Sitting outside with the upstairs tenant, Miss Gemma Masari,
and my rabbit, whose name I don't remember.
(Note that this picture was originally a color photo . . .
and how it has faded over time.)
Afternoon koffie al fresco
with Tom & Johanna (Jopie) Devine
and their first daughter, Elizabeth (Liz)
Photo taken in Summer 1956
[Sadly, Lizzie passed away on 21 April 2017]
. . . This has to be the strangest photo I have of my Mother.
Of course, I look pretty strange here, too . . .
My favorite picture of the two of us,
taken at Christmas in 1955 or 1956 . . .
. . . a visit from our very nice landlord, Mr. Schanock
A birthday party for me
Dity "dances" with Jopie
Photo taken on 6 December 1957
COMMENTARY:
* Remember daubing the white stuff on the windows through the stencils, and then scraping them off after Christmas? What a mess!
* All those pewter knickknacks were brought over on the boat, in a trunk, which was my toybox for years after. The wooden head was carved by Han Denninger, my Father's brother; I now have it.
* This house, and my life in it, reminds me of Jean Shepherd's movie, The Christmas Story, except there was no leg lamp in our window.
* While we lived here, I attended Grant Elementary School, a one-mile walk, four times a day. I remember that on some days - and I never knew when - my Mother would make Hollandse Pannekoeken for lunch . . . I could smell them a block away as I came home. As typical with my Mother, we were years ahead of the current craze for crêpes, which is what her "Dutch Pankcakes"actually were.
When we moved to Seventh Avenue, we no longer had Hollandse Pannekoeken because we had a modern electric range . . . we discovered that you can't make decent crêpes on an electric range.
However, my Mother did scandalize
the citizens of Kenosha
when she came to the beach
(Simmons Island) in a bikini . . .
risqué by then-current American standards!
(That picnic basket is now in Arizona)
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