Friday family photo

This has to be my all time worst school photograph and it gave my mother so much grief. I don't have a date on it, but I think it is second grade in Forreston, IL. She and dad were driving my grandparents to California to visit relatives, so my aunt came to stay with us (her children were not yet school age). She did her best, but her adorable, blonde, curly haired cherubs had short hair, and so she braided my hair the best she could. (Also I have a vague memory that I didn't have bangs when my parents left.) My mother was a meticulous creator of "French braids," a 3 part terror instrument that started at the scalp, and when she finished with me in the morning, my eye brows wouldn't drop until noon and everything was symmetrical. She explained to me one time when I was learning how to do it, that she sat behind a woman in church that had wonderful braids and analyzed how it was done (and then probably practiced on me).

Also, from the pattern on the dress, I'm guessing Mom made this one out of feed sack material--and she always told us there was nothing wrong with that, but if she'd known it was school picture day, she probably would have found something a bit nicer.