For this first finds assignment, I created a picture of myself as a nostalgic, home town girl, who is very much connected to school and academic work. My finds center around ways in which my memories connect to my academic work. Although there are not many images that make this connection explicit, the juxtaposition of personal images from the past and present show a focus both on history and on academic work.
1521 Mary's Avenue
Nestled in the valey below the bipass and between the once vibrant Fort Pitt Brewery and my paternal granmother's yellow duplex, sits my childhood home. The view in the picture shows the front porch, where I used to sit and write short stories and terrible poetry, what was my mom's bedroom, and the attic. My room was in the back, and my sisters's in the middle. My uncle built the back deck, and my dad and Frank Schilaba reattached the front porch after we moved in. There used to be a big tree planted in the cement out front, but the new owners cut it down shortly after they moved in. This was the house family came to on the holidays, back when the family was extended and close together. The house would be full of the life a few too many glasses of Christmass wine and just the right ballance of family stories could create. We set the tree up in the front window every year, no matter how big or small it was, and we would sing the song from the Grinch as we watched as the blinking lights, in symphonic percision, turned our attention to the different the handmade ornaments. Although this picture is of my old house in the spring, looking at it reminds me of Christmas with my family.