Category Archives: Photography

Brain Ruts: Phantom Pets, Facebook Anger & Geographical Literacy

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Kevin Walsh

I’ve been opening the wrong cupboard for 15 years now.

After the first two weeks in our house, it became obvious that having the glasses right above the dishwasher made more sense.  (You can stack plates, so moving them all at once to the cupboard four feet behind us was more “logical” — to quote my Spock-fan son.)

But it doesn’t matter.  When I’m thirsty, I swing open the wrong door, swear under my breath, and trudge across our eight foot kitchen floor and get a glass from the correct place.  15 years.

I was recently going through a three-day training of a new software platform at work.  Part of the drill was for us to respond with insightful comments on our experience.  … Read More… →

The 5-Cent Anti-Parent

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Kevin Walsh

I’d ruined years of my wife’s child-rearing–for only a nickle. 

My two-year old son and I  were heading into the local K-Mart.  I can’t even remember what I was buying, probably something for my beat-up boat, but I’d brought Aidan along.  We were heading in to the store’s entrance when he saw the merry-go-round, one of those three-seaters.

Merry3

I put him on the donkey and congratulated myself on my parenting skills.  Aidan rocked back and forth, having a wonderful time.  I smiled at the joy that was about to happen. 

I put the nickel in the box,; he lurched forward with the music and grabbed those painted ears tight.  … Read More… →

No Surprises: Raising a Son with Asperger’s–and Training His Dad

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Kevin Walsh

A trip to Disney Land–what could be a better gift for your small child? Certainly Parent-of-the-Year awards were likely–if not for originality at least the East German judge would most likely hold up a “7.8” for enthusiasm.

My wife and I had been giggling to ourselves for over a month as we prepared for the look on our four year-old’s face when we pulled into the parking lot. We knew he’d see Mickey Mouse on some billboard and it would be magic time.

Wrong.

Again.

Aidan didn’t see a mouse; he smelled a rat. As my wife unpacked the video camera during a supposed routine morning drive while in Los Angeles visiting friends, he looked suspiciously at her. It was third day of our visit … Read More… →

Woodward Dream Cruise: Happy Days, Unhappy Neighbors

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Kevin Walsh

HuffPost_Shared

My wife and I started a Yahoo Group in our neighborhood that’s grown to over 100 residents.  It’s come in very handy as a local Angie’s List for handymen and landscape companies.  It’s also found many a lost pet and alerted folks to local burglaries; we even sold some furniture and donated a piano to a little girl around the corner.

But like any forum, it can get a little dicey–particularly with the boon (or bane) just down the street from our Royal Oak home–The Woodward Dream Cruise.  This southeastern Michigan 18-year tradition of classic cars from the 1950’s through the early 1970’s involves close … Read More… →

Kid-with-Fish Picture: Leon, Jerry and a Free Ticket

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Kevin Walsh

There’s something very romantic and nostalgic about a kid holding a fish–especially if it’s a first-catch.

There’s that mix of pride, fear and joy that is far different than you find with most any other kid-meets-creature encounter.  Far different than the parent holding a camera shouting: “Nope.  Go back to where you just ran over that worm with your bike.  Get down on your hands and knees and smile!”

It’s nothing like stepping on a spider or worm-steamrolling–both instances are necessary for sanity or unavoidable just after a rainy day…or one of my more vivid bits of cruelty as a child–Ray-of-Death with a magnifying glass and a pedestrian ant.

And I’ve been that parent.  When we’re on the dock and accidentally actually catch something, … Read More… →

Father’s Day Legacy: Jim’s Love of “Now”

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Kevin Walsh

I was doing some vital, long-forgotten yard-work in 1995 when my neighbor Beth yelled across the street, “Happy Father’s Day!”

It took me a minute to realize she was talking to me.  Aidan was already a day or two over-due, so officially the greeting was premature.  But I smiled and realized that she was right.  I was in the club.  And someday, if I did things right, my kids would dread that holiday, as much as I did.  Jim Walsh was impossible to buy for and it didn’t help that his birthday fell on June 28th, so we needed to double our futile efforts as soon as school got out.

