Sam and Bud (San Diego, CA, January, 1996)

As I've written, my parents' brothers and sisters became friends. As teenagers, Sam and Bud were close friends. Bud called me after my father died, and he told me that he talked to Sam for a long time, something nice that came out of my father's death.

Here are the two of them at my parents' 50th Anniversary celebration, obviously having a good time:

Harry Edward Fisher, 1929-2009, Part 2 (Various Places and Times)

From this past New Years Eve.

With his mother and sister Annie.


The boys who married the 3 Cohen sisters.



He loved going on cruises, and even took 2 freighter cruises.

Gardening in Rochester.






When he was younger, he was an avid photographer.



With his mother.

Being affectionate with Bud (I think that's Bud). Who is in the forground??

Greenmeadow, Part II (Palo Alto, CA, Summers 1991-93)

During all three of our Greenmeadow summers, Dora hung out a lot with the Cooke family around the corner. Margaret was around her age, and had 3 (I think, and judging from the pictures) younger sisters and a little brother (who called Dora "Doe-fully"; he couldn't manage "Dorothy").




The rest of these are more family pictures; see yesterday's post for commentary.

Greenmeadow, Part I (Palo Alto, CA, Summers 1991-93)

When I joined HP, I was asked to spend summers in California for a few years, since I'd be something of an island in Boston. In 1990, we spent about a month in boring corporate apartments (if you go to the link, you'll see the pond where Dora got to know about 40 ducks by name--the rest of us were just bored there).

But in 1991, 1992, and 1993, we rented the same absolutely wonderful Eichler house in a neighborhood of them called Greenmeadow, in Palo Alto. If you don't know about Eichler houses, I recommend the short Wikipedia article I linked; they are very special. The owners, Ken and Virginia Crittenden, were a retired couple who went to their cabin in the the Sierra each summer. They had bought the house new in the early 1950s, and were among the few remaining original owners in Greenmeadow.

In the Eichler philosophy, the house was a wall to the street, but inside it was built around a wonderful courtyard.


We had a few visits from our family members, especially the California ones, but all three of our living parents visted as well. Below, my Uncle Bud and his wife Laura are at the outdoor table with us, along with their three kids, Matthew (Cousin #10/Bud's #3), Natasha (Cousin #11/Bud's #4), and Sophia (Cousin #12/Bud's #5).


The Crittendens had a dog who went with them to the Sierra, but they left the cat, Sooty, with us (I don't think it would have worked to take him).



We "asked" the kids to engage in some activity for the summer, which was always hit-and-miss. But by the third summer there, Dave had gotten pretty old, and rebelled. So I set up a serious computer science exercise for him: He had to write a Pascal program that would efficiently find a solution to "Dad's Puzzle". I outlined the general nature of the steps one would take to do so (using a breadth-first tree search, and hashing to prune the tree), and, sure enough, by the end of the summer he had succeeded. It was even animated, so you could watch the solution happen on the screen.



The 4th of July parade was a big Greenmeadow thing, and if you look at the pictures of last year's, little has changed. Dora became good friends with a neighbor family, the Cookes (more on them tomorrow).


Willa's identical twins, Sherry (Cousin #13/Willa's #2.5) and Heather (Cousin #14/Willa's #2.5) came with Willa (no, I don't know who is who, though I imagine Sherry to be on the left).


That's Willa, with Dave, my father, Heather or Sherry, and Betty. There's my parents' two families together at a small gathering 40 years after the pictures I had before.


Bud's son Barry and his wife.




Matthew and (I think) Sophia, with the very-tolerant Sooty.

Bud And Sons With My Mother (West Henrietta, NY, probably mid 1970s)

Bud with his sons Barry (Cousin #8/Bud's #1) and David (Cousin #9/Bud's #2). I'm sure my mother got those beagles after they moved to Rochester (and I recognize that row of poplars in the background), but given Barry & David's ages, it couldn't have been too much after.

Brothers and Brothers-in-Law (Bronx and Queens, NY, Jan 1954 and Oct 2008)

When I saw this picture in our scanned collection, I was immediately reminded of the picture below. The one above goes with my post about Betty and Annie and my parents' two families; it is from Betty and George's wedding. L-to-R are George, the groom; Bud, Betty's older brother; my father, B&G's brother-in-law; and Stretch, Betty's best friend's just-married husband, now her brother-in-law, sort of. Since Betty lived with us for several years, until not long before she was married, she was close to all four of these men.


From Dora and Norman's wedding, L-to-R, Norman; his older brother Steve; Dave; and Norman's younger brother Ryan. (Another picture stolen from Dora without permission.)

My Mother and Her Siblings (Unknown place, about 1977)

It's Sunday, so family event. Left to right: Paul, Bud, HWMNBN; Betty, Rae, Sue.
I thought I had a better shot from this same event, but I couldn't find one. My wild guess is that this was from the early 1980s. [Update: HWMNBN can date it to about 1977.]