The kid with the camera is always popular.

Springfield, Illinois, June 1972. Most found the museum shop more interesting than than Lincoln home.

I recall most girls wore "culottes" on this field trip.

Headed Home

Central Illinois, June 1972. We've finished the field-trip dinner, and we board the buses.

You've seen the chaperon earlier here. The adult with her back to the lens is one of the mod nuns.

Dinner Stop

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Central Illinois, June 1972. Our eighth-grade class had dinner at this buffet on our way home from Springfield.

Fellow Travelers

Sacred Heart School, Melrose Park, Illinois, Spring 1967. I photograph some more classmates before our trip to the zoo.

Friday Field Trip

Sacred Heart School, Melrose Park, Illinois, Spring 1967. My classmates are ready for the outing to Brookfield Zoo.

The Start of the Eighth-Grade Field Trip

Suburban Chicago, June 1972. Our eighth-grade class prepares to depart for Springfield. We settle down as Sister P. explains proper behavior, and Mr. R. checks for contraband.

Field Trip to the Tree

Near Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1936. Suzanne—the wife of my Dad's older cousin, Henry—accompanies a class of children. Suzanne is in the center, wearing the light blouse.

Thanks to Suzanne's Granddaughter—my Kaunas Cousin—for making this photo available to us.

Aquatic Bird House

Brookfield Zoo, Spring 1967. Do you remember how dank it was in that building?

Teacher Crush

Sacred Heart School, Melrose Park, Illinois, Spring 1967. My third-grade classmates cluster around our teacher. It's likely we were heading to an end-of-year field trip to Brookfield Zoo because: (1) one girl wears a nametag; and (2) I otherwise would not have brought my camera to school.

Another Field Trip

Sacred Heart School, Melrose Park, Illinois, June 1964. Eighth-graders gather in the school's courtyard as they prepare to depart for a class trip to Springfield.

A "Sewing Room"

Suburban Chicago, Spring 1972. After the sewing machines moved to the basement, Mom and I spent a lot of time there working on our respective projects. Here, I sew a plaid "culottes" garment that I wore to my eighth-grade field trip to Springfield, Illinois. Gigi sits behind me on the chair: that was one of her favorite resting places.

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Suburban Chicago, Spring 1972. I do a fitting for the dress I wore to my eight-grade graduation. I am wearing a lime-green vest that I knitted.

Chicago Ties

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1940. Members of my Mom's high-school class gather with a few of their teachers for a class picture. This is the same group that made several out-of-town field trips during its senior year.

The Sisters of St Casimir staffed the high school. It's interesting that an order of sisters with Chicago roots educated Mom.

Looking Grown-up

Mariampolis, Lithuania, Autumn 1940. Members of my Mom's high-school class make a senior-year trip to the city of Mariampolis. The girls wear their uniform caps, and lay teachers, on the right, are serving as chaperones.

Trakų Pilis

May 25, 1940. My Mom's high school class goes on a field trip to the national landmark, Trakų pilis , or "Trakai Castle." Mom is the student standing in the back, in the center of a group of three young women. She's the one with a visible neck tie.

Class Outing

My Mom's high school, Saulės Gimnazija, organized a class trip to the new Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, during the initial months of direct, Russian occupation.

Vilnius, Lithuania, November 24, 1940. My Mom and her classmates, in their high-school uniforms, enjoy a field trip in Vilnius. Mom remembers that the temperature was particularly cold that day.

This is the last photo in a short series.

This is the third of the photos on which my Dad wrote the date, April 30, 1939.

My Dad has been dead for twenty-five years, and I never learned why that date was important. Perhaps he had just spent a marvelous afternoon with high-school friends, and he wanted to record the special day.

There are many things I'd still like to ask my Dad.

Lithuania, April 30, 1939. My Dad, with the eye glasses, stands behind the trench-coat-wearing teacher. This is another group of classmates from Aušros Gimnazija. The students wear the caps that identify the high school they attend.

One Bicycle

This is the second of several photos on which my Dad wrote the date, April 30, 1939.

Kaunas, Lithuania, April 30, 1939. My Dad and classmates from his high school, Aušros Gimnazija, stop along the road. Dad is seated, second from left, adjusting his collar. His friend Casey is next to him, wearing a trenchcoat.

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.

Field Trip!!

Lithuanian high-school students wore uniforms. Almost all the time. Young people wore the uniforms because they were high-school students, not just when they were attending high school.

A Lithuanian high-school student who left her house—for whatever purpose—stepped out in her high-school uniform. My Mom, for example, remembers going, in uniform, to an evening opera performance with her Mother, Jadzė. She also recalls dressing in uniform for walks (Mom still uses the French "rendezvous" to describe an innocent stroll with a friend) and shopping on the weekends.

Each high school had a differently colored uniform, and students wore caps with visor badges that identified their schools. The uniforms in girls' schools consisted of dark dresses, dark tights, bow ties, and removable white collars that could be laundered more frequently.

The rule, I think, had a two-fold purpose. First, if a student got into trouble, it would be easy to identify the student based on her school. Second, it's likely that the high schools had different social rankings, and a uniform instantly would peg a student "in her place."

Mariampolis, Lithuania, 1940. My Mom and her high-school classmates travel from Kaunas to visit a beet-sugar factory. Mom stands in the very center of the first row—at the "base" of the visual pyramid. She's wearing her school cap.

The Soviets had just launched their occupation of Lithuania. Here, two Soviet soldiers stand among the girls. I assume that the three men on the left are high-school teachers.