True Laughter

The year, 1950...the month is May...the smile is big...and the shirt says "Let's Hide".  It is a picture of my older brother as a young un', what a deal!

I came across this photograph last evening while looking through a group of family pictures.  It had never passed before my eyes, and I smiled as wide as Henry seemed to be smiling.  My older brother as a young child of one year of age.  Not many times do you get a chance to see your older brother in his life before you were born.  He certainly seems to have enjoyed his first year.

"Man that was a good one", he seems to be saying.  "Got another one to keep me laughing?"  It must have really been hard to keep those one year old kids laughing while you tried to get a good picture taken.

Well Henry, you got a good one taken here.  True laughter comes from within.

Our Smiles

Four generations later, smiles appear upon the faces. From stiff, not touching (Ellen and her older half-sister), to almost fearful, hold my hand (Pap paw's sisters), to let smiles be your umbrella (Dad, Mom, Henry, and me). The picture to the right was taken 1953. Around 70 years after no smiles, and around 50 years after doubtful smiles, to the 1950s where we all had smiles. My brother, was four years of age, and I was two years old when this picture was taken. Look at our eyes. What hope, what excitement, what anticipation seems to be there. What would the future hold for us. The house on Vine Street was just round the corner. [Literally, we had rented a house on Bucker Street, then Ashland Avenue, both were just around the corner to Vine.] WWII and the Korean War had just passed where guys Dad's age got killed. Mom had entered marriage at age 18 where by this age you had already put things together. This was my family. We loved. We fought. We laughed. We cried. We grew together for 18 years at that house at 25 Vine Street. All smiles...it took all the generations of our family to bring us to this point. Thank you, all the generations that had come before. Our smiles come through you.