Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Summer Flashback: Ate at Joe's

During my lengthy summer blog hiatus, we got to go spend a week with Matt's family at his brother and sister-in-law's lake house in Western Mass. Chris and Robin were awesome hosts. This was a week of many new scenes for us, and we loved it all: The lake, the perfect temperatures, and the pretty little towns. One day we went to the Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, which is well worth seeing for all the Saturday Evening Post covers alone. Then we went to the Joe's Diner that you see in several Rockwell paintings from the 50's. It's in Lee, and if Robin hadn't taken us there, I never would have noticed it. It is a tiny hole-in-the-wall place. But guess who was there? The actual Joe, seen in this painting.

"The Runaway," 1958.
The Runaway
My runaways, 2012. With the authentic Joe!
kids with joe
Joe was quite happy to pose with the kids. Recreating the painting was his suggestion.
Kids Eat at Joe's
Cousins: Laura, Kay, Hank, and Abby

The museum is on a really pretty piece of land, and they've moved Rockwell's studio there from in town. That was my favorite part. It's a cute little house that looks like a barn. This was a great outing to do with kids, because they really get down with the whole illustration thing. The museum had a neat scavenger hunt of stuff for the kids to find in the paintings.

rockwell kids
Outside Stockbridge

Laura in Rockwell's studio
In the studio. L, Abby, and Kay compare two different versions of "Mosaic."
Hank in Norman Rockwell's Studio

In Norman Rockwell's studio

Hank wanted to be sure everybody saw his pirate flag, which was actually from a Howard Pyle exhibit at the museum and had nothing to do with Rockwell. But you know, yarr!

Thank you for indulging me in this nostalgic look back at July. It was just a simpler world then, you know? xoxo


4 comments:

Lisa Lilienthal said...

I love that Joe was so accommodating! He is stretching out his 15 mins, as it should be.

Amy said...

This is the coolest thing! What a fun experience for the kids. And Joe looks like the Joe in the painting!

Star said...

I'm so glad the kids had a fun time in the museum...I hope they keep going right on up into adulthood (O.K., O.K....I work in a museum, I confess).

Jess said...

That's awesome that you were up here :) I love it here in Western Ma! Glad you had a good time!