Found: A self-portrait of Meda and me back in about 1976. It was taken in our apartment on the fourth floor of the old Circle Jade, the round building on 9th Avenue and Waialae. The building went condo in 1978, so this was taken before then. My guess is 1976. I remember setting up a tripod and taking several photos as our cats kept trying to get into the shot. An 8×10 of this one turned up in my parent’s papers this week.

And here’s one with the cats. This was so far in the past that we only had two cats, and they were both totally amped up by our attempted photo shoot. This was true excitement for these two inside cats. I clearly recall how it went. Pick up cat, step over to tripod, hit self timer, hold cat firmly, step back to preselected spot, try to pull cat’s claws out of my shirt, look at camera, try to turn cat around so that it was looking at the camera, pull claws out of skin, stare into wide wild eyes of cat, hear camera click, drop cat, take deep breath, finish laughing, try again. And, of course, Meda was going through a similar sequence with cat #2.

But we did get this keeper.

I had forgotten the occasion, but it appears to be a 4th of July tableau with hints of the Boston Tea Party, judging from the tea pot and flag table cloth.