Being A Grown-up Is So Much Fun! Saturday, August 29, 2015

In some old photographs,

if you take anything out,

even a chicken or a little bird,

the magic will disappear.

~Mehmet Murat Ildan

Greetings today from Anacortes, Washington where Cindy and I and our grandson Logan are still visiting and enjoying family here after our family reunion last weekend.

Lyndsey Aquiningoc. Happy 25th Birthday today, August 29, to Lyndsey Aquiningoc of Weatherford, Texas. Lyndsey was born in San Diego in 1990, one of the four birthdays in our family that year. Since the turn of the century Lyndsey has lived in the Weatherford, Texas area along with several other members of her family.

Lyndsey's mother is Kerri Shepard Aquiningoc, and her grandparents are Jackie Perry and my brother Gary Shepard. She is one of the great grandchildren of Maida Shepard. Almost a year ago Lyndsey gave birth to her first child, Karver Bearden who is the second Great Great Grandchild of Maida Shepard. The picture on the left shows Lyndsey with son Karver.

Lyndsey: My birthday is coming up pretty quick. I hope it will definitely be a special one! I can't believe I'm going to be 25!! It's craaaazzzy! I really don't feel that old, lol! I don't have any plans as of right now. Kind of low on funds. My sister Mandi and I just got our first house together, in Granbury, Texas! So all our money goes to that. Being a grown up is so much fun! Hahaha. We love our new place! It's just sissy, me and the kids. Everything is going pretty good. I hope everything is well with you and the family! I wish we could have been there at the family reunion. It has been waaaaaaay to long! Tell everyone we said hi and we love and miss them dearly!

Another Never-Before-Seen Picture. This next picture is one more in the category of Never-Before-Seen Photos (at least in this blog). I have been aware of this picture for many years. And I have wanted to share it in this blog because it captures a unique moment in our family 45 years ago as we gathered around the dinner table. 

This picture has on it the date of January, 1970, but that must have been when the roll of film was developed. It was probably taken in December, 1969, at the Shepard home on Armstrong Street in San Diego. 

You've heard of "the elephant in the living room"? In this picture it's the mangled turkey in foreground. What were we thinking? How hard would it have been to move the ugly, picked-over carcass out of camera range? 

Having shared a happy turkey dinner, we wanted to capture the warm moment by taking a picture. Unfortunately the unappealing remnants of the main dish gets center stage. 

From left to right around the table are all 10 members of this part of the Shepard family: Maida, Barbara, Linda, me, Cindy, Gene (at the head of the table), Darrell, Russ, Kerri and Jackie.

This old photograph gets marred by the mangled turkey, but there is no mistaking the fact that this reflected a great period in the life of the Gene and Maida Shepard family. Cindy and I had only been married a year and were home for Christmas break from Abilene Christian College. My brother Gary and his wife Jackie had been married 3 years and had just one child, Kerri, the only grandchild of the family at the time. 

Many changes took place in the lives of the people in this picture in the ensuing months and years. And there were very few, if any, pictures taken of this entire family after this one. In spite of the bird, it is a memorable photo.
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Steve Shepard