Just a quick detour from Addie Hammel’s photo album…

As has been mentioned before, John Hammell was born July 4, 1860. His great-grandson Arthur was also born on Independence Day and also born in a “decade year,” eighty years later.

So it wasn’t unusual for Art’s birthday and his great-grandfather’s to be celebrated together. Art mentioned in a comment on yesterday’s post how this happened in 1954. There is probably a photo of that birthday somewhere, but I don’t have it at hand. But here is a photo from nine years earlier in 1945 when their birthdays also were celebrated together. Art was five years old, Great-Grandpa Hammell was 85. At the time, Mom and Dad and their family lived in Monroe, Oregon. Perhaps Grandma and Grandpa McClain drove from Tallman for the party and picked up Great-Grandpa Hammell in Albany on the way.

Identifications: back row from left: Florence Wright, Grandma Addie McClain, Grandpa Arthur McClain, Donna Wright, Great-Grandpa John Hammell. Front row, from left: Clara Wright, Dorothy Wright, Arthur Wright, Kathryn Wright. Evidently Dad took this photo.