My early years

Though I was born at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, my family was living in Hammond, Indiana at the time (early 1948). My father worked there for the DuPont Chemical Company as a chemist. He really didn't like the work there much and he heard about openings for civil engineers in southern California at the Southern California Gas Company. So my parents packed up their 15-month-old and 3-month-old daughters (Judy and me) and drove out west to southern California. They made a stop along the way in Denver, Colorado, to visit my dad's parents and to have me baptized at a Methodist church there. They lived in a rental house in Los Angeles for a few months while they looked for a house to buy.

I'm 5 months old here...July 1948. This might have been at the house in Los Angeles. Eventually, my dad was hired by the SoCal Gas Company at their San Bernardino branch.

August 1948--Judy (18 months) and me with my toothless grin, 6 months. This looks like it was taken in a park, probably in L.A. I was my mother's baby and Judy's baby, even when she was a year and a half old. Judy was definitely the second mommy in the family.

August 1948--I'm around 6 months, Judy is 18 months and Mommy is 30. This was probably taken at the house in L.A. I know we moved into the house on 26th Street in San Bernardino in 1948, so that happened not long after this photo was taken. Judy's trying to give me a kiss and my mother is trying to get her to look at the camera.

Early 1949--I'm about 1, a sturdy little toddler. This is definitely our San Bernardino house on 26th Street in the background. Huge subdivisions of 3-bedroom 1-bath houses were popping up all over southern California as World War 2 veterans settled there after the war to raise their families. This little cracker-box house was the first house my parents ever owned and my dad, especially, took great pride in it, planting lawns and shrubs, building a fieldstone wall around the back yard, building us a swingset.

1951-I'm 3, Judy's 4--in our Sunday best. By this time my brother Mike had been born and was about 2; my mother was expecting her fourth child. Yes, we first three were one year apart, and Mary Alice came 2 years after Mike. I gradually developed the traits of a middle child (including independence), since I had one sibling 12 months older and one 16 months younger.

Some time in 1951, my dad was transferred to Whittier, California with the SoCal Gas Company. We lived in two different rental houses until the spring of 1954. This photo was taken in Whittier...I'm dressed a la a Nigerien little girl. It's very hot in southern California in the summer time...kids played outside most of the time and most of us went barefoot and sometimes shirtless, even the little girls. My mother did not allow tv watching except after dinner for an hour. Remember the Roy Rogers Show and Zorro?

1952--I'm 4. This was taken at the house on Flomar Drive in Whittier. There were dozens of kids our ages in the neighborhood and we played together all the time--cowboys and Indians, hopscotch, tag. There was an empty field across from the row of houses where we played all kinds of games. I'm on the left with my messy hair; Kathy Nobles is next to me. We were good friends. I think we were coloring in a shared coloring book here.

In 1954, when I was 6 and in kindergarten, we moved back to our house on 26th street in San Bernardino, as my dad had been transferred back to SB. It was the spring of my kindergarten year, so I had to start all over making friends. Fortunately, there was a kindergarten girl in the house next door to us (Janie)and also one across the street from us (Martha), so they quickly became my friends. We walked to and from school together every day, except one day when they were both sick and I got lost walking home. I cried a lot, but I finally found our house.

Every so often, a man would come through the neighborhoods with his pony and let us have our picture taken on it (that was, of course, for the moms to buy the pictures). We were so excited to be able to wear our cowboy and cowgirl outfits while sitting on the pony! We had just received the outfits for Christmas.

Hope you enjoyed these snapshots in time of my early years. See more such photos at Remember Whensday which Sally hosts.

Formal Night on the ship

Just over ten years ago, on August 1, 1999, Jerry and I dressed like this for Formal Night on the Westerdam as we were cruising to Alaska:Tonight we're dressing exactly like this again, but we're not headed north. Hmmm--I wonder how much grayer we'll look in our formal portrait this time!

It's fun to play dress-up!

The Ringling Brothers Mansion

When I was visiting my sister in Orlando in 2004, we drove to Sarasota to visit the Ringling Brothers Mansion and Museum. What an amazing place! I recommend it to anyone visiting Sarasota, Florida. I loved the tiled terraces and the carved wood frames around the windows, so these photos are my contributions to Window Views...and doors too!

McGowan kids in the 1950s

My mother loved taking pictures of her kids and loved being with us, too. She read to us every day, and in the summertime, she'd read chapter books to us every afternoon, a chapter or two each day...books like Treasure island, Little Women, Little Men. We would always beg her to read another chapter, but usually she'd stop at two. She played games with us---card games, board games, treasure hunts. She took us to swimming lessons every summer. Every summer she'd sign us up for the Summer Reading Program at the local library, where children who read at least ten (I think) books got to come to an ice cream party at the end of the summer. All four of us made it to the party every summer we participated, of course, having a mother who was an avid reader. TV was taboo until after dinner, for one hour or so...until the Mickey Mouse Club came on in 1956 and she let us watch that at 5 pm as she prepared dinner. She talked to us about her life growing up in Michigan. We were fascinated that she grew up with servants, going to the shore for vacations, being a debutante, dancing with Henry Ford, the founder of the hospital where her father was a doctor, going to the yacht club for dinners and other elegant events. It was all so different from our life in southern California where my parents struggled to make ends meet. We had a much simpler life than the life my mother had growing up. One of her interests was frequently taking group photos of us in hopes of having a good one to include with her yearly Christmas card. And so I present to you the McGowan kids in our early years, the 1950s, photos by Martha Janney (Smith)McGowan:

September 23, 1951 Pat 3, Mike 2, Judy 4, Mary Alice- 10 days old

1952 Pat 4, Judy 5, Mary Alice 1, Mike 3

Fall 1953 Mary Alice 2, Mike 4, Pat 5, Judy 6

1954 Mary Alice 3, Mike 5, Pat 6, Judy 7

April 1955 Easter Sunday Mike 5, Pat 7, Judy 8 , Mary Alice 3

1955 Mike 6, Pat 7, Judy 8, Mary Alice 3...Mom was into profile shots in 1955!

Fall 1956 Mary Alice 5, Mike 7, Pat 8, Judy 9

Sally at The (Mis)Adventures of Karl and Sally has a meme for sharing your old family photos and stories. Take a step back in time and then walk down memory lane by clicking here for Remember Whensday!