Photoessay #2450 - Young family

Sometimes it's tempting to fall into the trap of thinking that things were simpler and happier in the past.

But this is a pleasant picture nonetheless. September 1954 in Glendora CA.  That's the two year old me on the tricycle, my young father, aged 28, holding my infant brother.  In the backyard of the first home my parents purchased.  My mother used to say "We had 13 orange trees in our backyard!"

I don't really remember the number of orange trees; a bunch anyway.

I'm in touch with the current owner of that house.  Maybe I will meet with him when we go down there in a few weeks.  I would like to walk in some orange groves.  I don't think there are any left in Glendora.  Though apparently orange trees can live a long time, any trees left around there would be 60 years older.  Those trees in the background look pretty mature already in 1954.

Maybe I will need to find OTHER orange groves to walk in.

My father, so moody and withdrawn later in life, looks pretty happy with the baby son in his lap.  Maybe I could already pedal that tricycle.

My writing friends criticize me that I always stay at some distance from myself, that I guard against expressing what I really think and feel.  My two year old self smiles broadly and clearly.  Maybe I'm happy that my father is home as I didn't see him very much.  In many pictures, I'm trying to take care of my younger brother as he learns to walk.  My hair looks thin already but certainly better than my hair as an adult.

The young family, living the good life in California...