490501 - Plus Daddy makes Three

These are the first photographs in which father and I appear together.  It is fairly obvious that, after a highly irregular start, mother and father decided to "do" family.   I am struck by mother's air of uncertainty and my own doubtfulness except for the one in which I am sitting in father's lap. 

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There are four foto-groups that I have placed in 1949 based primarily on the assessment that I look to be about two years old:

#1 Trip to Canada - FAM56-68 = 3KRM26-31 [album]
#2 Bedroom Photos - FAM92-96 = 3KRM38-39 [album]
#3 Birthday Portraits - FAM397-1 to 397-11 = 3KRM32-37 [album]
#4 Living Room - FAM98-102 = 3KRM40-45 [album]
#5 Playground - FAM102-104 = 3KRM46 [album]
(The out-of-sequence numbering for the "Birthday Portraits" must have been caused by either overlooking or not getting around to that collection until after all the other prints and/or negatives were placed and numbered, back in 1979.)

It annoys me no end that mother never bothered to date or caption anything. What the hell was she thinking? She seems to just have tossed them into the suitcase expecting them to magically sort themselves out. It was not simply "Bohemian" but downright inconsiderate and irresponsible. Somebody would have to go through all of this stuff and who might that somebody be? The only notation she made was on FAM397-5 on which she notes "9 months" and which is plainly wrong.

There might be a film of the trip to Canada which may have a date on it, otherwise I have simply had to make my best guesses as to the order in which these fotos were taken.

My lynchpin assumption is that the portraits (#3) were taken either at Easter or on my second birthday. For some reason "Easter" lurks in my mind, but birthday makes more sense; i.e. "baby is two, let's take some formal portraits." Note that in #397-1 I am holding a rubber bunny and it makes sense that I would have got it at easter time. But this group also shows a little piano and a tricycle, and these items imply birthday gifts.

It seems to me that I look younger in Set #1 (Trip to Canada) than in Set #3. If that is the case then the Trip to Canada would have been taken sometime before May. This would seem unlikely, as Canada is still pretty cold in April and even more so in March. However, I do have a "sense-recollection" that it was cool and brisk. I also have a memory of staring down the road and watching the orange busses to Ottawa or Montreal disappear into the distance. My mind sees chunks of hardened snow along the highway. More recently I decided that the trip to Canada had to be in the summer and so I dated the set as "4908" but I think this is wrong. The PCV playground pictures were more likely shot in the summer and I am clearly even bigger still. Additionally, (mother mentioned that) the quilt with the red sunflowers was sewn by Odile.  She obviously didn't quilt anything in 1947 when I was almost dying.  It is more likely that the quilt was picked up during the 1949 trip.  All in all, my 1979 sequencing was better.

The Bedroom Photos and the Portraits were clearly taken very close together, if not on the same day. Although the shoes are different, I am wearing the same outfit. Also the piano and tricycle appears in both sets. I recall monther saying something about "we had a photographer come to take" these [the portrait] pictures. Whether after or before, they evidently decided to take additional photos on their own. I am keeping them in the above-listed order, but it was probably the case that they decided to take more photos themselves once the photographer left.

Based on the foregoing, the sequence of the remaining two sets is fairly obvious.

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480601 - Mexico Home Leave

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These pictures are loose and undated. There are no corresponding negatives.

Mother remarked that Daniel had home leave every two years. I dimly recall her saying that we went to Mexico when I was one years old; and, since other photographs I have show me either younger or older, I am supposing that these were taken in 1948. The date of "June" is hypothetical. Given the warmer weather in Mexico they could have been taken at any time in the year.

On examination, this group divides into three parts: an outing at a park, an outing on some hill and an outing at Xochimilco. They were most likely not taken on the same day and this is confirmed by the fact that mother is wearing a different dress in each set. The people accompanying mom and dad are "the Rafaels," a middle class Mexican family father had known prior to coming to the United States. We saw them with fair regularity through 1954, after which we lost touch except that later I would run into one of the daughters, Sylvia, who worked at Sanborns Reforma.

My dim recollection is that the Rafaels lived in an apartment in the Insurgentes Sur area. (In fact, I have a visual vignette of water in their tub and of their living room overlooking Insurgentes to the North.) That being the case, the park in question is either Parque México or Parque España; however, I have not been able to find a photograph confirming or placing the stone park bench.

The picture of me in the pram is different from the other prints of me at the park. However, that it was taken on the same date is shown by the following: (1) the wavy pattern of the pavement in the first photo is a typical mexican pavement design; (2) I am wearing the same suit; and (3) the wheel of the pram can be seen in a corner of the second picture. The sequence in which I have arranged them simply makes sense.

The two hillside fotos are identifiable by the fact that both show a populated hillside in the background. Given the roads in 1948, (it took four hours to Puebla and the new autopista to Cuernavaca wasn't opened until 1952), the location has to be within an hour/s drive of Mexico City, if that. The topography of the hills is more like to the north of the city although some areas to the southwest look similar. But there wasn't anything of interest to the southwest except San Jeronimo/San Angel. On the other hand, the church at Tepotzlan was always a magnet. However, there are no "arcos" like that one depicted in Tepotzlán.

The remaining fotos are obviously Xochimilco. My guess is that the party ate after paddling about through the canals. The layout looks better in reverse order.

I find it curious that there are so few photos of what would have been mother's first trip to Mexico. However, this apparent anomaly is somewhat offset by the existence of an 8mm film of their trip to Puebla to meet my grandmother, Martha.

One last comment on the date. Mother and father were not officially married until August 1948 and it is not unreasonable to think that they would have waited until sometime after then before hauling baby across an international boundary. Then again, nothing they ever did was all that reasonable.

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480301 - Peter Cooper Village

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471031 - Baby in Fall

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Although back in 1979 I dated these three "S284" prints as "4803," that seems wrong to me now. The clothing clearly implicates colder weather. In terms of baby size, they come after the S946 prints (ante) and prior to S321 prints (post) the latter of which were clearly taken in Peter Cooper Village. (The difference in brick patterns will be noted.) The best I can figure these were probably taken in the fall, possibly early Spring of 1948.

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470916 - Katherine does Kahlo

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Since the drowned rat is starting to look more like a small possum, these photos were likely taken after the previous.  I originally dated them "Aug" but I think September is more accurate since I am bigger and it is still yet warm enough to be dressed in short sleeves.  I've arbitrarily dated these as on the 16th on account of mother's a la mexicana style.   It is good to note mother's impish smile, but I still find it odd that there is no "proud father" to be seen anywhere.  

I am tempted to say that the brownstone with the rounded doorway arch was where mother lived.  It looks very similar to a film I have of everyone standing on the front door steps.  However, in that film a grocery store is shown opposite and it looks to me that what is opposite in these photos is the small garden and official looking building. 

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470812 - Rescued Rat

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The Birth Diary ends with a notation in mother's hand on August 12th, that "Danielito" had a good day. So by then mother and son were back in New York. Mother's short sleeves and light clothes bespeak warm weather.

The good days, it would seem, were intermittent. According to mother, i had "the nine months colic" "Colic usually begins suddenly, with loud and mostly nonstop crying. Colicky babies can be very difficult to calm down." I drove mother to distraction and caused her to loose sleep. According to her, the pediatrician said, "Little mother, you need to get some rest." Instead she got penumonia and I was passed over into the care of my aunt and uncle, Mary and Martin Roach.

It will be noted that father is nowhere to be seen and he does not appear to have been the one taking these or the subsequent pictures. Smiling couple with happy baby... not.

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