Category Archives: Robin Lawless

Smiles of a Summer’s Day

Robbie’s gap-toothed smile.
One of the great treats of our summers in Minneapolis with dad was the neighborhood park (Thomas Lowry aka Seven Pools) which contained a water feature you could play in — seven pools varying in temperature and depth strung along a manmade stream.
Thomas Lowry Park aka Seven Pools
The park was built on land donated to the city park system (at Douglas and Mt. Curve Avenues) by Thomas Lowry the man who built and owned the street railway system in Minneapolis.  The neighborhood, Lowry Hill, was developed by him.  The park had been called Douglas Triangle and then Mt. Curve Triangles (yes, plural for some forgotten reason) before finally being named for Lowry.  Of course all the kids in the neighborhood just called it Seven Pools.
As it looked to us.
Another little piece of our childhood heaven in Minneapolis with our dad — much thought of and much missed after our return to our mother in New York.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, children of divorce, Minneapolis, Mt.Curve Avenue, Robin Lawless, Seven Pools, summers with your dad, Thomas Lowry Park, Wendy Lawless

Sunday In The Park With Dad

One of the unexpected joys of publishing Chanel has been the unearthing of photographs from friends and distant relatives.  (This one is from a series taken by an old Minneapolis friend one our last summers with our Dad.)  As you can imagine after reading the book, not very many pictures or keepsakes made it through with us — things were lost in storage, destroyed by our mother or simply left or abandoned by us as we tried to run faster and faster from our past through a long series of houses, rooms and apartments.  

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, children of divorce, James Lawless, Minneapolis, Robin Lawless, Summer, summers with your dad, Wendy Lawless

Summers with Daddy — Carnival Rides

Robbie & Me

One of our last, if not our last summer, with our dad (James Lawless).  I’m not sure where this rickety old ride is but I think maybe the Minnesota State Fair.  You can still find these old warhorses at county fair grounds and little mom-and-pop amusement parks all over the country.  They may not have the scientifically engineered spills and thrills of the giant rollercoasters at Six Flags or Cedar Point or Disney World but, like Coney Island’s famous Cyclone, they have their own special kind of terror: they may fall apart at any minute!  The old herky-jerky movements, loose nuts and bolts and shakey scaffolding seem to have been a part of rides like these since they were new.  There even used to be tiny ones driven around on flatbed trucks that would come to neighborhoods like an ice cream truck bringing little thrills for a quarter.  Our Mother (Georgann Rea) took us to Disneyland once on a trip to Beverly Hills–the Beverly Hills Hotel and its Polo Lounge being more her idea of amusement.  But as wonderful as Disneyland was, its calculated charm couldn’t quite match the grinding gears, sunburned shoulders and sticky days of fairs with our dad.  What are your memories of local amusement parks and fairs?  Let me know in the comments or email me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com.  
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  carnivals, Cedar Point, Chanel Bonfire, children of divorce, Coney Island, Disneyland, Georgann Rea, James Lawless, Minneapolis, Minnesota State Fair, Robin Lawless, Six Flags, The Cyclone, Wendy Lawless

Uncle Chuck’s River

Me and Robbie on Uncle Chuck’s River

My father’s hometown, Brockville, where he would take us sometimes in the Summer is on the St. Lawrence River in Ontario just downstream from The Thousand Islands and just north west of New York State.  We called it Uncle Chuck’s River because our Uncle Chuck (my father’s brother-in-law) lived in a house on stilts over the St. Lawrence.  
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Brockville Ontario, Canada, James Lawless, Robin Lawless, St. Lawrence River, Summer, summers with your dad, The Thousand Islands, Uncle Chuck, Wendy Lawless

Happy Canada Day from Chanel Bonfire

Robbie with Grandma Lawless
My father (a “landed alien” who never became an American citizen) called his mother, Anne (Annabelle) Lawless the Iron Duchess.  She went to church every day and spent most of the rest of her time ruling the family from a seat at the kitchen table in Brockville, Ontario, drinking seemingly endless cups of tea.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Annabelle Lawless, Anne Lawless, Brockville Ontario, Canada Day, Chanel Bonfire, James Lawless, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

Canadian Summers

Me and Robbie with Uncle Chuck
Some times when we’d go to Minneapolis to see our dad, he’d take us to Canada to spend time with our cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents in Ontario.  Uncle Chuck lived on a house on stilts over the St. Lawrence river.  He was a lot of fun in the summers.  You could fish through a hole cut in the basement floor over the river.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Brockville Ontario, Canada, Chanel Bonfire, Robin Lawless, Simon and Schuster CA, St. Lawrence River, Wendy Lawless