I don’t know a lot about where this picture was taken, but I am guessing it was Iowa.
John stands tall in the back flanked by Grandpa and Grandma. Meg’s in the middle with Brian, Janice, and Bobby in front of her.
This is a rather complete family picture from Karen and Charlie’s house outside of Albany, NY.
Standing are Uncle Eric and Uncle Charlie.
In the next row are Penny, Grandad, Dad, Mom, Eric, and Aunt Karen.
In front are Ken with Brian, Sam with Chris, Robin with Laura, and Andy. And I believe that’s Melissa — the child of one of Mom and Dad’s college friends — on the far right.
What makes me laugh about this picture is how our older cousins seem to have adopted one younger cousin each… with Eric and Andy seemingly not matched up.
There are a lot of little things that I like about this picture. It is nice to remember that we used to get together with John and Meg pretty frequently in the 1980’s; it wasn’t until the 2000’s when we would see them regularly again, in Nova Scotia.
I like Dad’s smile here. Dad was sometimes hard to capture well on film, partly because he was more often the person taking the picture and partly because he tended to produce a grim face when the camera shutter opened. His humble and warm smile is nicely captured in this image.
I also like the view into 56 Grandview Street that this picture provides. Notice the partially-exposed wood on the kitchen door: this house was a work in progress for years as Mom and Dad laboriously removed the white paint from all the beautiful woodwork. You see the work in progress here.
And notice the early Mets fandom… pre-1986 World Series Championship folks!
This is a great picture of Dad’s brother Eric, his father Norman (a.k.a Grandad), Uncle Charlie, Aunt Penny, Dad’s sister Karen, and our cousins Robin, Ken, Andy, Brian, and Sam. Love the Hawaiian shirts, which were a staple of Charlie and Karen’s family during their time living in the 50th state.