Is Meets Was

When I first became hooked on genealogy, I quickly focused on my mother’s side of the family.   Mom's grandparents  must have been an integral part of the first couple of years of my life. My brother and I about 1947 on East 35th St. near Flatbush Ave. I remember walking from our apartment on Flatbush Avenue to their home on Albany Avenue in Brooklyn, N.Y. It was a perfect summer day, and I was feeling very happy. I was walking with my mother and brother. I remember I was wearing one of my prettier dresses and my perfect, white, Buster Brown shoes. We were passing a neighborhood park with a wrought iron fence. I forgot to watch my steps, and I smelled my mistake. I had stepped in dog poop, and my little white shoes were no longer perfect. I looked up at Mom, and I could tell she was very annoyed. I began to cry. This was not my first misadventure with dog poop. I had been repeatedly cautioned to watch my steps, but I continued to get lost in the world around me ...

Mrs. Kramer, Aunt Gus (Augusta Bals), Mrs. Hughes, Frances Grant, and Aunt Marie (Marie) Bals of Flatbush c. 1915 Cathy Merrill holding Stephen Cidlowski and Christine Cidlowski and Laurie Press Happy Halloween! I can't find any photos of my parents or their parents celebrating Halloween. That may be why I especially cherish the above photograph of my great-aunts. At the time, my aunts were still living with their parents at 32 Kowenhoven Place, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. The next photo was taken in my parent's backyard in Valley Stream, New York about 1957. Right now, I am sitting at the computer and waiting for the next group of children to ring the doorbell, wishing my grandchildren lived nearby. Hopefully, by tomorrow I will see photos of them in their costumes. In the interim, the last picture is a collage showing my three grandsons, all superheroes, and our granddaughter, a very serious-looking bug. Two of the photos were taken last Halloween and t...