...but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

photo (c) 1968 Stephanie Brundage

I had an exchange of Emails today with a Susan Bridges in Sarasota, Florida. She's working for a consulting firm that's working with the City of North Miami to develop a new park master plan. She discovered this blog through a link on the N.M. Chamber of Commerce web site and was trying to get some historical information about the city parks, especially a zoo that once existed here until the early 1950's. That was a bit before my time but I remember hearing people talk about it. Now North Miami Middle School sits on the site. When I moved here in 1956 they were just finishing building the place.

I don't remember what the occasion was to cause Stephanie to take this photo either. It was taken in the dining room next to the door to the kitchen, probably with her Leica III-f and a flash in a small round silver umbrella. Maybe it was to show my new hair cut?

It's strange how time distorts time. This photo was taken only about eight years after I finished attending N. Miami Sr. High, and that eight years seemed like such a long, long time. Now I look over at that same piece of white wall where Stephanie shot the picture and the thirty eight years from then to now seems like nothing.

It was a popular fashion in the late 1960's, for a year or two anyway. A double breasted jacket, open collar shirt, and I can't remember what we called the thing I was wearing around my neck, but it was acceptable garb, whether for business or going out to a fancy restaurant. The dry cleaners loved them. If you got hot and a bit on the sweaty side you didn't mess up your shirt collar. All the sweat ended up on the dry-clean-only piece of colored silk instead. (It's called an ascot.)