Taking a break from the Neal and Fumiko Zellers family saga, here are a couple family photos from 1954. I believe they were taken at the same time as the Neal and Fumiko photos taken by my uncle Allen as we were probably all gathered in my grandparents home.
I don’t know who took this one and cut off Neal’s head. Either Allen took it with a time delay, or perhaps his wife Jane did. I’ll just note that Allen took tons of pictures but he was never a very good photographer; he just pointed and shot, and he seldom aimed well.
By the way, you can see the bottom of that reverse art painting that I wrote about previously.
Pepper, Mark, Allen, Neal in the back
Tillie, Reed, Harry, Arlene
Two things in particular I find notable about this next one. It’s one of the very few pictures of me where I’m smiling with my teeth. Somewhere along the line I lost the ability to smile while showing my teeth. And that plaid sports jacket that I’m wearing helps me to date another photo that I had previously thought was from 1955. Now I’m sure it’s from around this same time in 1954, as I would probably have outgrown that jacket by the following year. Also, my hair looks the same.
Arlene, Jimmy, Arthur
This professional portrait doesn’t have a date on it, and I had originally thought it was from 1955, but as I’m wearing the same jacket as in that previous photo, it’s almost certainly from around the same time. So it’s either a Christmas or an Easter portrait, so that would date it to between November 1953 to March 1954, I guess. I always liked the way I have my pinky crossed.
Beautiful photos!!
James, your pictures are all very nice and I must tell you about Reed. My daughter Lanette works in the snack bar at Lebanon Valley golf course during the season and she met Reed and knows him from the snack bar and when he found out that she used to live in Richland and her last name is Gockley he told her that he remembers me taking him for a ride in my 1940 Ford coupe and I don’t know why I don’t remember that but I do remember him walking in town and that is all. Anyway it’s so interesting for me to read you blogs . Of course I knew Leo Blecker becaues I bought all my gas there and I knew his two sons and Lamar and I played on the little league baseball team the same year .
We may not have known each other, but we knew some of the same people!