A blast from the past

In the process of moving, I unearthed a group of pictures from 1978 to 1980. I have very few pictures from that period, so I was elated to find these.
That's me on my horse, Lad, around 1980.
If I had to choose one dog to keep forever, it would be Suzie. How we loved that mutt. We think she crossed the highway chasing a rabbit and was struck and killed by a car. Cliff and I returned from a walk to find her lifeless body beside the road. We'd had her for perhaps four years. The kids loved this three-wheeler. The daughter's best friend, the local Baptist preacher's girl, broke her arm riding this thing. And tried to cover it up from her family. And then lied about how it happened so she wouldn't get in trouble with her parents for riding the three-wheeler. I spilled the beans.
My mom always made the kids unique birthday cakes. This was my son's "keep on truckin" cake. Must have been around the time of "Smokey and the Bandit". We had a friend named Tom with an in-ground pool back then. I think both kids learned to swim there.

That's Cliff with his mom and dad and siblings. Both parents have long-since passed, and also his brother Warren (bottom right).