My father Harold was one of six siblings. I ended up with over 20 cousins on the Harrison side of the family. For several months I have wanted to revise an old chain letter the cousins onced produced. One cousin, Julie Harrison, suggested using myfamily.com. So last week I set up a web site on myfamily called The Cousins Chainletter.

MyFamily.com sites are free, with ads. The site was easy to setup and includes videos, photos, discussions, event calendar. Looks like a good deal. The only complaint so far is when I upload a photo album of say 40 images, the home page makes each photo a separate "new" item. This creates a long list of items to go through before getting to other family member uploads. In the photo album preferences there is a way to remove from home page, but the photos still appear on the home page as separate items.

There is a pro versions for a fee that gives additional options and upload space. Web sites created at MyFamily.com are invitation only, not open to the general public.


Photo from about 1900 of Bob Harrison, my great grandfather.

I uploaded about 40 historical family images to The Cousins Chainletter. Most of the images are simple group shots, but a few are special. I was especially attracted to this face-less image of my great grandfather. The original was a small wallet size print that was cropped this was on the bottom. If interested in visiting this site, email me and I will send you an e-mail invitation.

My daughter Christine graduated Saturday from the Thurgood Marshall College at University of California San Diego. About 900 graduates and their guests were caught by major heat wave that pushed the temperatures over 90 at the coastline campus. Just a few miles inland it was over 100. Well we stuck it out to the end.

There were nine graduation ceremonies over the weekend at UCSD. The grads had to wait an additional week because the US Open and Tiger Woods came to La Jolla the weekend before. Many grads had their last final two weeks earlier. So Tiger had the good weather, I got the heat. One more reason I dislike golf.



Parents were allowed to accompany their graduate through the diploma line. This mom came equipt with her own photo.



This grad got my award for best custom cap!



Stephen Gilmore, of Newbury Park, California, waits for his name to be announced and presentation of his diploma.



Christine Harrison joins other grads in moving the tassel at the end of her graduation.

I put up a dotphoto album for Christine and all her friends: UCSD Graduation

Every new building impacts its neighbors. Last Saturday I shot this image of the Los Angeles Times building covered with reflected sunlight from the New LAPD Headquarters building on Spring Street. Earlier this year the Higgins building was in the LAPD building glare and reported on this blog.

OK its fathers day. No longer do I have to take the kids somewhere for the day to give mom a break. (And yes I did the same thing on Mothers day.) The kids are just about grown up. This year, I did something I like to do - visit a air museum. With gas so expensive, I stayed local and visited the air museum at Camarillo Airport.



Visitors check out interior of North American SNJ-4 trainer in the restoration hanger.

The former Confederate Air Force wing at Camarillo Airport has grown up. Back in the 80s I would drop by their old small World War II era hanger and check out their latest restoration project. Today the old hanger is gone and replaced by two large ones. One hanger holds the World War II Aviation Museum at Camarillo, and the second houses the aircraft restoration work.

In 2002, the Confederate Air Force changed their name to Commemorative Air Force to better reflect the goals of the 11,000 member national organization. Of course, I will always think of old hanger, name and collection of retired World War II veterans keeping aviation history alive.



Interior of museum hanger with static displays and flyable aircraft in back ground.

The museum is open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm five days a week - closed Mondays and Wednesdays. Docents give a tour that takes about an hour. Work on aircraft is mainly done on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

For more information, check out their web site. Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing

And my photos of the aircraft: World War II Aviation Museum at Camarillo

Last Tuesday, May 27th, about 15 former staff members of the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle got together for a reunion luncheon. The News-Chronicle was a training ground for many Los Angeles based journalist and photo-journalist. I worked at the News Chronicle from 1982 - 1990. The paper later was folded into the current Ventura County Star. Thanks go to Carol Bidwell, currently working at the Los Angeles Daily News, for organizing the event.

Most of the photos are by Bob Pool. I added about ten.

Of course, Bob Pool and Bob Baker had to recreate one of their famous newsroom shouting matches.

Enjoy - News Chronicle Lunch Link

Scott



1983 self portrait while working at the News-Chronicle. The press passes are from working in at various newspapers around the country.

UPDATE: Carol Bidwell wrote a column for the Los Angeles Daily News on the fate of newspaper journalism. Her column link.