Coffee in the Living Room

Suburban Chicago, Spring 1962. Mom often entertained friends on Thursday afternoons because Thursday was her day off. Here she is with a woman I'll call the "Other Irene."

Related by Marriage: Eisenhower Jacket

Camp Irwin, Barstow, California, 1952. Mr. Irene's Dad fondly saved this photo of an Army buddy.

UPDATE: Mr Irene's Dad reports that his buddy is a fellow Chicagoan. The buddy was the "assistant" to the four officers who were in charge of Camp Irwin. In this case, "assistant" meant "valet." This man was responsible for doing the laundry, making beds, scheduling meals and meetings, and general residential cleaning for all four officers. (Mr Irene's Dad emphasized that shoe shining was off the responsibility list.)

Here, the buddy is imitating the instructional style of a certain lieutenant for whom he worked. The cap, overcoat, and long pointer are the lieutenant's: Mr. Irene's Dad and his fellow Privates endured numerous lectures in this style.

Centered on Friendship

Seligenstadt, Germany, 1948. My Dad, in the center, meets with two friends after a scouting event.

Autumn is in the air, and ...

... yarn bombers create warm gear for scupltures on the Wichita State campus.

Storks mate for life.

Austria, near the Hungarian border, July 1971. Even though these are different storks in a different place, they still send the same message of good luck and fidelity.

Locals shop at the Rialto Market, too.

Venice, Italy, April 1984. The shops straddling the Rialto Bridge serve both tourists and Venetians.

College bound.

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1940. Here's my Dad at about the time he graduated from high school.

Related by Marriage: Apple-Picking Season

Location uncertain, autumn 1953. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather, Stanley, picks apples with his wife, Anna—on the right, blending in with the trees—and Anna's sister, Petra, on the left.

"The knock came at 06:00 on the dark, snowy morning of 10 February 1940."

A moving story of survival during World War II.

Maywood Architecture

My childhood home stood on a street that ran perpendicular to the banks of the Des Plaines River. Across the river, to the east of our home, began the tony suburb of River Forest, and beyond River Forest, was elegant Oak Park.

Both River Forest and Oak Park are home to architectural gems. I attended high school in River Forest, and Mr. Irene's high school was in Oak Park. We each often rode past famous homes, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. My Mom made a house call to the William Winslow House.

Fewer people know about the architectural history of Maywood, the suburb that began three blocks to the south of our home. Many unaltered, historical homes—both Victorian and Prairie-Style houses—stand in Maywood. Today a friend pointed me to a new video, The Historic Homes of Maywood. It's worth a look.

(Via Chicago Curbed.)

Still

Glacier National Park, Montana, July 1968. This is why it's called "Big Sky Country."

I graduate from the high chair.

Suburban Chicago, July 1960. My Mom seems comfortable with the idea, but my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, remains uncertain.

The new furniture arrives.

Suburban Chicago, November 1963. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, stands with the new dining-room furniture that my Parents selected when they redecorated the dining and living rooms.

The knitters who attended the "design-your-own-fair-isle workshop" that I co-hosted this summer will recognize the dining room table as the one at which we lunched each day.

Related by Marriage: Canine Recruit

Kaiserslautern, Germany, 1948. Mr. Irene's Dad—seated in the front, on the far left—joins fellow Displaced Persons in the canine security unit as they welcome a new, furry recruit.

Football at Soldier Field

I spoke too quickly last year when I asserted that I'd never been to a football game before 2011. My Dad took us to a football game at Soldier Field on November 2, 1963. At first, I didn't know what prompted him to get tickets for the game. Dad was not a sports fan, and to him, "football" meant "soccer." The photos initially suggested that one of the teams was the Army one from West Point. Was this an Army versus Navy match? No. Wikipedia reports that an Army-Navy game took place at Soldier Field in 1926, not 1963.

Ah! Then I saw why we went to this game. President Kennedy was scheduled to attend, and it was an Air Force versus Army match. The Secret Service abruptly canceled the trip, however, after it uncovered an assassination plot.

Dad already had taken us to see JFK earlier that year. Dad was not a Democrat, but he recognized the importance—especially for a child—of seeing the President in person.

Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. A big crowd attends the game. Perhaps many still were not aware that President Kennedy was not in the audience.

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Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. Here's the photo of the Army cadets that prompted me to start digging into the history of this game.

