Fishers and Cohens (almost certainly Bronx, NY, about 1950)

This is my favorite of all the family pictures, having all four of my grandparents, and almost all their children, in one photo. I don't know where this was--Betty and I noodled over it, and eliminated all the likely places, but I'm sure it was someone in our family's apartment. I don't know the event either, but given how everyone is dressed, it could well have been a Passover celebration. In any case, in this photo are:
[Back row] Annie, Sam
[3rd row] Jerry, Betty, Mollie, Isaac, Sue
[2nd row] Rae, Paul, Rose, Sol
[Front row] Josh, Willa

Missing are Bud and Harry Cohen, plus my father (who undoubtedly took the picture). As always, click on the picture for a much larger version.

Orchard Beach (Bronx, NY, about 1951)

From a New York Times article a few years ago, At Orchard Beach, people remember summer days when their apartments felt like steam baths, and how a trip here meant not just relief but an escape from a harder-edged world.

Among my most enduring memories from my childhood were trips that my parents and I took across the Bronx to Orchard Beach. These always involved lots of my parents' brothers and sisters, and were usually arranged on very short notice. Sometimes it would be after dark, unbearably hot, and no one could sleep, so we would pile into whatever car could be scared up (usually one of Bud's). We'd sleep on the beach.

I don't know who is with Willa here, but you can see Paul and me in the background. Also in the background are the colonnades, the front of the bath house, now a NYC landmark. Here's a current picture on Flickr. Orchard Beach is in Pelham Bay Park, yet another Robert Moses megaproject from the 1930s, and NYC's largest park.


With one of my omnipresent comic books. I had a vast collection of the humorous kind: Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, etc. My 20 year old parents read them too, and embarrassedly insisted they were doing it to vet them for me. I believed them at first.

My mother at about 23.

And two pictures of my grandmother, with Willa, and then with me.

Skippy and My Mother's Diary (Bronx, NY, 1945, and about 1949)

In preparing to ship a lot of stuff for the summer, we ran into my mother's diary from the year 1945, the year she became pregnant and prepared to marry my father. She was 17 and he 16. I felt a little shy reading it, but then I found a letter to her future children. It's pretty touching to read many of the entries, though a lot of it is typical teenage ranting.

Below is her entry on her dog, Skippy, who I remember as being my grandmother's dog when I was small. [As with all pictures, click on it for a larger version that you can read.]


My mother, grandmother and Skippy.


Skippy and Paul (I'm pretty sure that's Paul).

Mexico!! (Mexico, various places, 1986-1994)

It's Cinco De Mayo!!

Elizabeth and I took several trips to Mexico starting in 1986, usually with the kids. We went by ourselves to the Yucatan in 1986, made 3-4 trips to Mexico City (at least: once alone, once with David and Dora and once with just Dora), all 4 of us went to Oaxaca (from Mexico City) and Ensenada (from Palo Alto).

I seem not to have any pictures from Ensenada, and at most one from Oaxaca (of Monte Alban), below are pictures from Mexico City and the Yucatan. These are really nice pictures, but they don't really capture the charm of Mexican street life, culture and cultural institutions, which are a much bigger attraction for us in Mexico, especially Mexico City.

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan, outside of Mexico City, is in my top 5 most-amazing places I've ever been.


Dora and Elizabeth climbing the Pyramid of the Sun.


From the Pyramid of the Moon, showing the Avenue of the Dead and Pyramid of the Sun.




This one is from our first trip to Mexico City. I had the standard chicken dish at the nearby restaurant La Gruta. Elizabeth had the same dish, but mine must have been really bad. By the end of the bus trip back to Mexico City I was getting really sick. For a few days, I was as sick as I've been in my life. Elizabeth was ready to take me to the hospital.


Elizabeth thinks this must be from Monte Alban.


Our first trip to Mexico was to the Yucatan in 1986 (just Elizabeth and me). Mostly we stayed at the not-quite developed yet beach resort of Aventuras Akumal on the "Mayan Riviera" (now a major destination, not then).

On our visit to the amazing Chichen-Itza, I wanted the traditional picture of us sitting on Chac Mool, with the big pyramid behind us. So I handed the camera to a random Italian tourist, and asked if he would do it. As he was about to snap, he stopped: sun going behind a cloud. Then, when the sun came out, he didn't like how many people were climbing the pyramid, and where they were positioned. Etc. Etc. Finally he took the picture. Handing back the camera, he said, really, "The photo, she is very important." Sure enough, he took a great picture that we really love.




At the ever-popular Mayaland Hotel.





Tulum, just South of Akumal. The only coastal major Mayan ruins.



I believe in the National Museum of Anthropology. I wear Moctezuma's hat.


Dora in el mercado.


Ruins of the Aztec capital (now significantly excavated, only a little then) next to the Cathedral.


Our last trip was during a period of economic crises. We stayed in the Hotel Majestic on the Zocalo, which had pretty much been taken over by a leftist protest/tent city/truck drivers strike. It was all very colorful and safe-while-dangerous.




One night we went to sleep with the protest in full-force. During that night we heard lots of loudspeakers and a lot of chaotic-sounding activity. When we woke up, the protest was completely gone, and the entire Zocolo had been taken over by thousands of troops, with tanks, etc. We imagined that there had been a Tlatelolco Massacre (1968 Olympic massacre of protestors), or something like that during the night. How did they get all those people out of there? Eventually, we saw a big banner, "El Dia de la Bandera". It was Flag Day, there was a big ceremony, and I read later that it had been agreed-upon for a long time that the protest would end during that night.


Finally, I can't resist, my Uncle Paul during his looking-maximally-Mexican phase (he lived in LA).

Willa and Paul (Bronx, NY, about 1949)

When I was born, Willa, my father's youngest sibling, was 5, and Paul, my Mother's, was 4. It is family legend that the day I was born, Paul was caught in the bathroom attempting to shave, I guess as a result of his unclehood.

I think boy toddlers often wore dresses in the old country then.

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.]

My Grandparents, Two Uncles and Me (Bronx, NY, ~1949)

It's Sunday, so a family event. I believe this was at a party after Rae and Jerry's wedding, in our apartment on Weeks Ave. in the Bronx.