Family Archives

January 6, 2013June 23, 2015

71 Years ago

I make it a point to call Mother every Sunday night at 7:30. Now that I’m retired, I have a hard time keeping track of the days of the week, let alone the time, so I have an alarm set in my cellphone to remind me that it’s Sunday. When I made the call this week, Mother casually mentioned that Monday would mark 71 years since she and Dad got married in Advance.

I remember her saying that she and Dad had gone to a movie. When they got out, my grandfather, Roy Welch, told them that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. “If you kids are planning to get married, you’d better do it right away.”

Florida honeymoon

A month later, they were married and on their way to Florida for a honeymoon.

Dad was luckier than many men his age. He was working for a contractor who won defense contracts to build airfields and other essential projects, so he was deferred from the draft.

One of my favorite photos

This photo was part of a series I didn’t remember shooting. It’s one of my favorite shots of the two of them in our back yard in 1970. It’s obvious that they weathered well as a couple. I wrote about discovering the series just about this time last year.

You expect your parents to be there forever. When I shot this, none of us dreamed that Dad would be with us only another seven years. I guess that’s only partially true. He’ll live on forever in our memories.

Photo gallery of honeymoon

Here are some additional shots of the honeymoon from 71 years ago. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

December 26, 2012December 24, 2022

Christmas Snow in Cape

If news reports are right, there’s gonna be a lot of stale bread in Southeast Missouri in the aftermath of the blizzard warning that predicted as much as 18″ of snow. There was a rush on the stores for staples in the days leading up to the storm.

The Cape area received from 4 to 6 inches, but winds gusting as high as 40 mph piled it up to look much higher in some places. The hard blow caused the wet snow to stick to vertical surfaces. Fortunately, there was very little sleet and ice in the storm.

Video of spinning ornament

Here is a video Brother Mark shot with his iPhone of Mother’s snow-covered lawn ornament spinning in the wind. (You can see the same ornament spinning in an afternoon thunderstorm last summer.)

Mark: I should have bought her a pony

Mother’s cordless phone was getting a little iffy, so I bought her a new one with three remotes for Christmas. Brother Mark called and said, “I wish you had bought her a pony.”

“A pony?”

“Yeah, ’cause if you had bought her a pony, we could be out riding it and having fun…”

“Instead of setting up the phone?”

“Yep.”

Here is an Amazon link to the Panasonic phone I bought her. The range is great: it worked all the way to the far end of the basement. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t reach all the way to the clothesline in the back yard. Sound quality is excellent and she loves the speakerphone.

Of course, I’m not the guy who had to set up something more complicated than a missile defense system. (Gee, do you think I might have planned it that way?)

More snow photos

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery. Click here if you want to see what our snows looked like in the 1960s.

December 25, 2012

Steinhoff Christmas 2000

Since the world didn’t end at midnight on December 31,1999, all of the Steinhoffs were able to converge on Missouri for Christmas 2000. The group shot was taken at Brother Mark’s house in St. Louis on Christmas Eve. The Tulsa branch consisting of David, Diane, Kim and Amy, had to blast out on Christmas Day to beat a snow storm headed our way, so they aren’t in as many photos. The Florida Clan was represented by Ken, Lila, Matt, Sarah and Adam. Mother, front left and looking younger than most of us, is the glue that binds us together.

Since all of our readers will be busy with their own families, this photo gallery is for us. Y’all are welcome to look at it, but there won’t be a final exam later.

Sarah’s a Floridian

Snow was a new experience for Matt’s wife, Sarah. She had lots of catching up to do. We were coming up from Florida in separate cars linked together by CB radios. When we got the first glimpse of the St. Louis Arch, Matt and I tried to convince Sarah that it’s a tradition for first-timers give it a healthy lick, but she wasn’t buying it. We even explained that it was perfectly sanitary: vendors sell alcohol wipes to protect you from germs.

Mother never throws anything away

Mother dug out Mark and David’s graduation robes and Mark’s high school diploma. She found my white lab coat stolen from the Central High School darkroom. It had a neat NRA patch from one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s alphabet soup agencies on one shoulder, but Mother carefully removed it, much to my disappointment.

My prom jacket

Adam looks a lot better in my old prom jacket than I did in 1965.

Photo gallery of the 2000 Steinhoff family Christmas

I hope your families have as much fun in 2012 as we did in 2000. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

December 23, 2012

Matt and Adam Make the Paper

Since I was the only photo staffer with kids, Son Matt and, later, Son Adam, showed up in a lot of newspaper illustrations. You can click the photos to see how cute the boys were.

Matt is on the front of the Palm Beach Times Trends cover on Dec. 11,1978. As best as I can remember, the story was about picking age-appropriate gifts for your child.

Over the years, he was photographed having night terrors, walking to the bus station at night holding his Poo Bear accompanied by his “abused” mother, and more situations that don’t come to mind.

Jet Pilot Adam

Adam was drafted for a story about flying with children. We talked an airline into letting us shoot some photos while it was at the jetway. The pilot let Adam get the feel for what it was like to sit up front.

Don’t forget me after Christmas

When you get ready to spend the cash Santa left you under the tree, don’t forget to use the Amazon link on my page or this Big Button to make my New Year a little brighter.

You all will probably be too busy to read the blog on Tuesday, so here’s an early wish for the best for you and your families.