I don't know exactly which year this is,
1918 or 1919 sounds about right.

The sign on the building says
W. J. Scanlon
Undertaker
Paterson, N. J.

The little girl in the circle is Aunt Ann.

The only identification I have for the picture
are the words "my class picture" written below it in an album.

Gotta love it!

Ignore the period hairstyle and clothes.
Look at the wistful eyes and near smile.

A Mona Lisa portrait.

This is one of the "I love it" pictures.

No idea who the little kid is,
it's just a great picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures.
A young man and young Aunt Ann,
sitting on the top of a mountain
(notice the little houses in the right background)
and in those days, his arm on her shoulder
had a lot more meaning than it would today.

Anecdote! After Aunt Ann died, we tried to sort through her things, as family does at a time like this. There were "love letters" tied with a ribbon. Being a romantic at heart, I really wanted to read them. Or at least find out who sent them. My Aunt Babe grabbed them and said we had no right to read them, they were very personal. She would take them home and destroy them. I guess she was right, but every other romantic out there would understand my feelings just then. And now I find this picture?   *sigh*

They were close enough that Aunt Ann
was Maid-of-Honor at her wedding.

In the picture, hubby John is to Sophie's right,
her brother Frank is to her left.

But look closely at the gentleman behind Aunt Ann.
Does he not look like a spiffed up version of
the young man with her on the mountain?

I think yes.

Just an incurable romantic...*sigh*

Guess who that wondrous little baby is!

Me!

That is my very own Godmother, Aunt Ann!

You can see how impressed she was with me!

Either that or I was wetting my diaper at the time.
*grin*

1943 (?)

The Marriage of Johanna Theresa Zym
and Arnold E. Bott.

Well, I can speak from personal experience here.
Uncle Arnold was one heck of a guy.

He was a contractor, mainly a mason, but also a carpenter.
And a farmer.   A family farmer.

I remember their house in Lincoln Park, I totally loved that house.
Given the opportunity, I would buy it...ummm...also given the $$$ needed...

There was a small "pantry" type room where they had an incubator.  For eggs.
Yes, like little chicks would come out of them.

And 2 steps that went to a landing where you could leave the kitchen
and if you went left, you went upstairs; if you went straight,
you went down two steps into another large room,
and straight off of that was the doorway to the big front porch...

and the chicken coops in back where I was allowed to help gather eggs...

and I do go on with my memories....
but I did say this was MY page from My perspective.

All of this was before I was 9 years old!

Just a little aside, it was thanks to Uncle Arnold that I became very astute
in the field of professional wrestling.
Argentina Rocca, Gorgeous George, Arnold Skoaland, and above all,
Tony Martinelli, the Clifton Cutie (very important to us as he was from Clifton NJ),
Hatpin Mary and Dennis James, announcing from Springfield Gardens in New York...
I apologize, I'm getting really carried away here.

But Aunt Ann married Uncle Arnold,
and he eventually introduced me to a whole new world.

Obviously.

Yup, that's her.

She never had children of her own,
but was stepmother to Margaret, Arnold II, Elmer, Eugene, and Frank,
all who were already adults when she married Uncle Arnold.

She went from a Paterson, New Jersey city-girl to
a Lincoln Park, New Jersey farmerette.

There was a vegetable garden out back, chickens and a chicken coop;
there was an incubator in the pantry of the house where hatchlings were hatched...
Oh, I loved that house, I really did, and I believe I am repeating myself?

For as long as I can remember, she was devoted to the
American Legion Auxiliary Lincoln Park Post #279.

As stepmother to a whole gang of "boys" who were in the service
and the wife of a WWI veteran, she was dedicated to helping veterans causes
and the patients in VA hospitals.

American Legion Auxiliary Past Presidents Car

Memorial Day Parade - May 28, 1978

Back in 1948 when my father had passed away and the house we were living in was being sold,
she and Uncle Arnold had us (my mother and I) move into their new house Towaco.

Well, I'm still in Towaco, about 3 houses away from that house.

In her "spare time" she was an avid crocheter.
Baby blankets, pot holders, flowered doilies...if it could be crocheted, she did it.

It was a joke between us, give her enough steel wool and she could crochet a Chevrolet...*grin*

She also worked with the St. Claire's Hospital Auxiliary for many years, and ironically,
it was in St. Claire's Hospital that she passed away.

She left us more bowling trophies than we knew what to do with!
(Yes, she was a league bowler, too!)