I started going through boxes this weekend. I've been storing boxes in the bathroom. Those boxes that you carry from move to move without unpacking. The washing machine (it's in the bathroom, too) finally let go and dumped what appeared to be gallons of water on the floor. It started to get some of the boxes so I moved them. Then I opened one and looked inside. It was all over. In the process of throwing much of what was in the boxes away, I found some treasures.

Families have funny things that they do. They are sort of like rituals. Whenever we get together as a family, and pictures are taken, my siblings and I have this peculiar ritual of facing the camera, folding the right index finger at the first knuckle, and inserting the knuckle into the right nostril giving the appearance of having stuffed the forefinger into the nostril up to the knuckle. I'm not sure if my sister participates in this other that to look on with that "idiot brothers!" look on her face.

What is often lost is when these rituals begin. This one is documented. This one of the found treasures. I've been asked for this picture for years but didn't know where it was. It's a 4x5 inch Ektachrome. This is a quick scan.

It's a chilly fall morning at Gasworks Park in Seattle. The year is 1976. I had been taking family portraits with the view camera. Husbands, wives, and kids (only two) put up with this and the last pictures were of my mom and her kids. Everyone was tired and either Mike or Roger started doing the nose picking routine. Then Mark and I picked up on it (pun intended). Terry (front row) was pretty disgusted with this frivolity. (In subsequent years, Terry would participate in the nose picking pictures.) In the back row is my brother Mark, then Mike, Roger, and myself. Terry, Madelane, and my mom are in the front row.

In the early 90s, I would take my three kids over to the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Robby, my youngest, was probably around 6 or 7 when we started doing this. (He turned 21 this past Friday.) One of the rituals was the fish print. One of the activities they had for kids was a fish that the kid would paint, and then a large piece of paper was placed on the fish and the kid would rub vigorously, transferring the paint to the paper. This fish must have had some significant Karma to overcome. The results were quite striking. I found a trove of them and they scan just fine.