Just Some Old Photos

So, the other day I was working with Manuel Labor tearing up SweetKristine's pristine home and, if you have Been Counting Along With Me, I found that memory inducing old Budweiser tall boy can.

Well, as I was looking around in My Pictures inside this trusty olelaptop, I found some other images that I thought I would post here, just for the h*ll of it.

This first one is of some of the horses we had out at the original Haven Lee Farm in Halltown, Missouri. I did a blog about it and the Bus commented that it was a pretty good yarn and even linked it in a blogpost over at Bus-Plunge. Thanks Big Brother.

I think I included this image in a blogpost but wanted to include it again as a reminder to myself as to why I live in the Sunshine State. It is a shot of my Mom's 1988 Honda Accord buried in what appears to be a foot or so of snow. BRRRRRR.

The only white stuff I want to be buried in can be found in the third photo of this blog!!

This old school black and white photograph was taken at my Mom and TheGentlemanFarmer's 25th wedding anniversary. The dapper dressed man in the center of this image is my Mom's dad, Alphonse Charles Bansbach. The couple he is addressing is the Bus and his, still gorgeous wife, The Private RN. It was on Granny and Man's cabin out on the Big River that the B's Nest sign the Bus has on his lake cabin emanated from.

Now, I am sure you are curious as to why we all called my Grandfather "Man". Well, from the story I got, he travelled alot and my older family members lived near Granny and Man in Shrewsbury, Missouri. One time when Alphonse came home, my older siblings asked either Mom or Granny, "Who is that Man?" And the name stuck throughout the rest of his, and my days. I am not sure if our cousins, yeah both them, called him Man also.

The following image was taken at the funeral of TheGentlemanFarmer's mother. Her name to us was Moo. Even I don't know the inspiration of that nickname. In this image, TheGentlemanFarmer's younger brother, my Uncle Frank, is on the left and I am not certain who that dude is to Uncle Frank's left but I will venture his last name, or his mother's, is probably Lee.

I was living in Florida at that time and had a good, although long distance, relationship with Uncle Frank. When Moo passed, Uncle Frank recommended I not travel to St. Louis for her funeral. I took his advice but afterwards, I was p*ssed as I missed meeting a ton of cousins whom I had never met and, most likely, never will. My loss that is for sure.

On a much brighter note, check out the following couple images. That is the brood of most of my older Lee siblings.

In this image, from right to left are my nephew Christopher, his step brother Skip, my niece Mary Ellen, my NotSoLil nephew Jim and my niece Stephanie. That old go cart we got from our neighbors, Bill and Minnie Lee Lemmons. They had two sons with Celebral Palsy and Lou, the youngest, would say to everyone in my family in the most excited voice possible, whenever he saw us outside, "Hiya Bob!" Will remember him forever.

Check out the old school metal chairs surrounding that tablecloth covered table in the background of this shot.

These images were taken in the backyard of my Mom and TheGentlemanFarmer's home to which we moved from Haven Lee Farm, Halltown edition.

In the above photo, you can see YoungChristopher hamming it up for his aunts, uncles, grandparents and dad.

From left to right, you my Mom, my brother Jim-the Bus, his totally hot wife-The Private RN, my baby sister Joan-referred to as the Horsewhisperer in that blog about A Day On The Farm, TheGentlemanFarmer has, as always, a camera glued to his face while his namesake, Robert G. Lee, Jr. is standing behind him enjoying his son be the limelight of the moment. To BBB's left is thebarngoddess, a then skinny Jane, thejeepjunkie and #9.

I don't recall the reason for this gathering but in that above photo, check out all that junk beside that junk filled metal building in TheGentlemanFarmer's backyard!! Oh, there was a polebarn out back, that Tim Penn and I built, with even more junk in it!!

The following image was taken at #9's American wedding. I put it this way as she was married in France and then followed up with another wedding here in the states a few weeks later.

I'm going to put it at about 1990. From the left, the olelongrooffan, thejeepjunkie, TheGentleman Farmer, my oldest sister, BBB, the Bus and thehorsefarmer. I remember it as a frigid cold experience and will always do so. I mean, who the h*ll gets married in the middle of December in the Ozarks? See that photo of Mom's Honda to get the idea!!

And this young lady?

She is my youngest sister Joan's 14 year old daughter, Hailey. I have to say this about that. My daughter Jessica is 10 days older than Hailey and man, kids grow up fast these days!!

The following image is of thejeepjunkie hiking through some unknown woods oh so many years ago.

And many years later, this olelongrooffan and thejeepjunkie remembering to Celebrate Life!!

This one is of BBB during his stint in Vietnam. I remember seeing a hard copy of this photo around when I was a kid. It was captioned, "Would you buy a used car from this guy?"

Definitely not.

This is a shot of this olelongrooffan, perched on the rear decklid of my oleragtop during this adventure. The reason I included this one as opposed to the closeup of me that KJ shot. Well, in this one you can't see as many of my wrinkles.

And this old shot was taken, based on the Christmas tree in the background, during a Christmas dinner out at the Halltown based Haven Lee Farm.

From the left in this photo is my Grandfather, Alphonse, thejeepjunkie, TheGentlemanFarmer, this ole longrooffan, complete with oxford under that short lived football jersey, I'm not sure who is next in line but I am sure he is some seminary student my folks harbored every holiday. Either that or the Bus, who was in the seminary at the time. The last in this lineup is Wally Ellinger, a Catholic priest.

A few things about this photo.

That glass of milk on the table? I am confident it is "half and half". No, not the cream but 1/2 powdered milk and 1/2 whole milk. That is Mom stretching a buck during my upbringing. Yeah, that, and the day old bread store.

In front of Alphonse is a can of Coors. I would suspect this is either just after Coors was introduced into the State of Missouri, but if it was prior to that date, know everyone loved a smuggled in from Kansas can of Coors beer.

thejeepjunkie, as always, manuvering his way in front of this olelongrooffan in the food line.

TheGentlemanFarmer is surely telling a story and has the rapt attention of both that seminary student and Wally.

And judging by the fact that serving plate of food in front of Man had been disseminated by all present and thejeepjunkie and I were back for more, and the fact that TheGentlemanFarmer's napkin is still on his plate, and the fact the ice in those partially filled cocktail glasses had melted, I am confident this would become a long story telling night out there on ole Haven Lee Farm!

Now just a bit on Wally Ellinger. As I have mentioned previously, we, as kids, never called nuns and priests as "Sister" or "Father", just Delores or Wally. Wally was a Roman Catholic priest and, as such, was not able to marry. When Wally's brother passed unexpectedly, he left his wife Ruth and 8 children to carry on in this world. Wally, a year or so later, left the priesthood, then and now, a mortal sin, and married Ruth and became another father to those kids. Yeah, weird but true.

Below is a full on shot of my Grandfather and his now infamous hat!

I told you he was a dapper dressed dude!

And I downloaded this image of my three older brothers from the Bus' blog a while back just to enjoy it. Mid 50's, boys in ties and dress coats, well except for thehorsefarmer in the middle, but, heck it is still the same way.

And this shot is of the five Lee boys shot outside at our home at 1822 S. National, the corner of National and Sunshine, in Springfield, Missouri. This was a huge three story with basement home on several acres. Sadly, it is now a parking lot for St. John's hospital in my hometown. But know this ole longrooffan has great memories of it.

And this last one is of thejeepjunkie outside of the St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield.

And why do I include this slightly out of focus shot.

It is because thejeepjunkie was wearing the most favorite shirt this olelongrooffan owned!!!

And it is finding these old images, sharing them with you and getting something to give thejeepjunkie sh*t about allows me to

Celebrate Life.