Tis the Season...

Dear George, 

Christmas brings back lots of memories.  Here are some photos that my dad took to commemorate the occasion during our growing up years in the 1940’s and 50’s.    

Here are my siblings, Peter, Vicki, and Steven on the living room window seat at river house.  Steven is very happy with his fine new cowboy outfit, Vicki’s in good spirits, and Peter is absorbed with a Christmas toy.  

We loved getting toys from Santa — here an Action Target Game — and new playthings kept us absorbed for weeks and months on end.  

A model train was about as magnificent as one could imagine.  Engineers are Steve, myself, and Peter (looking bewitched).  

Christmas was the main annual occasion for our extended family get-together with my cousins, aunts, and uncles.  This photo is from about 1958.  The back row from the left: Steven, myself, Vicki, my cousin Thor, my Uncle Kent, and Peter.  In the front my cousins Kurt and Stewart in vests (I’m not sure which is which), my cousin Ann, my cousin John at the far right.  Great excitement for the kids.

Here is another pic of cousins: Thor, Johnny, Peter. myself as Santa holding Ann, Steven, Vicki, and one of our Irish Setters, probably Micky.   

A festive occasion for the adults too.  Twin brothers Karl (at the left) and Kent, Aunt Millie (Kent’s wife), and their son Thor.  Karl was a bachelor, and he showered family members with grand presents.  Fancy gowns for the women one year and an atomic energy kit for me. 

My parents had a wonderful friendship group, and there were lots of house-to-house visits during the holiday season.  These are the O’Hara’s in our front yard: Michael, Jean, Kiera, Terry, Michael Dennis, and, covering his eyes, Patrick Sean.

We also visited lots of friends.  The Caleys at Northwood Cove had a wonderful igloo which we were never able to duplicate at our house.  Steve and Tom Caley are on the roof; I’m on the ground.

Our house on the river was a grand place to celebrate the holiday season.

Love,

Dave 

Archive: Vic's Photos (#14)

Peter

Dear George,

Here is another batch of the family photos that my dad, Vic L., took in the 1940’s and 1950’s.  Earlier postings can be viewed by searching “archive” in the box at the upper left.  I much appreciate my dad’s long-time efforts to keep track of our family history.

Love,

Dave

This is Steve (maybe age 6) and myself (maybe age 10) on a summer day at our house on the river.  There were no other kids who lived within a mile of our house, so Steve and I necessarily spent a lot of time together as playmates -- swimming, outings to the forest, basketball and football, cops and robbers, bicycling, etc. 

This is my dad Vic in his boyhood, probably around the time that World War I was beginning.  He certainly looks Swedish.  

My mom and I are sitting on the living room couch at our second-floor Ogden Avenue apartment, probably about 1941, the year that Steve was born.  My dad's photos are on the wall.  Even though I was 4, I have no memories of our home's interior.  

I and my brothers Steve and Peter are gathered around a campfire.  I’d say I'm 11, Steve 7, and Peter 3.  I started camping in the Cub Scouts and by eleven would go on overnight expeditions with Steve and friends to Mason Park and other spots near our Menominee River home.  

I look about four in this picture, which would make it 1941.  I don't know whether my parents knew it yet, but my dad was to be sent off to officer training school at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center outside Chicago a year or two after this photo was taken, then was shipped off to the Pacific for the latte years of World War II.  

One of our family’s summer highlights in Menominee was going to Escanaba for the U.P. State Fair.  Here is my brother Steve at the Sultan's Harem.  

I'm with my mother on an outing, somewhere in Menominee County.  This was taken in 1940 or 41, and Doris is looking stylish. 

My brother Steve and I are checking out my tenth birthday cake.  We certainly are serious-looking. 

Here's my sister Vicki, our mom, and my brother Peter.  Vicki looks about 3 which would have made Peter 5 and me 13.  I suspect this was taken at the YMCA camp outside Green Bay where I would have gone for two weeks when I was that age. 

