Photos from a party at Dick and Lana Trunkhill July 1980 and around Iowa City October 1980 ~

A lot happened in my life between July and October 1980.  You may notice the sudden cessation of photographs of Janet, my now-former wife.  I will write more about that another time.

Here, the photographs of the Trunkhill cousins are pretty reflective of my experience.  Hanging out.  Talking.  Eating.  Laughing.  They were a conversational, interactive humorous group.  Strange that the little kid playing with the toy endloader is now in his 50s.  Or that I’m now in my 60s.

The photos of Iowa City depict parts of a period of sudden transition.  I had predicated my previous seven years on my relationship and marriage as the foundation of my life.  Suddenly I had no foundation and no vision of where to find one.  I took several selfies trying to help figure myself out. 

I had moved from our farmhouse north of Tipton to renting a room on the upper floor of a residence on north Linn in Iowa City.  I had given up my dog for adoption.  I kept the finches in their 4 x 4 x 8’ cage.  I had reduced my possessions to a cramped room I shared with the birds. 

That time juxtaposed my intractable undiagnosed depression with meeting some of the most important people to my life.  Jennifer in the Every Bloomin’ Thing delivery car, for example.  I was as unstable then as at any other time in my life.  If I could go back then to tell myself one thing it would be that it gets better, and then leave before I had to tell myself how long that would take.  Or what would happen next.