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Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. What's going on here?!

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Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. It's the best part of any football game: halftime.

Dinghy

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. Dad stood near our rental cottage when he took this photo of our family as I fished.

You can still enjoy a spin, even as autumn approaches.

Melrose Park, Illinois, October 1962. I'm riding the cars at Kiddieland, and leaves have fallen onto the platform.

Related by Marriage: Desert Gear

Camp Irwin, Barstow, California, 1951. Mr. Irene's Dad is ready for maneuvers in the sand.

Line up for the Jamboree.

Isarhorn, Germany, August 2 to 14, 1948. Lithuanian scouts from the many Displaced Persons camps gather in Isarhorn for the third Scouting Jamboree.

Concert in the Park

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 1963. On our way to Cape Cod, we've stopped in Toronto to visit my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, her husband Kadis, and their daughter, my Toronto Cousin.

Related by Marriage: The New Puppy

Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois, 1952. Mr. Irene's Mom walks her new puppy near the alley behind her Parents' home.

Sunday Paper: Look-up Edition

Suburban Chicago, December 1962. Dad catches Mom's attention while she catches up on the Sunday news.

The blog celebrates its first birthday today.

I started this blog one year ago. I began blogging as a way to preserve old photos. A handful of factors motivated me. First, a recently "found" relative—my "New" Cousin—had published an engaging family history. His account prompted me to reflect on the family narratives that lurked behind our photo collection. Second, I have been ill during the last four years. Before I became ill, I thought about cataloging the thousands of photos my Dad had left behind into a chronological index. After the illness recurred—for a second and then a third time—I wanted a vehicle for quickly saving the photos and making them widely accessible. Third, we have some "lost" relatives. Some are "lost" by their own design; others are "lost" because we lost track of them. I sought a way of preserving the shared history with those relatives. (My Dad would smile were he to think that sometimes it takes a photo, not an olive branch.) Fourth, I started a blog instead of a book because I wanted a device—namely the "link"—that allowed me to interconnect the photos and stories succinctly and with little repetition.

The blog has been satisfying. It's a great diversion—nearly as distracting as knitting. It has prompted reunions, introduced me to Lithuanians preserving scouting histories, and resulted in commenters identifying until-now-anonymous-to-me photo subjects. In one case, research deriving from the blog led us to discover that one person who had been presumed to have perished during World War II instead had survived.

When I started the blog, I hurried to post the "core" family photos. I have added about five photos to the blog daily. I may not post as aggressively in the future, but I won't let this project fade.

Morton Arboretum, October 1964. Collect ideas as if they were colorful leaves.

Prepared

Glacier National Park, Montana, July 1966. Dad has his camera bag, loaded with several cameras, and he's ready for a long hike.

Coloring Book

Suburban Chicago, December 1962. I'm in the Rec Room, and my crayons stay organized in a baking-powder tin.

Keep that knitting handy.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. Mom and Dad have gone for a walk in the pine forest surrounding the lake, and Mom has brought a project in her gray knitting bag. She's knitting a red, mohair sweater that she would wear the following summer, when we made our first trip to Glacier.

Related by Marriage: We still wear babushkas.

Union Pier, Indiana, Summer 1961. Although it's really hot, Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, and Anna's sister, Petra, wear babushkas. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather, Stanley, and Mr. Irene's Dad sit behind little Mr. Irene.

Here's a photo by which to remember us.

Würzburg, Germany, perhaps 1949. My friend Kris's Uncle Al—he's the one on the left with the wavy hair—joins two friends on what may have been the day he and his family sailed to America.

Soon, autumn will be here.

Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois, October 1963. And I'll be on the hunt for colorful leaves.

Related by Marriage: Museum Visit

Dearborn Michigan, Spring 1958. Mr. Irene's maternal Aunt, Martha, and his Mom visit the Henry Ford Museum.

Plaid Shirt

Suburban Chicago, Winter 1961. I remember this shirt. It was brown, burgundy, and tan. Its fabric was very soft with a lovely drape; it was nothing like the stiff flannels sold today.

The School Play

When I was in grade school, I rarely participated in extra-curricular activities. It was difficult for me to stay after classes ended because I relied on the bus to get home. My Mom worked full time, and my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, didn't drive: as a result, there was no one to pick me up if I didn't take the bus. We lived about eighteen to twenty blocks from the school, and my Parents thought that was too far a distance for me to walk when I was little.

