Saying Happy Holidays With a Vintage Card

By Cathy Scott

Happy Holidays, one and all! This year is a Christmas of memories. So it's only fitting to post a vintage Christmas card with a photo of our parents, Eileen and Jim Scott, with my late sister Sally and brothers Mike and Jon (Cordelia and I weren't born yet), Our mother was being clever when she typed "Guess Who?" in the "from" portion of the card.

Stay well, safe, happy and healthy this holiday season!

More Vintage Photos

Mike and Mother (who's pregnant with Sally) in Minnesota

By Cathy Scott

My big brother Mike has the spotlight today in most of these photos.

One of the pics is of our Mom and Michael, taken while Mother was pregnant with Sally (she was 13 months younger than Mike), in North Pines, Minnesota. Mother's holding a smiling Mike while in front of the Daisy Mae and Lil' Abner cabins on Lake Superior. Quite a vintage photograph!

Mike with Dad

And, of course, all the pictures of Mike and Sally as toddlers are nothing short of precious.

But the one of Mike learning to walk with our Dad is a special moment in time. Father and son made for a handsome pair.

It's been a healing process, posting photos of my big sister Sally, who passed away in November. Most of the photos we've been posting have been stuck in family albums for years and are now just seeing the light of day.

Sally and Mike, with a ball, at a park with Mother

This photo of Mike (below) -- always smiling -- and Sally on the lawn with our Mom was taken when Sally was 1 year old and Michael was 2. And check out the the David Archuleta-looking 'do Mike is sporting.

Mike, Mother and Sally

Many of the photos -- but not all -- were included in albums that Cordelia and Sally painstakingly put together -- customizing them for all five of us siblings -- and gave them to us as Christmas gifts some years ago. Posting these photos has been a shot back in time, for sure, and a therapeutic one.

Family photos - a short story

By Cathy Scott

Here are more stories to continue telling the story of the Scott kids through photos, in remembrance of our sister, Sally, who recently passed away.

Sally was a big sister, little sister, daughter, mother and grandmother. But in these photos, she's a toddler, and a happy one. The photos are pulled from our family albums (thanks to my twin sister, Cordelia, for scanning them).
Napoleon Bonaparte's famous quotation, "A picture is worth a thousand words," is so true.

In the first two photos, our Mother, Eileen, is holding Sally next to a lake in Michigan, where Sally was born. Sally was just 6 months old. The smiles on both of their faces speak volumes.

The next photo (above) was taken around the same time with Mike, Sally and our Dad, Jim Scott. It appears they were still living in Michigan at that time and hadn't yet moved back to San Diego.


And, finally, this last photo--one of my favorites--is of Sally in a child's walker, with Michael standing with one foot on it, ready to go. They're beaming from ear to ear.

The Bottle House

Mike (left), Sally and Jon at The Bottle House at Knott's Berry Farm's Ghost Town.

By Cathy Scott

Our parents took us kids on great outings. Cordelia found this wonderful photo (top) of Mike and Sally, as well as of our brother Jon (Cordelia and I weren't born yet), standing with an Indian trader, in costume, in front of The Bottle House on Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.

Coincidentally, we knew, as children, that the co-founder of Knott's Berry Farm was named Cordelia, because it was such an unusual name. (Cordelia--named after our paternal grandmother--recently wrote on her blog about her name.)

I found a history of The Bottle House online and a vintage photo (above).

The Bottle House, according to the Knott site, was built from more than 3,000 empty wine and whiskey bottles turned inward, so the bottles wouldn't whistle in the wind. When the light hits the glass angled toward the interior, it shines colored light. The building was found in a deserted California mining town and relocated to Knott's Berry Farm's Ghost Town.

Our sister Sally enjoyed and collected antiques, so a photo of her standing in front of a frontier building is special. She looked pleased to be there.