In 2021, my mom, Mary, gave me a book of her baby and young-child pictures.
These had been taken by her parents, Rachel B. and Frank T., after she was born
in the mid-1930s. These are the pictures I scanned from that book. All photos
were scanned at 300 DPI.
Against a brick wall:
Against a brick wall again:
Frank T. in background in suit, large photo:
Frank T. in background in suit, small photo:
First house she lived in as a baby:
First house, another photo:
Second house, or maybe this was her first house:
Held by Frank T., with their dog and stroller in the background:
Held by Ester, her housekeeper:
Ester was hired on by my Rachel B. (my mom's mom), initially to take care
of my mom. When my mom grew up and moved out, Ester stayed on to clean the
place. She was illiterate, but she managed to raise several children who
weren't her own, most of whom were black like herself. Unfortunately, she
didn't qualify as a foster parent, so she had to take care of those kids
without compensation for it. Some of those kids ended up in jail (and,
frankly, considering the number of "Sundown Towns" in Oklahoma at the time,
those kids might've just been in the wrong place at the wrong time). When the
kids she cared for grew up and had kids of their own, Ester would sometimes
take care of those kids, too, if their parents couldn't. When I was
a kid in the 1960s or early 1970s, my brother and I visited Rachel B. in
Oklahoma and (according to my mom) were excited to see Rachel B. coming home
with groceries for Ester, even though there were (yicch) vegetables among them.
Held by Rachel B., probably in front of a hedge around their house:
Held by Rachel B., to one side of their house:
Holding hands Ester, who was only partly in frame:
Holding her clip-on roller skates:
Holding her clip-on roller skates, same negative, different print:
In her back yard:
In a meadow with Ester:
In a meadow with Ester again (partial double-exposure):
In her stroller:
Looking back, as if to ask the cameraman "What do you want?":
Looking through the glass on a door at either another kid or a doll:
Portrait of her as a newborn:
Portrait of her as a newborn again, but from a smaller and somewhat faded print:
In front of a couple of bushes:
Next to her parents' car:
Sitting on a chair, with her feet propped up on a cushion:
Riding on Frank T.'s shoulder:
With the rest of a very young school class:
Sitting on a cushion with a book:
Sitting with the dog, while Ester is partly in frame:
With another kid on the sidewalk:
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