This is my twelfth birthday party at our house on the river on July 21, 1949.  The back row from the left includes Tom Caley, Bill Caley, Skipper Burke, Frank St. Peter, Jim Jorgenson, and Darl Schmidt.  Seated are my sister Vicki, myself, and my brother Peter.  My brother Steve's whereabouts are a mystery.    

 

This is our grandfather, V.A. Sr., with his granddaughter, Vicki, probably about two and half years old.  I think they were sitting in our rowboat at the bank of the Menominee River.  V.A. was a good granddad, gentle, kind, and loving.   

This was taken on my tenth birthday, July 21, 1947.  My sister Vicki was just five months old, Steve was 6, Peter 2.  Fifth grade that year wasn’t memorable.  All I can remember is that the students made the teacher cry a lot, and she quit in the middle of the year, to be replaced by a substitute.  Probably our learning was impaired as a consequence.  

We did various arts and crafts at grade school, and my parents encouraged such projects at home too.  Here is my finished pirate ship.  

When I was 16 I built a hidden camp in the woods on our back lot on Riverside Boulevard.  After I finished it, I did allow a few visitors, bring them blindfolded along my secret trail.  Here are Vicki and Peter admiring my primitive kitchenware rack.  

Here’s my dad and me in the front yard at our house on the river.  We moved there shortly after my dad came back from the Pacific after the end of the war.  I was very proud of his service in the navy.  

This is my brother Steve in a couple of the oak trees that grew outside our front door at river house.  Some years later my dad built a treehouse in the oaks, and it became our clubhouse and secret hideout (well, not entirely secret).  

This is my mom and myself at our outdoor fireplace on the front lawn near the riverbank.  We’d grill hamburgers and hotdogs here, as well as roasting marshmallows.  Fireplace fires were an important part of our family life.  

Steve (the catcher) and I are playing baseball in our front yard at river house in about 1949.  My grandfather V.A.’s cabin in the lot next door is visible in the background.  The front lawn was our sports arena for baseball, football, golf, archery, running races, and myriad other activities.  

The U.P. State Fair at Escanaba was one of our major annual family outings.  From the left: Doris L., Skipper Burke, myself, Jackie and Martie Burke, and an unknown couple.  Fairs on those days had strip tease shows and freak shows, along with many other attractions.  

I think my dad took this photo at Little River.  Little River is a tributary that feeds into the Menominee River about a mile west of our house on Riverside Boulevard.  We’d take the rowboat up there, and it was always a scenic expedition.  Mason Park, a county park, was located on the shore of Little River, and it was our favorite place for camping with friends when we became of age.  

Here’s my mom with my younger brother Steve and I, probably at a friend’s house on Green Bay.  I don’t remember the wonderful toboggan, and my guess it that it belonged to another family.  It doesn’t look very hilly for toboganning in the scene, but I’m sure we had fun nonetheless.  

Traveling carnivals and circuses came to Menominee every summer, and they almost always included a carousel.  I certainly picked out a gallant steed for this ride.  

I think this is Tom Caley (middle), along with my brother Steve (left) and myself, probably at the Caley’s house at Northwood Cove.  I remember being thrilled by the igloos that our family friends built.  Many winters Steven and I tried to replicate that feat by building an igloo in the front yard at our house on the river, but we never could keep the roof from caving in.  

I’m guessing that this was taken at our second floor apartment on Ogden Avenue about 1942.  If so, I would have been five.  I have no recollection of the black cat, though it might well have been our family pet.  It does seem pretty relaxed and at home.  

I’m on the right, Bill Caley’s on the left, and an unknown kid is in the middle.  The Caley’s lived at Northwood Cove along Green Bay, and this photo might have been taken on their lawn and perhaps on the Fourth of July.  

