Boys on Bikes

Old family pictures fascinate me. As I study an old photo, I try to reconstruct the day the shot was taken, the moment, the photographer. This picture of three brothers was taken, probably by their dad, on a summer day in 1955. My husband (on the far left) reports that this is absolutely typical of those days for his brothers and him - shirtless, shoeless, outside dawn until dark, footloose in the yard and nearby neighborhood of those days. Their goofy expressions indicate they were likely trying to get their dad's goat as he attempted to get them to smile for the camera. He spent a lifetime trying to get his family to perform for his camera, with little success. I like the big boys riding by in the background, like to wonder where they ended up.