I’ve spent the last few days visiting my Mom in St. Louis. It can scarcely be called a vacation but it was a respite from my usual routine of working, blogging, cooking, dog-walking, and occasionally trying to get our home back into livable condition after adding our addition. We spent the time talking, watching DVD’s (Slum Dog Millionaire), cleaning up her yard a bit, and looking through the old photo albums.
I found some fascinating things in one of the old albums. The houseboat on the banks of the Mississippi in which my great-grandmother lived. For the very first time I saw pictures of my great-grandfather that were clear enough that I could get some sense of what he looked like.
And dozens and dozens of vaudeville pictures. Pictures of my grandfather and grandmother. Pictures of the other members of my grandfather’s troupe. Pictures of Ed Flanagan and his partner, Neely Edwards, clowning around in the backyard on a rare visit home to St. Louis.
Casper, Wyoming. Hutchinson, Oklahoma. Fayetteville, Arkansas. Wichita, Kansas. As my mother put it, they certainly played the high lights. It wasn’t glamorous.
I’ll be scanning a lot of these pictures of the old vaudeville troupe and posting them here. I think they’re a document of a world gone by, a world largely forgotten.
译文:
追忆似水年华
前几天，我去看望住在圣路易斯的妈妈。对我来说，这几乎不能称之为假期，只是短暂的休息，暂时从平常的工作，写博客，做饭，遛狗，以及偶尔的打扫卫生中解放出来。我和妈妈闲聊、看电影（贫民窟里的百万富翁）、清理院子，还一起看旧时的相册。
在其中的一本旧相册里，我发现一些很特别的事情。我曾祖母住在密西西比河附近，在河堤旁有一艘游艇。那是我第一次清楚地看到曾祖父的相片，对他的长相有了印象。
那还有很多祖父和祖母在杂技表演时的相片，以及我祖父所在杂技团的其他成员的相片。还有Ed Flanagan 和他的同伴Neely Edwards，在圣路易斯的家的后院扮小丑的相片。他们很少回圣路易斯的家。
母亲说，怀俄明州的卡斯柏、俄克拉荷马州的哈钦森、阿肯色州的费耶特维尔以及堪萨斯州的威奇塔都很漂亮，但是却不是很迷人。
我会把旧相册里的很多杂技团表演的相片扫描上传到这儿。我觉得这些相片是对于一个已经逝去的世界，一个几乎被遗忘的世界的记录。