The farm in Rockland County

 The group of farm people my mother's cousin Jack brought over in 1939 and 1940.  German Jews, very dangerous.  Don't know how he did it.  Though my mother insisted they were self-sufficient and sometimes they brought vegetables.  I don't think the farm lasted very long.  Not much agrarian background among European Jews.

Some of  my closer relatives are in this picture; I can identify them.  Left was the cousin Jack.  Next to him is my Aunt Ruth, I think the lady in the white jacket in the middle is my great aunt Gertrude with her youngest son Jim crouching next to her.  Farthest to my right is my grandmother Regina.

I haven't figured out the rest of the people.  But it was Jack's sister Flora, her husband Wilhelm Adler and her father in law Abraham Adler.  Jack's brother Julius and his wife Irene.  I don't know about Flora.

Julius and Irene had their children in the 1920s as did my grandmother.  I don't know who the other young boy is.  

This is around 1940, don't know how to date it.

But here's the kicker.  Jack, Flora and Julius' were siblings.

Another sibling -- David Baumann, for whom we laid the stolpersteine memorial in Amsterdam two years ago.  

I wondered why my mother and family didn't know about David and his family.  My mother had passed away when we discovered it.  Oh, people didn't know, they didn't know my grandfather's cousins, they were far away, people didn't talk about it,  it was different then, no computers, etc.

Nope, not buying it now or before.  Here are 3 of David's siblings right in this picture (somewhere) posing with my grandmother, my aunt, my great aunt and her son.  My mother telling me the story of the farm in 1985.  Flora and her husband sailed from Rotterdam and registered in Amsterdam.  They had to know about David being in Amsterdam.

I have lights!

 Check it out!  I have lights!

Dennis got them today and put them when I was out!  A surprise!  

I really like having some lights.  But Dennis said he threw out all the lights last year because they didn't work, etc etc.  Suzie often does them for me but she is so busy, couldn't really do it.  Plus I didn't have any anyway.

But now I do!  Modest but nice.

Somebody shot my dog as a puppy!!

 

In rural Oklahoma.  

I knew these facial features were there but I never put it together.  Bowen ended up at the emergency vet Sunday because he jumped on a stick pointing straight up with his mouth open.  So he tore a 2 cm gash in his upper tongue.  He's ok, feeling a lot better.

But the people at the emergency vet pointed out to Dennis that there was evidence of a shotgun shooting.  These people see these things, they know what to look for..  This is the right side of his face.  Including his eye which had been removed.  The story we got was that he came into care with his eye infected and they couldn't save it.

Notice on his ear at the bottom there's a little hole.  It's actually perfectly round with edge underneath ragged.  On his face, there are some abnormalities, little scars.  They said that was buckshot.  They also showed Dennis the xrays of his head which showed more buckshot and some spots where buckshot had been.  So it ended up in his eye which got injured and infected.

His left eye is fine and he's (almost) fully functional.

He came to us at 9 months, he had been at a foster home for a month or so.  I don't know how long he was in care in Oklahoma.  So somebody took a shotgun shot at a 6 or 7 month old puppy. Obviously not a direct shot.

WHO would shoot a shotgun at a puppy?????  Who would shoot *my* dog who's such a sweety!

Elgie pics

 Here are some pictures (maybe) of my aunt.  The first picture was from a random pox of stuff that Dennis found in the garage.  It's marked 1961, Elgie in the back holding her two older children Sonia and Jonathan.  All deceased now.

The bottom picture is a framed picture sent to me.  It's an older frame with curved glass over the image.  Dennis thinks that the curved glass indicates it's a much older picture and that a technique known as heavy oil was used to touch up.  Though I have never seen it before, I think it's a picture of Elgie as a child.  It looks like her including the wavy hair.

Father and son

I think they like each other.  Simon age 9 months with his father Matt.  They've been in Tucson this past week observing the death of Simon's great grand mother Grandma Massey, a true matriarch.  Temp in the lower 70s, sounds pretty nice.
 

Picture on the Bureau

 In the box of framed photos I received is this one which I recognized.  I think a similar picture was on my mom's bureau.

Where is that picture anyway?  Things just slip away.

Who is it?  I think it's my great grandmother.  Sophia Roytenburg Cohen.  Those names are not necessarily 'accurate'  They were married quite young.  They arrived around 1890.  The 'story' was that they did not go through Ellis Island but posed as the children of a Canadian couple.  Over and over, they tell us that names were not changed at Ellis Island.  The story was that Edward Cohen took that name when he came to America.  He thought it would be a good name for a Jewish family.  Not Kohanim and not claiming to be so.  By cousin Sonia was named for her and also myself Sandra.

Aunt Elgie dances

 

Many memories from my aunt Elgie and my part in her estate.  Crazy.

But take a minute and watch her dance.  She traveled widely singing and dancing.  I love to do this kind of dancing but don't get the opportunity

You can pick her out, she's wearing a gray v-neck sweater and a blue skirt.  I don't know when this was made.  She died last month at age 95.

Looks like fun!

Tiny Simon at 9 months

 I know that we can't call him Tiny Simon much longer.

But here he is 9 monhs old and doing great.  He gets sitting up and and I hear there's a lot of  scoting around.  Go Simon!

Secret map

 Here's a secret.  Some time last year, I was taking Geography of the City.  This is at University of Washington in Seattle.  At one point the professor put some different exampled of street layouts, grid, near a factory.  And one was like this one.  Labeled suburban development.  I don't think this prof had been in Sacramento before.  It wasn't this one exactly but it showed the same.  Don't try to read the names.  I look at the projected map.  I haven't lived in this development since 1964.  But I had looked at it lately as traveled down for our 50th but held in our 52nd year.  I had been impressed with Castec Drive.  Kind a large semi-circle in the middle.  Hey, this one has a semi circle.  Waida minute, this edges of the semi crcle could connect to the street La Sierra Drive that ran through the whole development.  And those streets at the bottom.  That could be Los Molinas.

What?  I was looking at Arden Park in suburban Sacramento.  Where I lived until I was 12.  I know a lot of the names of the streets.  I could put an 'x' and my parents house.  But I don't know how.

What were the chances?