Head over Heels

This may be a picture from one of the most important days in my life.

Sheila and I stopped by Mother and Daddy's house in the Skyland neighborhood a northern suburb of Atlanta during our Christmas break in December and January of 1970-71 then again a few weeks later. So I am not sure of the exact date of this picture but this could have been the evening of January 23 or the next day. 

If it was the 23rd it was the evening of the day I had asked Sheila to marry me! (January 23, 1971). We did not announce our engagement until April 1.  

I was head-over-heels in love with Sheila Matthews — still am.

We are standing in the parsonage of Skyland United Methodist Church. My mother had made a display of my paintings on the den wall. I am not fond of the landscape — a view of the hillside and ridge top tobacco barn beyond the Asbury College soccer field. I was also not happy with my still-life of the tennis racket et al. I did feel okay about my self-portrait and the large painting of a young mother and child in front of a Coca-Cola sign. I wish the photo show those two better.