Today I’m starting a series of extended Wright (and sometimes Hulshof) family group photos, sort of as a lead-up to the Wright reunion in two weeks. I’m shooting for chronological order, but don’t hold me to that if I happen to find earlier ones after I’ve published later ones. This is a series that actually begins (chronologically) with the group photo taken at Waterloo Park. So think of that as the starting point. Or maybe you could even say it starts with the photo of the kids in front of the sod house in Alberta.

This photo was taken at a joint birthday celebration for Grandma and Grandpa. As most of you probably remember, their birthdays were only ten days apart in April, so were often celebrated together. The year is 1948, the place is Damascus, Oregon. Considering the photo was taken at Uncle Ed and Aunt Helen’s place, I’m not sure why neither of them is in it (though their children are, of course). Perhaps one of them took this photo.

If you saw the original print this scan came from, you would (I think) be quite amazed at the clarity of what you see here. I know I was. The original is a fuzzy mess, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get anything useful from it. But sometimes “unsharp mask” can do wonders, as it did here. Still not perfect, and a large amount of sharpening tends to raise the overall noise level, but it turned barely recognizable faces into fairly clear ones. (It also made Art’s zipper clearer, unfortunately. ;–)

Sorry for that side trip into technical stuff. Back to the photo itself…

My, how the personalities of the kids are revealed here! Or so it seems to me.

I’ll take a shot at the names, but a lot of you know them better than I. Correct me if I mess up…

Back row, from left: Aunt Hannah, Uncle Irvine, Uncle Harold, Uncle Earl, Uncle Lee, Dad

Partial row in front of them, from left: Aunt Marie, Grandma, Grandpa

Back row of children, from left: John, Donna, Joanne, Earl Jr., Art, Kathryn, Clara

Front row of children, from left: Larry, Neal, Dorothy, Bob

As you can see, even in 1948, Dad is still the “runt of the bunch.” And if Uncle Ed had been in the photo, it would only have made that worse.

Followup

This is just for fun. This other group photo was labeled as having been taken at the 1948 birthday party, but it seems clear that it was not (people are wearing different clothes, the young kids seem younger, etc.). Must have been taken at some earlier event.

I don’t know what is going on exactly, but very few people have their attention on the photographer. Dad is laughing about something, and Clara and Kathryn are focused on that. Neal and Larry are more interested in what looks like a tin can. Dorothy has her arms even more tightly crossed and may even be sticking her tongue out at the camera (can’t quite tell). Art’s pants are zipped this time, though (sorry, Art).

Those of you who were there, I welcome further explanation.