More memories...

More memories ... from my mom's photo collection.  The photos in this post are all modern copies of older photos.  I do not have the originals.

Here my mom is holding her little sister (my aunt) Bonnie on her shoulders.  On the back, in mom's handwriting: “Bonnie + Elinor 50-51”.  I recognize the front yard as my maternal grandparent's home, the one I knew as a little boy.  This was roughly a year before she married my dad.  How young she looks!  At that point my dad was 27 years old, returned from the war and starting his own business – quite an age and experience difference.

This was taken in the living room of my maternal grandparent's house.  On the back, in my mom's handwriting: “Christmas 53-4?”.  I'm remembering it from a few years later, I'm sure.  I remember that wallpaper, though – thought it was terribly ugly even then! :)  Left-to-right in the photo are my mom's dad (my grandfather) Donald, her sisters Bonnie and Betty (my aunts), Betty's son Mike (my cousin), and my mom's mom (my grandmother) Mable.  I've discovered that my grandmother's name is spelled “Mable” on her birth certificate, and “Mabel” in many other places (including some official documents).  Even my mom spelled it differently at different times.  I'm going with the birth certificate as authoritative, but for all I know that was the typo!

This bevy of bathing beauties all looked like strangers to me, but on the back in my mom's handwriting it says: “Mom – top right”.  The bathing suits were the height of fashion in the '20s.  I don't know my maternal grandmother's birth year, but it must have been in the first few years of the 1900s – which would make her 20 years old around 1925, so that actually fits the scenario.  That means this photo was taken sometime around then, which makes it (so far, at least) the oldest photo of my mom's family that I've found.

Finally, there's this photo of (left-to-right) my mom, my maternal grandfather Donald, and my uncle Donnie.  On the back, in my mom's handwriting: “Dad Don & Elinor”.  I don't recognize the house, but from the city-style mailbox it must be their Locust, New Jersey home – I know from mom's stories that it was actually in the city, unlike their later homes.  Mom looks to be 3 or 4, which would place this in '38 or '39.  My grandfather certainly looks very young there!