Forest-Floor Reunion

Door County, Wisconsin, October 1985. Crunch.

Golds

Door County, Wisconsin, October 1985. It's not monotonous.

Vista Reunion

Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin, October 1985. Drive up to the top.

Autumn-Drive Reunion

Door County, Wisconsin, October 1985. Drive down to the lake.

Sunny Reunion

Door County, Wisconsin, October 1985. Someone's been munching.

Crispy Reunion

Door County, Wisconsin, October 1985. Where's Gigi?

Reminisce

Door County, Wisconsin, July 1985. My Mom and my Godmother catch up.

Currants

Door County, Wisconsin, July 1985. A red squirrel shares our family's love of currants.

A Happy Visit

Great Neck, New York, 1985. I visit family while I'm at a professional convention. The woman on the left is one of my Dad's older cousins, and the woman on the right is her mother Victoria—the sister of my paternal Grandfather, Vytautas.

Related by Marriage: Hurricane Gloria, in Three Takes

Mr. Irene leased a house in the early 1980s near Long Island Sound in suburban New Haven. He lived there with some fellow graduate students from the Biology Department. The house, built in 1918, stood directly on the beachfront. It served as overflow lodging for a tennis and beach resort just a quarter-mile away. The resort, established in 1867, still operates today.

Hurricane Gloria, a meandering storm that crawled up the East Coast for several weeks, made landfall for the third and final time along the Connecticut coast on September 28, 1985. It was the worst hurricane Connecticut had seen in thirty years: its ferocity at landfall was a bit of a surprise. Computer modeling technology then was not what it is now. 

When the hurricane hit, Mr. Irene had just taken off on a flight out of Hartford airport bound for Chicago. He was returning to attend a friend’s wedding, and his flight was one of the last cleared to leave before Gloria’s landfall.

Here is how the shoreline looked at impact, just two miles from Mr. Irene’s Connecticut home.

Branford, Connecticut, October, 1985. Mr. Irene arrived home to find that the wooden, screened-in porch had taken the brunt of Hurricane Gloria’s force.

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Branford, Connecticut, October, 1985. "Tomo," a gentle German Shepard and Collie mix, served as mascot to the graduate-student household. She lived in fear of the simplest thunderstorms, and she was relieved when the hurricane ended.

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Branford, Connecticut, Spring, 2013. The house, today.

This dog used to smile.

Suburban Chicago, April 1985. It was easy to photograph Meškė because she wasn't a black dog.

The Rec Room, in Three Takes

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Suburban Chicago, 1985. Dad's monkey photographs and the mountain goat head used to creep out my childhood friends.

Italy's Little Tyrol

Near Cortina d'Ampezzo, September 1985. If you didn't hear the Italian language spoken here, you'd think you were in Austria.

Ski Jump

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, September 1985. Skiers at the 1956 Olympics introduced a new jumping technique that changed how athletes competed in the sport.

Here's an historical clip:

Facciamo la pasta in casa.

"Let's make pasta at home."

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Suburban Chicago, April 1985. When I returned to the States after living in Italy, I tried to reproduce some of the dishes we had made in Venice. In the 1980s, the "authentic" Italian food craze was just taking off in this country, and many of my favorite foods—gnocchi, risotto, and tiramisù—were not yet available here. Few people had heard of "Parmigiano Reggiano," and I could buy that only at swank delicatessens. It also was impossible to find ready-made pasta for lasagna. My Dad found the process of making pasta at home amusing.

Bistro Supper

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, September 1985. We pull up as dusk arrives. The mountains cast a blue shade on the village.

Off Lead

Door County, Wisconsin, July 1983. Mom tests Meškė's obedience skills.

Laundry Day

Suburban Chicago, April 1985. Meškė prefers to nap with the dirty clothes.

Pavillon Reunion

Stuttgart, West Germany, August 1985. Things are blooming around the Neues Schloss Pavillon.

Bridal Shop Bongos

Stuttgart, Germany, August 1985. You'll find music across the street from the shoe shop.