Family Lessons
The December Challenge theme for ActiveRain blogger members is “Who Are You & Your ‘Aha’ Moment - Self-discovery and Personal Growth” This is my Third entry.
When I was a kid, while living at our home in the Cradock neighborhood of Portsmouth, Virginia, I had the good fortune to learn much from family members. I will share a few memories in this blog post.
If you follow my blog posts, you know that I have an interest in photography and usually share a photograph or two in my blogs. When I was a youngster, a visiting relative, Harold Hilliard, encouraged be to get active with photography. He made sure I had a good start by advising me on the purchase of a good camera. I became active in the camera club at high school and expanded my interests with a friend. My father allowed us to set up a darkroom in a vacant portion of one of his buildings (Upstairs from the Cradock Cleaners). We purchased military surplus 35 mm film and rolled our own film for our cameras. I took a lot of photographs at school, including many prom photographs. Little did I know that it was the beginning of a lifetime interest in photography.
My father was a very creative person when he was involved in real estate transactions. When my grandmother passed away, there was some family tension about the distribution of the estate. To help resolve the issues, my parents purchased the home to provide funds for a cash distribution. They did not want the home as part of their rental portfolio and my father traded the home for a 100 acres farm on Douglas Road in what is now the City of Chesapeake.
The farm house became the residence of my uncle Frank Kelley and his family and the several foster children that they took under their wings. They grew corn, raised hogs and my father had horses for his riding enjoyment. The farm was our destination for many visits. My father arranged to obtain the discarded food from our local grocery store in Cradock and those trailer loads of food were used to feed the hogs on the farm.
I had a rifle when I was young and usually practiced my shooting when visiting the farm. Other family members were hunters but I preferred target practice. I had my first experience of eating meat from a bear after a bear was shot as he collected corn in the fields. As I mentioned in a previous post, my shooting skills lead to several years on rifle teams.
Another interesting real estate transaction by my father was the purchase of a home that was located on George Washington Highway (Rt. 17). He was approached by a company asking if he would build a service station on the site. Rather than tearing down the home on the property, my father arranged to have it moved to a nearby lot that he had developed and successfully sold the home to a new owner. I was there to observe the entire process and benefited from lessons learned.
I hope I have not bored you with my childhood memories.
Thanks to the Challenge hosts: Lew Corcoran and Patricia Feager
Dahlia, Unnamed Seedling, American Dahlia Society Show, Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania USA IMG 5653
Canon PowerShot G11 Camera
Photograph by Roy Kelley
Roy and Dolores Kelley Photographs
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