Daily Archives: January 15, 2018

The Hopp Family Christmas Card from 1969

Things

My parents were friends with Tom and Marlies when I was growing up. Tom was an artist and Marlies was from Germany. They had two daughters, I think.

In 1969 they sent out a very unusual Christmas card:

The card was folded into several rectangles. Here’s the front:

When you open the card you see this greeting:

Open it again and you see this:

Then this:

Finally, a 24″x28″ poster of the Hopp family in 1969 is revealed.

A Happy (?) Family

Things

At some point in my early life — back when I still lived with my folks and brother — I made a chain of paper dolls labeled “A Happy ? Family.” Judging by the shirt my brother is wearing, this was probably created after his skiing trip to Colorado. I was too old, by then, to be making (really badly drawn) chains of paper dolls, but my lack of artistic talent has been written about before today.

Left to right: Mom, Dad, Dona, Kevin

I cannot figure out Dad’s sweater. I don’t recall him ever wearing a red sweater like that. Or plaid trousers. And I might be on the far left in brown instead of next to Kevin in green. Dang, I should have labeled them when I drew this.