Vic's Photos: Archive #13

Our Family (1953)

Dear George,

My dad, Vic L., took lots of photos of our family, friends, and home town in the 1940’s, 1950’s and beyond.  My brother Peter resurrected many of these from Vic’s negatives, and he mailed postcard versions to family members for several years in the early 2000’s.  I’ve been posting archived batches of these images every few months.  Earlier postings can be retrieved by searching “archive” in the box to the upper left.  I wish I had been as conscientious as my dad was in recording family history.  It keeps our early lives fresh and accessible.

Love,

Dave

VA Sr.’s and Olga’s family

This is a family portrait taken about 1939 of my paternal grandparents (V.A. Sr. and Olga), Vic, my mom, and Vic’s siblings.  Standing in the back row from the left are my mother Doris, my dad Vic, and my Aunt Martha.  Seated from the left are my Uncle Kent, my grandfather V.A. Sr. holding me on his lap, my grandmother Olga, and my Uncle Karl (Kent’s twin brother).  V.A. opened drugstores in Menominee and Marinette in the early 1900’s, and my uncle Kent and my aunt Martha’s husband Ralph Buscher operated the respective pharmacies when V.A. retired in the late 1940’s. 

The Tourist Information Lodge

This is a winter scene of the Michigan state tourist information lodge on Ogden Ave. at the foot of the interstate bridge in Menominee.  We lived a half block away in my preschool and kindergarten years.  The best sledding hill in Menominee was right behind the tourist lodge, and our moms would take Sally F.  and me there on winter outings.  The tourist lodge burned down sometime in the 1960’s and was replaced by a brand new log building. 

Apple Blossoms

This is my mom and myself somewhere in Menominee County in the springtime, about 1940.  A very idyllic scene, though I’ve lost all those memories.    

A Young Cowboy

Here is something else that I don’t remember – my fleeting childhood horseback career.  My mother enjoyed horseback riding from her youth in Omaha, and she would ride now and then at the stable located near the intersection of Riverside Boulevard and Highway 577 at Menominee’s city limits.   In this photo I’m wearing a full outfit of cowboy boots, hat, and chaps, so maybe I had more horse experience than I now remember. 

Boswell School

This is Boswell school in Menominee’s west end, my first grade school.  I went to Boswell for kindergarten, walking four or five blocks each morning with my five-year-old friend and downstairs neighbor Sally F.  I can't remember anything that happened in kindergarten, though our walks to school were more memorable.

The First Day of School

Here are my mother and I at my first day at kindergarten at Boswell.  My mother, at the center of the picture, is talking to one of the teachers, while my slouchy, head-down posture suggests I was on the verge of emotional collapse.  That’s probably accurate.  I had an anxious time entering new, unfamiliar situations as a child, and I didn’t do much better thereafter.  

Skipper Burke

This is my close childhood friend, Skipper Burke, probably about age 5 or 6.  Skipper and I were in the same grade in school, though he was always taller and more worldly was than I was.  We both lived in the State Street neighborhood in the early World War II years and were regular playmates at his house or ours.  In some ways Skipper was my first mentor in life, particularly in terms of instructing me about girls.  His family owned a summer cottage at Pine Beach on Marinette’s outskirts, and our parents would socialize there while we kids swam at the beach and the pier.  Skipper moved with his parents to Minneapolis-St. Paul when we were in the fifth grade, a sad loss for me. 

Father and son in the river

My dad and I are in the water at my grandfather’s cottage along the Menominee River shore.  In those early days my dad spent more time in the river he did later on.  I think it's because the water for river house came from a pump near the driveway, making use of the bathtub prohibitive, and so we used the river for bathing.  I doubt if the water was that hygienic, but it was our best available option.  When we eventually got indoor plumbing, it was only we children spent time in the river.

A Menominee River stump

I’m sitting on a big stump in the Menominee River.  The river, of course, was a major thoroughfare for the logging industry until the early 1900’s, and, even when we lived there in the 1940s and 50s, there were many submerged stumps and deadheads that were remnants of days gone by.  One of our occasional pastimes was to row across the river to the channel and bring back a large stump to dry out on the riverbank.  

