complaining about labor pains / show me the baby

The Buckley Children pose in Wayne Campbell's den at the entrance to the Hurler rollercoaster in Kings Dominion, summer 1992.

I've got a lot of things going for me in this photo. First of all, I'm shredding that axe in a heartfelt and unique pose for the camera (The Sisters totally dropped the ball on this one. Thumbs up? Seriously? That's the best you've got? I even have the nagging feeling that Alison stole Dawn's thumbs up pose and modified it with the sideways tilt*. Unforgivable.)

Secondly, I'm decked out in Michigan Wolverines basketball gear. Totally congruent with the hip hop popularity at the time of the Fab Five . I was UP on that trend as a 9 year old! That speaks volumes about me. Do you realize how cutting edge the Fab Five were? I mean, they were the first players to introduce baggy shorts to basketball. Pioneers in their own right, and I, as a suburban white kid, was up on that shit. Seriously, a UM hooded t-shirt (great look, btw. bummer that ever went out of style), matching maize shorts, and a UM hat. All taking place in the sacred den of the Wayne's World set. My swagger is palpable.

I'd like to thank my Mom and Dad for spending the money to have this (certainly overpriced) photo taken, as well as splurging for the admission cost of a family of 5 to an amusement park. You can't put a dollar sign on memories.

*"Oh no, Under Pressure' goes 'bow dow dow da dah dow dow,' mine goes 'bow dow dow da dah dow dow dow" - Mr. Vanilla Ice

No context

I don't know when it happened, and my Mom denies she is the guilty party, but a fair number of our family's childhood photos have been cut up, scrapbook style sans scrapbook.



In some instances as shown above, the context of the photo is not lost. We know Alison and Dawn are participating in an Easter Egg hunt, albeit at a suspect age. The omitted portion is not seemingly relevant to the gist of the photo.

However, some are more dramatic than others. Take the following photo of my Dad:



Just a casual photo of Dad, apparently glancing away from the camera. Nothing unusual. Until this little nugget falls to the floor from the group of photos and you go to pick it up and discover...


Baby Dawn!

Together:


What's the meaning of this? If Mom was the responsible party and assuming this type of behavior is learned, to what degree of passive aggressiveness am I capable of? But if, as my Mom claims, Dawn did this for some elementary school project, what does that say about the relationship of Dawn and Dad? You could write a thesis on the possibilities. And even while it appears these are cropped from different photos (even more disturbing, in a way), they are still from the same moment.

It's funny because it's batshit crazy.