This weeks challenge is to write about my favorite photo. With my passion of genealogy also comes a love of all these old family photos. Instead of trying to choose one, I think I’ll show you a few that have changed how I view those in the photos from how I knew them.
It is great to be able to put a face and context to our family who we did not know in the prime of their lives.

Well that’s a real disappointment. The first photo I was going to go with I can not find. The photo is  of my maternal grandfather when he was at Cornell and when I look at it I see a different young man from the person I only knew as an elderly and stern man. Another one from that same time period is this one of my grandparents on the day they were married. It is not a formal photo and they truly look very happy and carefree. Nothing like the buttoned-up formal couple they were in latter life.

This next photo is of my paternal grandparents who were quite different from my other grandparents. Here they look to be teenagers, that would make it taken about 1900. Since grandpa Ike died when I was just 2 years old I have no memory of him but my grandma (Gay) lived to be 93 I felt I really knew her. She was a little rough around the edges but had a huge heart. This was said to have been taken on the Elliott ranch, where her parents worked, near Visalia in California and it looks like their home was also a little rough. They were most likely pretty poor. Ike is wearing both suspenders and a belt. Her hair is quite something.

This next one is my mothers brother, Walt, who as a kid appears to be a”class clown”.  I think he is about 10 years old here. He was a thespian and a swordsman in college and later in life was a drum major for his local Shriners unit. The man I knew was mechanically inventive and a hard worker.

And now  this is one of my father and his sister (Eunice). It was taken in 1926. This is his first car. I do not know why his sister has a bouquet but I am assuming it was a special occasion. But why are they so serious? My aunt was always one with a ready smile and always so stylish. She was very particular about her clothes. She did not have a lot of clothes but she always handled them with great care and put them away wrapped with tissue paper. Now my dad worked road construction jobs when I was growing up. He drove a grader and came home filthy dirt. He would always clean up before dinner but I did not consider him “dapper”,  but many of his pictures from his younger days show him fairly well dressed, and that car was a “Star” (brand name) and looks quite sporty.