Snow at Caley's

This is a winter picture (circa 1946 or 1947) of myself, our childhood friend Tom Caley, and my brother Steve.   I think the photo was taken in the Caley's yard at Northwood Cove on the Green Bay shore, just north of the city limits on M-35. 

Tenth birthday

This was taken on my tenth birthday in 1947 at the outdoor fireplace on our front lawn.  I was entering the fifth grade at Washington School that autumn. The main thing I remember about fifth grade is that the wicked children teased the teacher unmercifully and made her cry almost every day.  She resigned in the middle of the year, and then the substitute teacher became the new victim.  

Frank St. Peter

Frank St. Peter was one of my close friends in childhood and adolescence.  We played softball and cowboys and Indians in our State St. neighborhood, rode our bikes, swam at Hinker’s coal dock in Green Bay, had snowball fights with older kids from down the block, and went off to YMCA and Boy Scout camps together, including Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.  

At my age twelve birthday party

These are my three siblings, myself, and my friend Frank on our front lawn, next to the Menominee River.  It was taken at my twelfth birthday party on July 21, 1949. From the left: my brother Steve (age 8), my brother Peter (age 4), my sister Vicki (age 2), and (in the background) Frank St. Peter (age 12).

Green Bay Sunset

This is a handsome black and white photo of a Green Bay sunset and sailboat from the Menominee shore.  Color photography in the 1940’s was not yet in vogue, and, even though  Menominee sunsets deserved color, black and white captured their elegance too.  

Arts and crafts

We did lots of arts and crafts projects at Washington Grade School, and my parents always encouraged us to continue those activities at home.  This is a symphony orchestra that I made out of miscellaneous materials.  Probably because of parental praise, I carried over those crafts activities into adulthood, though I haven’t done much A&C for quite a while.

Another birthday group

This is another of my birthday parties at our house on the river, probably my eleventh.  From the left: unknown kid, myself, Frank St. Peter, Tom Caley, Bill Caley, Jim Jorgenson, unknown kid in front of him, Skipper Burke, my brother Steven in front of him.  Birthday parties were exciting because of getting a bunch of gifts.  However, they were also anxiety-provoking because the birthday boy got paddled due to others’ jealousy from his getting all the presents.

Cartoon collection

Here I am, about age ten, with some of the comic book-inspired  drawings that I'd done with colored crayons.  This was taken in Steve’s and my bunk bedroom at river house. 

Dave and Steve

Steve and I are looking over a cartoon. I read the latest comic books every week at my Uncle Kent's Rexall drugstore on Electric Square, and my goal for adulthood was to become a professional cartoonist.  I wish I had my comic book collection now.  It would be worth a fortune.  

Peter

Here is my younger brother Peter at age two or three.  Peter always had a sweet disposition, as well as a good sense of humor and a tendency to occasional impishness.

Vicki

This is my sister Vicki at age two.  It's a great photo, and she looks very sweet.  I was the first child in the family and Vicki was the fourth, with a ten-year time span between us.  That’s a big age difference for little kids.  Among her three brothers, Vicki was closest in childhood to Peter who was just two years older than her. 

Birthday No. 12

This is another picture of my twelfth birthday party in the dining room at our house on the river.  Standing from left:  Tom Caley, Bill Caley, Skipper Burke, Frank St. Peter, Jim Jorgenson, Darl Schmidt.  Seated: Peter L., David L., Steven L.  These were important figures in my early life.  I think this was the final birthday party that I had as a kid.  

Camping

This is my brother Steve and myself on a camping trip.  This was probably taken at Mason Park a mile up Riverside Boulevard from our house.  I’d say that Steve is 8, and I’m 12.  One of the virtues of living in the county is there were several good camping places available within a short distance.  I’d hitch a red wagon behind my bike to transport our gear, and we’d pedal our way to our campsite.  I still enjoy camping, in part because it takes me back to bygone days.