I have taxing memories of Saturday odysseys through the sporting goods and office-supply aisles of  … Read More… →

Paper Route Days & The Creepy Underwear-Man Under the Stairs

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Kevin Walsh

Kids with paper routes didn’t make it past the eighties.  And probably odd guys like The Grouch didn’t help matters…

***

I don’t have high hopes for my first encounter at the Pearly Gates…

“Let’s see…Walsh…Walsh…” as  St. Pete examines his pearl-handled clipboard.  ”You’re not Kevin Walsh, are you?”

“Yeah.”

“Not the one from Clawson?”

“Um…yeah.”

He shakes his head and grabs the lever.  ”You had to go there, didn’t you?”

Knowing exactly what he’s referring to, I feel the floor suddenly give way.

***

photo 1

This evening, at the age of 48, I was a little nervous looking down these stairs, … Read More… →

Are Fire Hydrants Too Socialist?

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Kevin Walsh

HuffPost_Shared

There were bodies everywhere. I’d never seen anything like it before–especially on a dog-walk…

HydrantPile

It was a dream of mine since I’d first read the <em>How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs</em> to work on a dig. I dreamed of buried treasure–triceratops horns, a mummy (without a curse), a Neanderthal skull or my sister’s bracelet that I buried in the mud under a neighbors’ swing-set. I checked on it periodically for the mud to turn to stone with the … Read More… →

Disney’s Bid for World Domination

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Robert Phillips

  disney A world domination planning session?

Walt Disney had an insidious plot astounding in its evil audacity. It was a plan for world domination so complete, it rivaled the greatest plans of Lex Luther, Ernst Blofeld or even Dr. Evil. Using an ever-expanding cast of animated characters, led by a giant, falsetto mouse, charged by a driving beat devised by a group aptly named They Might be Giants, Disney’s plan was to attack the American populace at its weakest point, its children. Capturing the hearts and souls of these impressionable children was the first and necessary step in ultimately seizing control of the minds, and … Read More… →

“The Meanest Mom on the Block” – Misdiagnosis of a Four Year-Old

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Kevin Walsh

2ndBirthday_1966

You wouldn’t know she would win the award to look at her–the picture of innocence at 22 years.  She even took pains to perpetuate the illusion, showering me with exotic presents like wooden mallets and fancy ribbons, my favorite chocolate cake, even my cousins Pat, Sharon and Susie standing by as witnesses on my second birthday.

I can see it so clearly now; I was already on my way out–like the crooked candle on the right.  Somewhere out of frame, lurked my upgrade–the 1966 Katie.

And in two years it would be official; the election results would be in. … Read More… →

Tragedy and Media: Safety in Numbers

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Kevin Walsh

Start

Times Square on New Year’s Eve has always seemed a bit too claustrophobic for me. How can anyone enjoy themselves in such a giant crowd?  What’s the attraction?  The image of 26,000 runners heading off together seemed similar–like pedestrian rush-hour. I can’t even shop at the mall at Christmas time.

One of the pivotal scenes in Gone with the Wind follows Rhett Butler’s ominous words, “In a town called Gettysburg.”  The scene shifts to a giant crowd gathering at the Atlanta railroad station’s telegraph office to get the long casualty lists arriving from Pennsylvania.  

Read More… →

Lawn Kayaking: Distractions and Default-Settings

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Kevin Walsh

KayakKids 

We were at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Steve’s house in 1999.  The kids and their cousins were enjoying a kayak ride through the lawn, courtesy of their Aunt Claudia, who always shared in the unique moments of her nieces and nephews.

We always laugh that the perfect gift for a baby shower would be an abandoned car.  Just stick it in the backyard and you’ll never need to assemble that expensive play-structure or worry about broken necks on a trampoline.

Some children’s barbers actually give their victims a giant ball of masking tape and by the time the kid … Read More… →

Tiger Stadium: What Makes a Ballpark

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Kevin Walsh

 

TigerStadium_ext

I’ve often wondered about the emotional hitching post that is a ballpark.  And when anyone says “ballpark” we all know that it’s not referring to any other sports field besides baseball.

