January 11, 2012

War was just around the corner.

Dad wrote a precise date on this photo: April 30, 1939. I don't know whether the date signified a school-related milestone, or whether he remembered the date because World War II erupted in the European theater three months later, when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.

This photo may be from a high-school field trip. My Dad studied at Aušros Gimnazija in Kaunas. Here, the boys wear those uniform caps that identify the high school.


Kaunas, Lithuania, April 30, 1939. My Dad—on the far left, with a carnation in his lapel—is with some high-school classmates and teachers. Dad's friend Casey stands in the center, wearing the unbuttoned, light-colored trench coat.

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