Sunday, July 26, 2009

Mom and pop, young gun-totin' immigrants

The family photo archiving continues. These pics are from 1952. Here's mom, checking out the scenery in western Canada. I think she learned all her moves and poses from glamour and show-biz magazines. She was daffy for that stuff.

This is mom with her (soon to be) mother-in-law, near Niagara Falls, I think. Eventually, mom and pop moved west, to British Columbia. (I don't think mom was terribly fond of "Oma.")

In those days, Canadians, it seems, were in the habit of bringin' out their rifles and just walking around with 'em. People did lots of hunting, I guess. But what can you bag on a road? Squirrels?

Mom would have been barely eighteen in this pic. A year or so earlier, she had left Germany alone, age 17, on an old Liberty ship (the kind Henry Kaiser made; they tended to break in half).

I think she lied about her age. Pop was a year older. They met on the boat.

Lookin' for varmints, I guess.

My folks have lots of bear stories. Moose and elk stories too. Mostly, they seem to be tall tales. I guess some of 'em could be true.

But I refuse to believe the one about the bear that cursed in French. Ain't buyin' it. Nope.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, they are a sort of Teutonic "Bonnie and Clyde," according to the pics.

Roy Bauer said...

No, there was nothing unusual about toting guns around, not in those days (based on what I've seen in old photos).

My folks are anything but lawless. And the voted for Bush. Twice.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, maybe they WERE lawless!

Father says, "Your mother's right, she's really up on things"
"Before we married, Mommy served in the WACS in the Philippines"
Now, I had heard the WACS recruited old maids for the war
But mommy isn't one of those, I've known her all these years

Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away....


--Surrender (Cheap Trick)

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...