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Mom's 90th Birthday Party


Photographs by J R Compton and Anna Palmer


this page     The Party     dinner the night before     decorating the room     the next day
 

Last year, my father, called Dad or Jack on this page, had a big family gathering to celebrate his 97th Birthday. This year, Mom (Mary) wanted a big party for her 90th. So she got one.

My sister Mary Ann organized the dinner and the party, hired the hula dancers and gathered the family. All Mom & Dad's kids came, of course, and Mom's sister Marjorie and her family and several of Mom's friends.

Mom knew about the party and asked Anna and me to take photographs. But the hula dancers were a big surprise. When Dad, Mom and us kids were stationed at Hickam Field near Honolulu in the very early 1950s, Mom studied Hula Dancing, and learned it well enough to teach it at almost every base we were stationed at after. Which is why she was able to join right in.

The night before the party, we gathered for dinner at Mary Ann & Todd's. The next day, we organized and decorated the party room. Then came the party itself, with a few scattered images the next day. These four links go to this page's major sections.

I've been careful not to reveal full names or much detail about who these people are. If you're one of us, you know. This is the web …

Mostly, these photographs are presented in chronological order. If you are in any of these pictures, and want to use them, please read the notice at the bottom of this page. If you have photographs you think should be here too, please email me the full image that came from your camera.

Dinner the night before

the family fills a room

Mom and her little sister Marjorie like to wear matching clothes in bright colors.

Dad looks at a photograph from about 67 years ago.

Dale, Clare and Anna are also fascinated by a box of family pictures.

Diane and her daughter Kelsey

More family kept arriving.

Jack, Julie and Anna

I don't know whose hand is on the left, but that's Mark's on the right.

Kelsey coloring

Jackson Smile

Jackson Flying

Daddy on TV about being at Pearl Harbor

Dad flew into Hawaii on December 7, 1941 as the Japanese were attacking. Here he is telling his harrowing story in a recording from TV.

Dad

Mary Ann dipping ice cream

eating ice cream

Dale & Mary Ann in Kitchen

Going for a walk

After dinner, Dale, Todd, Clare, Jackson and I walked around the neighborhood. Pretty fast.

\

Teresa

Clare, Dale, Mary and Mary Ann

Mom and Todd

Decorating the Party Room

Clare and Tom hanging the big banner in the party room

Everyone was invited to help decorate the party room. It was fun. Mary Ann was in charge, but she listened to lots of ideas. The theme was Hawaiian.

Kelsey

Mary Ann pondering

Mark and Tom

Kelsey helping Mary Ann

Tom setting each table

It was fun and educational watching my siblings act and interact. Mary Ann assigned Tom to set the tables, which he did very precisely until she insisted he do it with abandon. Then he really got into it.

Dale and Clare

Diane framed

Kelsey, Mark and looped tape

Clare and Anna

Mary Ann explaining

Dale swinging Kelsey

Dale catching his breath.

Spencer doesn't like the hat …

… and shows it

Haley, Amanda, Audra and Sean

Kyle

J R, Dale and Tom

Kelsey

Mom's and other family women's hands

Maizy and Jared

The Party

Mom & Dad's grand entrance

Mom is delighted

Mom and Tom

Jack and Sarah Ann with Todd and Anna

Jackson and a stack of smiles

Julie, Jack, Sharon and Clare

Spencer

Kyle

Spencer kissing Maizy

Dad and Mom

John and Mary

Mom points where she wants to be kissed

So he does.

And the other cheek, too.

Big smiles

Todd, Dale and Clare

Hula girls

Sarah Ann with Hula girls

Haley photographing Mary and Sarah Ann

Amanda and Kyle

That picture again — Hula Girls

Maya

Joining the Hula: Dale, Clare, Mary Ann, Sarah Ann, Joyce, Kyle, Haley and Mary

Amanda and Sean

flowers in Mary Ann's hair

table flowers

Dale singing

Maya singing Happy Birthday

A Birthday Verse from the grand girls: Jennifer, Olivia and Joyce (with Spencer)

Dad's cleaned plate of cake with lots of sugar

Patsy, Clare, Todd and Anna

Second generation spouses and girlfriends

Chris

Group pictures

Dad, Mom and their kids:  J R, Tom, John, Jack, Mary, Dale and Mary Ann

the same bunch kicking it up

Mom with her sons' wives or girlfriends: Anna, Patsy, Mary, Clare and Julie

Mom with Third-Generation Women: Teresa, Jennifer, Maizy Joyce, Spencer, Mary, Haley, Amanda, Audra and Olivia

Anna, J R and Mom

Tom's Family with Mom & Dad in the middle: Jennifer with Maizy, Patsy & Tom, Mary & Jack, Joyce, Spencer, Jared and XXX

John's Family: Chris, Teresa, Mary, Jackson, Jack, John and Julie

Dale, Mary and Clare

Mary Ann's Family: Haley, Sarah Ann, Todd, Mary, John, Audra, Mary Ann, Sean, Amanda

Mary Ann's daughters, Haley and Audra

Livvy, Mary and Bryan

Marjorie's family: Mark, Marjorie, Mary, Jack, Kelsey and Diane

Mom's friends:  Betty, Jack, Mary, Sharon and Jack

Cake before

Cake after

Jack and Sean

Mark and Tom

Diane and Kelsey

Clare feeding Maizy

Hands on Mom's hands

J R, Dale and John

Amanda and Haley

Tom, Mary Ann and Julie

Spencer

The next day

Patsy

Kelsey after I mussed her hair

Kelsey tumbling in the lobby: Anna, Mark, Diane, Kelsey and Mom

All the images on this page are Copyright 2011 by J R Compton or by Anna Palmer or by somebody we asked to hold the camera so we could be in some of the shots, too. If who shot those of us will email, we'll add your credit or copyright notice, too. My current email address is always on my Contact page.

We reserve full copyright and all other rights to our photographs, but anyone who is in these images may use them. If, however, you publish them in ink on paper in a printed publication or in pixels online, including Facebook or any other website, where our copyright notices won't be large enough to read, we insist you state "Photograph copyright 2011 by" either "J R Compton" or "Anna Palmer," or both of us in legible text immediately adjacent to the published image. That's so no one who sees our images elsewhere will steal or use them to sell something.

Fair enough?

If anybody is mis-identified or mortified by an image here, please let me know forthwith, so I can change or delete it. Ask, and I'll attach the full-res original to an email back. Then you can get it printed.

; j r