Another photo from the album page with “1928” as the caption. This is Mom and Aunt Ann. Judging from the flowers around and the leaves on the tree behind them [and correlating with other photos that seem to have been taken on the same day], it is probably late spring summer.

This is certainly one of the earlier photos Dad took of Mom, and may be the earliest. Mom was not-quite-18 in this photo (if it was taken before June). Aunt Ann had just turned 21.

As I was thinking about this photo, it dawned on me that Mom and Aunt Ann may well have been friends before Mom and Dad ever had a romantic relationship. The Wright siblings and the McClain siblings had a lot of contact as family groups when the Wrights lived in the Goltra house and were involved in community activities at Tallman. For example, Dad recorded in his diary on June 6, 1926: “…Mina, Anna, Edwin, Earl & I went to Arthur McClain’s to spent the evening, this being Florence’s 16^th birthday.” So it would not be surprising if a friendship developed between Aunt Ann and Mom during the “Goltra years.”

(By the way, the quote above is the only mention of Florence in Dad’s diary, so it seems clear that Dad and Mom were nothing more than acquaintances in 1925 and 1926.)

Dad’s later recollections would give the impression that he and Mom didn’t have any sort of significant relationship until they started corresponding after Mom went to nursing school (“nurses’ training,” as it was then) in fall 1928. And that it wasn’t really a romantic relationship until he got back from California and Mom finished nurses’ training in the spring of 1931 and was working at Albany General Hospital.

So maybe this is just a photo of two girlfriends.

But then I think about the fact that Mom’s photo was on the mantle in the house in Richmond, and that Mom told me she was afraid Dad would never come back when he went to California, and I look at the way Mom is looking at the man behind the camera in this photo, even: he is not just her girlfriend’s brother. ;–)

So I think perhaps they had feelings for each other earlier than what Dad recollected. And in particular, perhaps Mom had feelings for Dad, at least, even early in [summer] 1928, when she was (gasp!) still in high school before she went to nurses’ training. Am I reading too much into this photo?