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.
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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