I just ran across these gouaches I did in 1973 and thought they'd be fun to see. I used photos my mom took of some of my elementary school birthday parties from the '50's as inspiration. I still remember the name of every girl in the paintings. These were done on really cheap newsprint, which is totally yellowed and so brittle now, if they weren't framed, I think they'd be in tiny pieces. [You can also get a little feel for the architecture of our house which my dad designed and built. We moved in in late '55, right before my 5th birthday. The backyard went right to the chapparrell, then the foothills, and the mountains. It was truly beautiful. We moved when I was 12, and the next year or so the Army Corp. of Engineers built a big ugly cement channel, surrounded by chain link and barbed wire, right across the end of the yard, destroying the view, and killing all the trees as their water source was cut off. This is all part of why I couldn't wait to move north.]