I only live a few miles from five little league fields that I spent five summers of my childhood praying that the ball wouldn’t be hit to me in right field.  (That, of course, was in the final two innings, when the coach decided it was safe to take me off the scorebook.)  After a brief try at second base where I smoothly fielded a grounder and sent it … Read More… →

The Bobber: A Life of Crime Diverted

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Kevin Walsh

BobberAndChain

It was a great fishing hole only a few blocks from our house in a suburb of Cincinnati.   My dad was transferred by Ford from Detroit and we were all still getting used to having so much nature around.  Crayfish and creeks were scarce in Detroit, but “craw-dads” were numerous in the “cricks” just down the street.

Crick

There was a reservoir and a public park that offered a ledge where we took … Read More… →

The Three Things Babies Don’t Want You to Know

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Robert Phillips

sophie eagle

This is Sophie, my two year old daughter, in a diner in Davie, Florida. I posted this photo on Facebook with the caption, “Go Eagles!” In an act that took me 30 seconds, I enlisted my innocent two year old into my plan to annoy as many Dolphin fans as possible. Raising my three girls has been a pleasure not just because I find ways to express my fundamental obnoxiousness, as important as that is. It’s also a joy for all the reasons everybody talks about—unconditional mutual love, having at your constant disposal little balls of indescribable cuteness, the pride in self-perpetuation, blah blah … Read More… →

“Cobbler and the Cowboy” — My Grandma’s Poetry

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Kevin Walsh

 CobblerAndCowboy

66 years ago, this poem was proudly cut from the newspaper and placed in a scrapbook.  My grandmother, Melanie Vier McAleer died just two and a half years ago at the age of 94–an accomplished woman by any standard, winning a national doubles championship in tennis for women over 70.

But her greater love, one that stayed with her through her entire life, was poetry.  She was a regularly featured writer in Detroit papers throughout my mom’s childhood in the 1940s and 50s.  Her whimsical style and clever insight into the human condition was spot-on.  I remember being flattered … Read More… →

Getting Rid of Old Photos: Confessions of a Packrat

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Kevin Walsh

PhotoPile2

Logic has to end somewhere.  Sure it all worked in theory.  Representing the years from our marriage in 1992 and our purchase of a nice digital camera in 2005 we somehow stopped creating nice photo albums–perhaps the same reason we took all those pictures–two kids.  It’s not often you hear parents of a four and two year old say, “Wow, they’re finally asleep.  Let’s scrapbook!”

But we kept snapping those pictures and getting the film developed.  We’d pick up the envelopes and negatives, look through them, mail a few off to relatives and put the envelope promptly in a … Read More… →

Building a Mansion to Last Forever–or at least 8 years

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Kevin Walsh

This oddball-house that was torn down forty years ago keeps popping up–two years ago in a box of china and yesterday in an e-mail.

Henry Eastwood House in Ottawa

The certain things in life that Benjamin Franklin mentions, death and taxes, can also include another item–that certainty is anything but certain.  

In 1923 my great-grandfather Henry Kelly moved his law firm and large family to Detroit from Ottawa, Illinois where his Irish immigrant grandfather James had settled after helping build the Erie and Illinois canal systems as a mason.  

James had left Ireland with a conviction that he … Read More… →

Ever Want to Knock on Your Old House Door?

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Kevin Walsh

IMG_0163

I love this picture.   It was taken in 1966 in the basement of my parents’ home on Ward in Detroit.  It almost looks like a Norman Rockwell painting, the way my Uncle Bill is leaning back with the cue, my Uncle John is supervising in his vest, and my Uncle Joe is taking the shot with cousin Matt advising.  My dad is holding me and even my grandpa is watching from the booth.

It’s a perfect image of this nostalgic time that I can’t even truly remember.  We moved from the house in 1970 and those pre-6-year-old memories … Read More… →

Brother-Sister Relationships: Solid as a Bungee Cord

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Kevin Walsh

JeffersonMemorial

My daughter’s first sentence, “Aidan pushed me!” can accurately sum up most sibling relationships in the ebbs and flows of a life.   As a family historian and generally nosey individual, it’s been interesting to watch them grow apart, together, apart and together again–even before they’re out of high school.

The default setting of a new family member is encouraging–a two year old’s inquisitive look in the hospital and sloppy kiss.  Then the parents go through stages of trust and fear as the toddler gets close–but not too close to the baby.

Read More… →