Photos are for remembering

We are visiting our son, daughter-in-law, and new grandson in Florida. Now that our children are having children, we are being asked about things that happened when our children were younger. First words, first steps, school work, and so on. My problem is that the older I get, the more my memory is becoming a blur. I have a few memory snapshots of my children growing up that I can still call up. But even though I lived everyday with them, there are years of living I can't remember.

But what I do have are lots of pictures of my children. Each one of those pictures brings back memories of the events that surrounded our taking the picture. I can remember Christmases, school plays, birthdays, and just being family. These days I love pulling out a pile of pictures and going through them to bring up those memories.

For nine years, Downey Daily Photos has been publishing photos and stories of our Downey community. These photos and stories are meant to bring to your attention events and people that, put together, make up a small part of the life of Downey.

But maybe these events or the people in them have become a blur in your memory. This post is to encourage you to take a look back at some of our posts to remember something that is getting a little blurry lately. (For example, do you remember when Downey was a host city for a group of foreign athletes?)

Remembering

Today as I drove around Downey, I noticed flags flying on many, many doorways. So many people, today, are taking the opportunity to declare their remembrance of those whose lives were lost fifteen years ago on 9/11.

“Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11.”
~ President Obama

Humans of Downey - Frank

"My next great adventure is actually happening right now. We are putting together an anthology of the writings from Bonnie Mansell's Memoir Writing class. These are the stories that appear in the Downey Patriot each week under the title 'Shared Stories.'

"But once that is done, my next adventure is to write a book. I spend a lot of time thinking about my own life and I've written multiple memoir vignettes. But to tell someone else my whole story is not what I want to do. Partly because there are some things I don't want to talk about. So I thought the perfect way to tell my story is through a novel. A novel that would give the feeling of the times I'm thinking about, 1968 to 1970. It would give the feeling of the times and some of the experiences without having to go through and worry about the details of my own stories. So far, I've written about 20 pages of it. I'm looking forward to that next great adventure."

Throwback picture book

On Wednesday Steve wrote about Takis from Cafe Opa. Tonight we had a birthday celebration dinner there. It was a fun gathering in the homey surroundings of the cafe. Looking around, I was surprised to see a picture book of Greece on display.

What was so amazing to me was that it was the same edition book I bought as a souvenir on my first trip to Greece—unbelievably over 30 years ago. What a small world! I love visiting Greece, such history, and I like the food, so a visit to Cafe Opa brings up good memories of exploring the Parthenon as well as traditional eats.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” 
~ Saint Augustine

The Downey mural is done

The Doodle-icious mural by Don Lamkin is completed and available for you to peruse. It is located on the Porto's parking structure on Downey Avenue. My wife and I went there several days ago during one of our downtown walks. It is amazing the new things you notice each time you look at the mural.

This football reminds me that all my children went through DJAA sports. It was a great time for the family and community.

You can see more posts about Don Lamkin and the mural by searching on Facebook and Twitter for  #donlamkin, #downeydoodleicious, and #downtowndowney.

Stop by and let your memories come back. Let us know what you saw in the mural.

In the line of duty

Yesterday, the city unveiled a memorial to fallen police officers in front of the Downey Police Department. The memorial's plaque describes the death of Officer Wayne Presley, the only Downey officer killed in the line of duty.

According to the plaque:
"On the evening of April 10, 1981, Officer Wayne Presley and his partner were assisting a stalled motorist at a major Downey intersection when they were struck by a drunk driver, critically injuring one officer and instantly killing Officer Presley. He was 37 years old and left behind a wife and three children."

(On a side note, Downey Beat reports that there were 11 cars stolen in Downey on Thursday. Several of the cars were taken while Whittier Police were patrolling the city, filling in for Downey’s officers during the memorial's dedication ceremony.)

Slipping the surly bonds of earth

I was on my way to work the morning of January 28, 1986, the morning that the space shuttle Challenger exploded on take-off. It was one of those events—you know, like when JFK was shot, where you remember where you were when you heard the news.

During the 1970s and 1980s, four of the space shuttle orbiters, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis, were constructed at the North American Rockwell plant in Downey.

Twenty-five years after the explosion, this plaque by the Downey Civic Center reminds us of the seven astronauts who lost their lives.

School night

I have always had a weird fascination with the "out of the ordinary." A ballerina in the middle of a train station; one single small cloud in the middle of a bright blue sky; and my personal favorite, school at night. Walking down the dark halls, where the familiar becomes out of place, appeals to me so much. Somehow it both calms and energizes me at the same time. Last month, late one evening, I was walking back to my car from a high school football game. This hall jumped out at me on my right and I took a walk down memory lane.