Friday Hometown Shootout - Silhouettes

Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Ty-oh, oh-oh
Two silhouettes on the shade
                    The Rays. 1957

BAGMAN: "The Rays?"

BUTLER: "A singing group in the 1950's -- hit the big time with one song and then faded out  of sight.

BAGMAN: "How are we supposed to know that?  We were 11 then."

"I only remembered the song, not the group, " I reply, entering the entertaining conversation as I enter the room while overusing the word 'entering'.  "I used to watch the original "Name That Tune" television program with my grandmother."   

BAGMAN:  "Did they have television back then?"

"Black and white, three channels, rabbit ears,"  I say.  "But I didn't have a camera yet.  The first silhouette picture I could find in the archives dates to 1968."

The hermit of Dismal Key - my dad.

(Sometime back when I was a neophyte blogger, I did a series on my dad who was a hermit in Florida's 10,000 Islands -- and an alcoholic like myself.  I linked it above just in case you have too much time on your hands and want even more blogs to read.)

BUTLER: "Come on, Mark!  Linking to your own old blogs?!  Give your ego a rest!"

BAGMAN:  "Hey!  Butt out, Butler!  I like his ego."

BUTLER:  "That's because you are his ego."

"And while I was going through silhouette archives, I found this one from 1969."

Santa Monica Sunset

The little boy standing between the two women...

BAGMAN: "I was in love with them!"

BUTLER: "You were in love with everybody!  They were just fortunate that they were able to resist your doubtful charms."

Anyhow, the little boy standing between the two women had the distinction of being with me when we jumped in the mud puddle with Jim Morrison.  (Another old blog which my ego links here despite Butler's appropriate protestations).

BUTLER:  "Do you think we might just get on with the Shoot-out and stop confusing people?"

1972 - Santa Marta, Colombia

BUTLER: "If you start telling more stories or making morel links, I'm going to start singing Bruce Springstein's Glory Days at the top of my lungs!  Stop living in the past!"

"Aha!" I respond with insecure bravado.  "But the past lives within us even in the present."   I pause and then admit a bit wistfully, "Besides, I took better pictures then."

2009, I don't actually remember what this is.

Silhouetted Water

I'm sure I've posted this before...but I like it and it fits.

And finally...

BAGMAN: "About time!"

...a questionable picture I took last week:

Statue at Brookgreen Garden, SC

Does this qualify as a silhouette?  Do silhouettes have to be black?  I suppose I could look up the definition.  Or I could photoshop this and make it black?  But it seems like of silhouetteish, somehow. 

BUTLER:  "Say goodnight, Gracie."

BAGMAN:  "Goodnight, Gracie."

PS:  While looking for old links to the stories about the archive pictures, I discovered that we did a silhouettes theme in 2009.  So I could have simply re-submitted: Silhouettes back in 2009.  On the other hand, I think some themes are good to repeat and, frankly, this time around I remembered all kinds of stuff that I didn't think about in 2009.  

I think we should reschedule the theme "Silhouettes" for April, 2016.  

Because you asked...

1. What happened to the duck eggs?
2. How old are Bagman and Butler? 

DUCK EGGS

The duck eggs had me worried for a bit.  After my April 30th post when I discovered the duck and her eggs, the mother duck had a midlife crisis.   I checked with increasing worry and frequency but she just left the eggs lying there and ran around the backyard galivanting with her drake who was living on the wild side with a stray goose.

The goose was having some kind of spat with this spouse who had flown off to the other side of the pond.   They would honk endlessly and loudly at each other, but neither one was going to budge.  The ducks became very emeshed in this domestic situation, the drake and the hen constantly following the goose around, trying to cheer him up. 

I should have taken pictures but instead I kept yelling at the hen, "Go take care of your eggs!  What kind of a mother are you anyway!?"   Or maybe, dazzled by her drake's ability to befriend a goose, she forgot where she put them.  

But after 36 worrysome hours, the goose family made up and the hen decided to become responsible.

Hard to see if you don't know she's there

HOW OLD ARE BAGMAN AND BUTLER

Ginger hit me with this question last week and it really took some thinking on my part because I had never really considered it. 

BAGMAN: "So that's why you never give us birthday presents!  We thought you were just cheap."

After considerable meditation on the question, I am pretty sure that in terms of pure chronology and calendars and stuff, that they were both born when I was -- June 13, 1946 -- although I wasn't aware of them at the time.  Who could blame me, I wasn't aware of anything except hunger and wet diapers at the time.   I began to be aware of them in my early teens although at that time, I had no use for Butler at all.  

However, a more accurate picture is painted when I think about different rates of maturing.  Sort of like figuring a dog's age in dog years instead of people years.  Butler has aged at a much fast rate than I have and Bagman at a slower rate.   So when I was 40, Bagman was around 18 and Butler was fifty something.  I was sure getting a lot of conflicting advice back then!

I have noticed recently, however, that their maturation process has been changing.  Butler is now maturing more slowly and Bagman is beginning to catch up to me.   Butler is becoming a bit more flexible and Bagman's trouble making stays within much more acceptible limits.   I suppose by the the time I reach 90, the three of us will all be the same age again.   

I strikes me that anyone who views this blog for the first time, won't have a clue what I'm talking about.  And finally, I should add that I don't think I'm actually schizophrenic.