From my boxes of my father’s slides are these 12 photos date-stamped 1954. They’re obviously taken in Cambridge, where my parents grew up, and so it must have been before they left for England in November 1954 (see the page of photos of my mother’s passport). These seem to be the very earliest photos my father took. In 1954 he would have been 21, or only 20 (his birthday was Sept. 5th 1933). My parents had been married in July 1953, when my parents were both 19. By 1954 he’d apparently acquired a camera, a standard single-lens reflect (SLR) that I think he had for the rest of his life. But perhaps he didn’t have a car yet — he had a 1953 Chevrolet, seen in later photos from 1958, but it’s not visible in these shots; and so given the timing I now realize he might have bought that car used, after my parents returned to the US in 1957.
Here are the photos.
My parents, Bob and Helen.
Here they are standing in front of some monument in Illinois.
I don’t know who these people are except for the skinny guy in the middle — my mother’s brother Bob Pierce, later my Uncle Bob.
I can’t quite tell, but this might be Bob Pierce again.
My mother.
My mother standing in front of some early 1950s car.
My mother in some kind of gown…presumably her Homecoming Queen gown.
And another gown.
My mother Helen in a coat, smiling.
My mother at a picnic table.
My mother standing in the sun.
And finally, some unknown person.
