Jewells of Thought

There are so many photos taken that I nearly don’t need words. If a photo is literally worth a 1000 words these photos should speak for themselves right?

This little guy looks pretty happy doesn’t he? He was an only child at this point. Bill and Mary, his parents lived in Carlisle and went to Pleasantville United Methodist Church. I should rephrase Mary went to Church, he did only if there was a funeral. This happy go-lucky boy would become an older brother within a short time.

I love this photo. Compare it to this photo of another young boy!

I don’t ever remember celebrating especially today while growing up. I am not even certain when I realized today was his birthday it was so low key. Celebrating birthdays was low key on this side of my family so it was never really a second thought for me.

I have spoken a lot about this man, but not exactly that he lived through the Great Depression as a child. His dad was an underground miner who had many accidents leaving him with injuries over and over again. His mother raised a beautiful vegetable garden I have only heard of from descriptions by those who had seen and worked in it. During the time after her children were of age all 6 of them Mary worked as a lunch lady at his Alma mater Pleasantville School.

After enlisting in the Army and serving his time only to become incarcerated by the enemy changed his life. He came back from being overseas as a different man who had experienced difficult conditions. He married his high school sweetheart and just his parents had 6 kids.

The 2nd and 3rd photos from the top are of Father and son not too far from the same age.

This photo is what I love to call “The Gangster Photo.” There aren’t too many photos of him all dressed up like this with a hunk of a car. This was taken while he was still in school.

Today this young man Leo Bishop would have turned 99. Hopefully if he was here it wouldn’t have been low key. The photo that says July 67 is a photo of my Dad underneath his Dad. The similarity is striking. I only found these photos this year as Aunt Martha sorted them out for us earlier this year. A photo tells a lot about the person. They are both smiling and their faces show their family ties.

Sometimes I really miss Grandpa if it weren’t for photos I would have forgotten his face after 24 years of being gone.