50th

Zeandale, Kansas, November 1968

My big sister and her hubby celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary yesterday. I was tasked with making a suitable card and I found (and colorized) the image above. Titled Early Days - Little House on the Prairie, it showed the newlywed couple in front of their first “home”, an unassuming place in the middle of nowhere, about 8 miles from Manhattan, Kansas, where my brother-in-law was stationed in the army.

The picture, which had never been seen by either of them, brought forth a flood of memories, of their first cat and dog, the Christmas tree farm (in the background) where they got their first tree, and my brother-in-law’s late sister, a distorted figure reflected in the glass on the screen door. Unseen, yet still in the picture, was my niece (who was behind the cat.)