Gilruth Designs

I was born on a dark and stormy night…  Just kidding – I was born in Michigan at about about 6:15 am and it may have been dark but Mom probably didn’t care because she was in labor.  She told the nurse that I was coming and the nurse said, “Oh, don’t be silly Mrs. Guenther.  You aren’t due yet!”  But my mom insisted – the nurse still didn’t believe her.  All of a sudden Mom thought I was about to kill her.  We weren’t even in the delivery room yet.  The nurses ran screaming for a doctor but they were too late; it was just mom and me together, me playing with my toes and mom staring down at me.  8lbs 90z of baby girl.  From then on I think my mom thought of me as the sourpuss because I was such a pushy, obstinate kid.

Here are some pictures of me when I was that little angel:

My brother was born 18 months after I and was the cutest little kid:

So, back to the story:  My parents met while playing in high school orchestra in Midland Michigan.  Mom played viola and Dad played the clarinet.  They were both the intellectual type, and it was the late 50′s so my parents got married once they didn’t get to know each other very well.  Here’s Dad playing the Clarinet (when he was much older):

I spent my first few years in Detroit Michigan while my father went to college (and he rode around on his motorcycle).

Anna on the Back Porch in Detroit

Lila, Detroit, 1965

I was a sensitive little tyke, and could change moods as fast as weather:

Reid, 1966

My brother was so nice.  He used to always give me the cone when we got ice cream from the ice cream truck  until I finally convinced him to try the cone.  Oh well.  It was nice while it lasted.

By early summer of 1967, when I was about age 4, civil strife had hit Detroit.  I can remember seeing tanks rolling down the street and Mom telling me to keep below the level of the windows.  Buildings were burning outside my home and people were looting stores in business districts.  Police put out barrels on corners for people to return the stuff they had stolen after their thieving and then remorseful binges.  Luckily, my Dad had a job offer in Portland Oregon and we planned to move there.

On the plane ride to Portland I can remember being so excited about seeing the clouds.  They were so beautiful.

We first lived in a fancy house and I had a four-poster princess bed.  Then we moved to a country house – some worker dug a septic tank hole in the back yard and didn’t cover it up.  Me and my brother carefully stared down over the edge, into the hole, and then somehow my brother was down in there.  Boy was that scary.

Here’s a picture of me during princess phase:

By this time my parents were beginning to let their hair grow, and we moved to an inner city Victorian 3-bedroom house, complete with a basement and attic for exploring.

When Mom went to work she was quite the fashion plate.  She saved some of her hair every day, and made a bun out of it.  She would place this under her intact hair, pull it back in a ponytail to make her hair puff up in the back.  And she had these huge, and I mean huge, orange and brown egg-shaped earrings she would wear.  She also had a matte black perfume bottle that I liked to hold because it felt so nice in my hands.

By the early 70s we kids played the Beatles and Country Joe & the Fish on the phonograph, jumped off the piano onto the couch and ran around naked before my mom got home from work.  Doors were never locked at night.  Kids, neighbors, various people needing a place to crash, boarders, and drunks came and went.  Not a lot of structure was provided or enforced in those days…

Above, I am visiting Dad’ house, and Reid is clowning around; next is friends Joss and Joe clowning around with Reid, and last is me and Joe getting married by Vernon.  Joe and I later got divorce one time when we were up climbing the cherry tree.

By the mid-seventies, my parents were no longer together:  here is a glimpse of my life in that hippie-ish time:

I went to several different grade schools, including a free school.  We didn’t have a lot of structure at the school either but I went to classes most of the time.  My math and history background aren’t the greatest, but my spelling has good always been good.  We would have spelling bees, and I practiced a lot for one of them because there was a pair of gorgeous, tiered coin earrings that I really wanted.  And I won!  That was probably the first pair of earrings I owned.

You are probably getting bored by now but I just couldn’t resist the next two pictures, because I look so funny and because I really did like to sit on that old tractor (in my bare feet):

Anna on the Tractor and Porch

And here’s a picture where you an actually see my Mom (and me and Reid), with Mom and Reid wearing their hippie-transitioning- to-disco clothes:

and my grandfather McDonald had come to visit:

Grandpa was a metal alloy physicist – he worked for some big companies and made pretty good money, hence the suit.  And he liked to look good.  But the weird thing was he was a penny pincher too, and wore his golf shirt and hat until they were in tatters.  He lived in Carmel Valley California.  I think I have that tie he is wearing – it’s such a beautiful shade of olive green.