A Christmas Memory

I ran across this photo of my 3-year-old self on Santa's lap this evening while perusing old photo albums for holiday pics. The album that contained this picture was part of a photo collection, with witty captions, that my mother had created for me several years prior to her death in 2001. This compilation quickly became one of my favorite gifts of all time from her - I feel her presence every single time I leaf through it.



I'd always enjoyed the photos and humorous captions that Mom had added to them, but had never pulled these photo "treasures" from their berth in this valued gift to further explore what else might lie there. Tonight, however, I did. This is the back side of my "picture with Santa":



Turns out that this photo was taken with a Polaroid Land Camera at our own G.C.Murphy here in downtown Fort Wayne! I'm 40 years older now, and Mom has been gone for 6 1/2 years, but I still own a Polaroid Land Camera and the former G.C.Murphy building is still in use as well. Sometimes what is lost can be found again; think of the W&D Santa display or the old Murphy's donut machine. I guess we sometimes have to open up familiar things to get at the hidden treasures inside. . .

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Election Day 2007

What Might Have Been

This is a "teaser" post. . .I'll have the rest of the story, and additional photos, later in the week. This particular photo/drawing is from the 1940's - click on it to view in greater detail:



Imagine if local officials automatically discarded public works projects, despite supportive evidence of their positive impact, based solely upon the opinion of a public that may not have enough information to arrive at an informed decision. Harrison Square? No, despite similarities, this was a far greater debacle that occurred over 60 years ago. . .

It may have directly caused the decline of our inner city (Although I think the Eden Green "project" had more of an impact on that), or maybe it prevented a larger negative impact upon the core of Fort Wayne. We'll likely never know. . .but one thing IS sure: The conservative mindset of our fair town HAS held us back in the past. Will we repeat our mistakes or learn from them?

To be continued. . .