Better quality Spaulding and Rawlings gloves going for closer to $28. Nothing beats the smell of a fresh ball glove. lol
I was younger than you, and really starting to love Top 40 radio at its cheesiest best, that summer.
You brought back another memory from late Spring of ’75.
I thoroughly appreciate how knowledgeable you are in both American and Canadian music of the ’70’s. I remember an odd Top 40 quirk the Spring/early Summer of ’75, two artists from different countries, had big hits here, with the same song remake.
Canadian artist Charity Brown was huge here, between 1974 and 1976. Mostly with remakes of ’60’s R&B. A lot like Linda Ronstadt, at the same time.
She’s unknown to most Americans, but Charity had an amazing voice. Her Canadian hit that Spring, preceded the Doobie Brothers, which hit a few weeks later.
Pic of Charity Brown.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing these with us.
I love posts like this. Your mom sounded awesome already but when I saw she bought a Fox GTI, she became eligible for sainthood, at least in my church.
Losing family members is hard; ask me how I know. Or read the following post.
Outstanding photos. I remember taking many of those “end of roll” pictures – also largely of our cars, and also pictures of our house, and just candid pictures of my parents and sister. Years later, those shots ended up being the most amusing and memorable to look at. Seeing pictures of us wearing sleepclothes, or pictures of the house showing weeds growing the gutters – those little details that we’d otherwise long have forgotten about. Sadly, all of those pictures were thrown out when my folks moved out of their house about 15 years ago.
“End of roll” photos were also a nice balance to the other family rule of “Don’t Waste Film.” “End of roll” was an occasion when I could take pictures of everyday things without being yelled at.
And among these photos of yours, I love the pictures of the Fox GTI – that’s a car whose existence I had completely forgotten about.
Sorry for your loss. I too remember the old “use up the end of the roll” thing.
I do have to ask about that Buick, not a common site by 1975, and yes you were definitely in fashion with the waffle stompers and ragged jeans.
Beautiful and heartfelt post, thank you for sharing. Clearly your Mom was a treasure. The Buick really stands out but I would be happy to have any of them in my driveway
A quick note on cameras, Instamatic would be 126 format which was approximately 35mm wide, was packaged in a plastic cartridge and produced a 28mm x 28mm square image. This came out in 1963, and 9 years later Kodak came out with the Pocket Instamatic, which used the 110 cartridges which produced a 13x17mm image, about a quarter of a 35mm.
Kodak introduced the disc format in 1982, which was a new self contained cartridge that had a rotating disc of individual negatives, rather like a Viewmaster reel.
At a guess Dead Swede’s mother had an an Instamatic and a disc camera, and may have had a Pocket Instamatic.in the 70s.
Theses sorts of pictures are a great time capsule, barely posed and sometimes showing unfortunate fashions.