Well, it’s April 29th 2008, my birthday. It’s weird how your birth date gets burned into your mind over the years. It’s written on every piece of paperwork you fill out, every application you put in, every phone call you make to for details on sensitive information… April 29th. It will also be on my tombstone. Now that’s commitment.
Last night my wonderful mom sent me some photos from my childhood that really made me smile. Both my dad and my grandpa were photographers papa was an artists / photographer and dad was a musician / photographer and it seemed that there were always cameras around, snapping photos of our every move. Thank god they did it because now I get to look back at images like these.
This is part of a scrap book (one of many) that my mom kept for me. This page includes my birth announcement as seen in the local Ada newspaper. What’s funny is that even at my birth they misspelled my name… a trend that carried on for the rest of my life. It amazes me at how detailed mom was in keeping these important life items.
Here’s a photo of me as an infant. Notice mom’s detail at documenting my progress in growth and walking.. such a great mom to have. I am constantly blown away by her overwhelming love and attention to her kids. I’m very lucky to have her.
A bit later in life, it appears I was destined to be a hippie farmer of some sort… or a very small country singer. I would have fit right in with the people on the Grand Ole’ Opry, no? My hair was blonde as a kid, not sure what happened there.
This must be around the same age, it appears I’m wearing the same overalls in this shot. I’m guessing they were my favorites. To this day I pick my favorite clothes and wear them until they fall off. It should be mentioned now that I wear the exact same pair of pants every day. A $200 pair of low cuts that I got on rodeo drive in CA last time I was there… every day. This show looks like it was taken at papa & granny’s house (mom’s parents) back before it became just papa’s house.
And this fine group is the Lafon family (mom’s family). She grew up with 9 brothers and sisters, so I ended up with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. In order of appearance back row first, left to right. Richard Lafon, Charlie Darras (my dad), Debi Lafon (mom holding my brother Ben), Not Sure, Not Sure, Chuck Lafont (changed his name after move to LA to act), Barbara Lafon (grandma, maiden name Malan), 2nd row Mary Lafon, Jennifer Lafon, Sharon Lafon and John Labaron (there married and Sharon Lafon became Sharon Lebaron, rolls off the tounge). Front row: who else? Malan Darras (with race car) and Jeremy Darras (with our puppet and good friend ‘Sexy Legs’).
This looks like it was shot at Granny & Papa’s house where we spent a lot of time as a big group. I have some really great memories of that house. I remember riding my grandpa’s unicycle through the house (inside) holding onto the walls and bashing into things, watching the grown ups walk around on his stilts in the back yard, wandering through his art studio in the basement and see my first painting of a nude woman, playing with his ‘magic 8 ball’ and thinking it was really magic and Jeremy walking through the room at times backwards with eyes closed because he thought that made him invisible.
All these years later it’s my birthday again. I’m still alive, I’m still a weirdo and I still am the product of this great, wacky, screwed up, creative family that I was lucky enough to be born into. As it turns out, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
happy birthday, sweetie.
man, those pics bring back memories…
wishing you the happiest. hope it’s great.
Hi Malan -
I grew up in the neighborhood with your wacky, creative Lafons. Thanks for the great pic of my old friends. Jennifer’s flowery muu-muu is priceless. I went to school with Chuck, Jennifer, and Mary and knew most of the other brothers and sisters. We had great times riding our bikes around the neighborhood and teasing the local “cool kids”.
Thanks for reminding me of these fun times . . . and happy birthday.
RG
I wish I could have conversations with old photographs….especially old photographs of myself. I wrote a short story about that as a matter of fact. In the story, I tried to warn myself about all the not so good things to come, but I just ended up making the same mistakes in different ways.
Feliz cumpleanos!!
Behind me are your Uncle Peter and Uncle Alan……..Dad (papa) was taking the photo and Susan was off somewhere…..love ya babe!
Precious, bro. Truly.
brings back memories reading the small town newspaper clippings.
hope you had a good birthday.
Happy Birthday yesterday! Your Momma was good to keep all of this for you. I need to do a better job of it for my girls!
Holly
I just noticed that they also misspelled ‘Jermy’ and ‘Charley’ - should have been Jeremy and Charlie…
gotta live small town press.
I loved looking through all of these. They are so adorable and precious. Loved the anecdotes as well. Our oldest daughter was also delivered by Dr. Jack Pettit, by the way. He is a character. Wonder if he’s still practicing? Obviously, since he delivered you and our daughter, he serves only the most exclusive of clientel. LOL
I want to see a pic of you from the years I did my teacher observation in Ken’s music class. I will never forget watching you during choir, staring at yourself in that huge wall mirror, fixing your long, blonde curls. LOL We student teachers used to get the biggest kick out of watching you primp. You were so cute and funny.
Oh, and I would also love to see a pic of Jeremy the night he accepted his award for outstanding band student (or something equally prestigeous - can’t remember the exact title) at the AHS spring band concert his senior year. Don’t remember if you were there or not. I’m pretty sure that your mom was. If I remember correctly, we gave him a standing ovation. Only Jeremy Darras could pull off the black leather glove, long earrings, black boots, and bandana rock and roll look that he rocked that night. Free spirits make the world such a cooler place to hang. You have that same kind of energy. That’s why I believe you have what it takes to really captivate a large audience. You were born to entertain and yet, you also have the serious, contemplative, highly intelligent , depth of character thing going on, as well. You have the whole package. I can’t imagine anyone more deserving of the success you are experiencing. I’m so happy for you.
Happy Birthday, Malan.
God Bless You!
the Pletchers
Sorry I’m late, but I hope you had a great birthday!
Happy Brithday homey, wish I’d a known –I would’ve backed you a cake
Hey Kelby, My favorite thing about choir.
1. Singing
2. Hearing the girls sing harmonies a capella (drove me crazy & they would do it whenever i asked)
3. that big mirror so i could fix my hair up
4. Ken screaming at me for yawning and falling asleep in class
by the way, do you have any idea where ken is these days? I would LOVE to find him.
The last time I saw him, he was living in the Tulsa/Broken Arrow area. Haven’t talked with him in years but I can probably find him for you. Will let you know what I dig up.
LOVE your choir list. Those were the days, huh?
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