In 1969, the school organized a play to celebrate its seventy-fifth (I believe) anniversary. There were two parts available for students to play nuns. I did not want to miss out on the role of a lifetime. I convinced my Parents that they should allow me to try out for the play because I could get a ride home from a friend's stay-at-home Mom, or, in the alternative, I could walk home from school occasionally because I was in the fifth grade.

I got one of the nun roles. The best part of the gig was that the sisters who ran our school allowed me and my fellow nun actress to wear real nun habits. One afternoon, we went to the convent and the sisters fitted us with their black robes. There were some cheesy additions—in particular, a silver heart made from aluminum foil—that my Grandmother added so that our habits would resemble the ones worn in the early twentieth century.

I had a great time playing the nun. This was the only time I acted in a school play. In later years, I instead was the piano accompanist for the grade school choir.

Suburban Chicago, Winter 1969. I strike my serious nun pose.

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Suburban Chicago, Winter 1969. "Tuition 50 cents."

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Suburban Chicago, Winter 1969. I played the role of Sister Frances, the Franciscan.

Two of my favorite things, joined in one place.

Knitting and dogs.

Valley View

Glacier National Park, Montana, July 1966. Photos don't capture how small one feels when surrounded by these mountains.

Related by Marriage: Exercising Arno

Kaiserslautern, Germany, 1948. Mr. Irene's Dad—on the left—exercises his dog, Arno, as he walks with a friend from the canine security unit.

Fresh Catch

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. Dad brings home dinner. Too bad Mom hates fish.

It's never too early to start practicing.

Suburban Chicago, December 1961. Whatever happened to all of those great throw pillows?

Durable

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, July 1967. The tree adapts to its conditions.

Vacation Style

Niagara Falls, New York, July 1963. Mom and Dad sport their travel wear as we visit the Falls.

Related by Marriage: Future Inlaws

future wife of his brother, Ignas.

Picnic Supper

Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada, July 1956. It's the end of another summer day at Wasaga Beach, and it's time to enjoy dinner. From left to right sit Kadis—the husband of my Dad's twin sister,

Patio Picnic

Suburban Chicago, August 1960. We're entertaining the families of my Godfather and Godmother. Mom grabs a sip during the conversation.

Tomorrow is grooming day.

Verona, Wisconsin, October 2011. Poppy returns from the groomer with bows. Baci and Rex sometimes get bandanas.

Related by Marriage: Adjusting to the new routine.

Fort Knox, Kentucky, November 1950. Mr. Irene's paternal Uncle, Ignas, adjusts to life in the U.S. Army. He wrote, "I feel just fine in this uniform."

A good friendship is worth the price one pays for it.

Seligenstadt, Germany, about 1946. My maternal Grandfather, Jake—on the far right—socializes again with fellow Displaced Persons.

In their prime.

Near Schweinfurt, Germany, about 1948. A group of my Dad's scouting friends gathers during a camping trip.

Free Speech?

A Rhode Island Cockatoo tests a local noise ordinance: " As for the bird’s decidedly salty vocabulary? The violation doesn’t take issue with the type of language, but Peltier denied that the pet bird said 'f***ing whore.'"

Partly Cloudy

Glacier National Park, Montana July 1972. We're hiking again near Grinnell Glacier.

Gigi, at play.

Suburban Chicago, Winter 1970. Gigi and I engage in the "play bite" game in the Rec Room. Behind me stands the bookshelf with the 1965 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

This was the time when crocheted vests were quite the thing. The throw pillow features a typical Lithuanian "tulip" pattern that recurs in weaving and needlework.

Grannies of Dainava

"But after the initial shock I realised that the grannies have their own schedules, they cannot stay put, and are themselves directors, so I shot more things the way they wanted, not me[.]"

Related by Marriage: Colorized

This photo is the only one in our stash that has been colorized. Before color photography came on the scene, it was common to have images of important events hand tinted, or "colorized."

Chicago, Illinois, 1947. This is Aunt Agnes on the occasion of her second marriage. Agnes was the cousin of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Agnes played a big role in the lives of Mr. Irene and his Parents because she financed the mortgage for Mr. Irene's childhood home. Agnes was widowed two or three times.